Emancipation at the crossroads between the ‘woman question’ and the ‘national question’

Abstract

This chapter examines the work of the Commission for the Improvement of the Work and Everyday Life of Women (KUTBZh), focusing on the intersection of Soviet policies on women’s emancipation with the politics of emancipation of nations, starting with those who were classified before 1917 as inorodtsy. The chapter examines in particular detail the work of KUTBZh in the Volga-Urals region. KUTBZh held a very unstable position, vacillating between the role of offering choices and new opportunities for women and serving as a state-directed vehicle for forced Sovietisation. As time went by, it was the latter role that dominated.