Протокол совещания отдела работниц ЦК РКП по работе среди женщин Востока Protocol of a meeting of the department of female workers CC RKP for work among the women of the Eastern peoples.

Translation

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Org[anizational] Instr[uctional]…AR. from comrade Kollantai

Protocol of a meeting of the department of female workers CC RKP for work among the women of the Eastern peoples.  26 [October] 1920

Present:  comrades Kollontai, Samoilova, Vinogradskaia, Karimova, Sultan-Galeev, Brundukov, Plieva, and Naskidaeva.

Chair:  A.M. Kollontai, Secretary Barkhina.

1.  The All-Russian enlarged non-party conference of women of the Eastern peoples.

2.  Reports on work in the North Caucasus and in Transcaucasia.  To accept.

3.  Reports on work among the Bashkirs.

Heard:

Comrade Sultan-Galeev.  The need to put work among women in good order long ago already raised the question of the urgency of work among women of the peoples of the East.  Comrade Karimova was delegated for work among Bashkir women.  A large number of conferences in cities along the Volga, in Astrakhan, Samara, Ufa and other cities, have taken place.  In Kazan, a non-party conference was held.  Together with the Department of Female Workers of the CC we have now settled on an enlarged non-party conference in the North Caucasus, either in Moscow or Kazan.

Comrade A.M. Kollantai.  Our latest decision is to convene a non-party conference otherwise the party might just remain up in the air.  We propose reviewing the Politburo decision of 21 October.

Comrade Karimova.  Communist women are not as scarce as it seems.  In Bashkiria there are 40 people, in Astrakhan about 100, in Kazan there are communist women, so it is possible to convene a party conference.

Comrade Plieva.  At a party conference there will be no representatives of Caucasian women.  We propose holding the conference in Vladikavkaz.

Brundukov.  [I am] against convening a non-party conference because it is first necessary “to organize the organizers.”  In the localities, the soil for holding a party conference is already prepared.

Comrade Samoilova.  Organizing congresses in Russia has given us a certain experience.  With a non-party conference we kill 2 birds with one stone:  we bring the broad masses into contact with the big questions, and organizationally strengthen all [our] resolutions.  The preparatory work and the agenda itself must be brought up by our Section at a meeting.

On convening a conference of women of the peoples of the East.

1)  In mid-January 1921 to convene an enlarged non-party conference of women of the Eastern peoples who live within the borders of the RSFSR with the participation of a special section of communist women for the organizational strengthening of all

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the resolutions of the conference and for carrying them out in the localities.

2)  As preparatory work, to hold a number of krai, oblast, and guberniia meetings both party and non-party.

3)  In order to establish a close connection between the work among the Russian female proletariat and the work among Eastern women, and to establish a single plan of work, to propose that all party organizations in localities with a population of Eastern peoples send to the All-Russian Meeting the heads of the guberniia departments for work among women, and where there are none, [to send] female communist organizers.

4)  The question of the location of the conference remains open for the time being.

2)  The reports of comrades Plieva, Naskidaeva, and Karimova are enclosed.

(Comrade Pilieva’s report is taken by comrade Kollontai, comrade Karimova’s report is not presented).

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Excerpt from the protocol of the meeting of female workers CC RKP on work among the women of the Eastern peoples 26 October 1920.

Present comrades Kollontai, Samoilova, Vinogradskaia, Sultan Galeev, Brundukov, Karimova, Plieva, Naskidaeva.

Chair.  A.M. Kollontai, Secretary Barkhina.

Heard:

Comrade Kollontai reports the decision of the Politburo of 21 October on the question of convening a non-party conference of Muslim women.

On convening an All-Russian non-party conference of women of the East.

Resolved:

To request that the Politburo review the decision of 21 October in the spirit of the two resolutions of the present meeting.

1)  To convene in mid-January an enlarged non-party conference of women of the Eastern peoples of the RSFSR with the participation of a special Section of communist women to organizationally strengthen all the resolutions of the conference and to carry them out in the localities.

2)  As preparatory work for the All-Russian conference, to hold a number of krai, oblast, and guberniia meetings, both party and non-party.

3) In order to establish a close connection between the work among the female proletariat of Russian and the work among the women of the East, and to establish a single plan of work, to propose that all party organizations in locations with a population of Eastern peoples send to the All-Russian Conference the heads of the guberniia departments for work among women, and where there are none [to send] female communist organizers.

Secretary Barkhina

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Entry 1663 15 October 1920

Protocol No. 1 of a session of the female delegates who are in Moscow for the Women’s Conference.

28 September 1920

The session opens at 12 o’clock p.m.

Heard:

1.  The report from the localities.

2.  On the organizational bureau.

3.  On convening the All-Russian Congress of Women.

Resolved:

1/1.  The report is given by the delegates from the city of Astrakhan.  On hearing these comrades, the following resolution is passed.

2.  The report of the delegates from the city of Saratov.  The question remains open since the work there has not been delegated.

3.  The report of the delegates from the city of Uralsk.  On hearing the report, the following resolution is passed.

4.  The report from the city of Samara.  On hearing the report, the following resolution is passed.

2)  After the discussion it is resolved to organize in Moscow, under the Central Bureau, a women’s sub-department and to leave three [people] there for work in the center.

3)  After the discussion on this question it is found essential to convene a congress of non-party women no later than the end of 1920.

Chair:  Iliasova

Secretary (signature not legible).

Original verified

Translator:  [signature]

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Protocol No. 2

Meeting on work among Muslim women.

29 September 1920

vkh. 1298 29/III

Present:  comrades Stasova, Stal, Sultan-Galeev, Akhtiamov, Ardakhamanov, Ibragimov, Razvan, Burnashev, from the localities:  comrades Gafira, Muftakherdinova, and Khadicha Mamleeva (Ufa guberniia) Sara Gabidova, Bilbil Iliasova (Samara guberniia), Shamira Enalieva, Kamiar Niiazova (Astrakhan guberniia), Mirra Uragildiasheva (Uralsk), Dzhamileva (Sarapul).

Chair: Itkina

Secretary:  Barkhina.

Agenda:

1.  Reports from the localities.

2.  Organizational work; draft instructions.

3.  The All-Russian Meeting of Muslim [women].

Reports from the localities:

Muftaferdinova (Ufa).  For work among Muslim women comrade Yenikeeva alone was assigned for the entire guberniia; she entered the Collegium of the Women’s Department.  It was proposed to conduct a “Day of the female worker” throughout the guberniia, but due to the insurrection in the guberniia it was necessary to limit it to the city.  Work was only conducted among housewives (Tatars, Bashkirs).  The work amounted to agitation.  On 20 May of this year a non-party guberniia conference of female workers and peasants was held, and the number of conferees was 150 Tatar and Bashkir women.  Preparatory work for the conference was conducted in only one Ufa uezd and therefore deviationist rumors about it spread throughout the guberniia.

Thanks to them, only elderly ladies and women with infants turned up at the conference (young women and girls were afraid to mobilize).  Since May, the Women’s Department [Zhenotdel] dispatched 2 instructors to work among Tatar and Bashkir women, they did not enter the Collegium of the department.  The work is very difficult:  there are not enough workers and no required literature, no prepared travelling instructors.  In Belebei uezd the situation was better than in Ufa; in Belebei there are female delegates who hold a cycle of lectures in the Tatar language.  Instructor-organizers were assigned to Zlatoust and Birsk uezds, but without instructions from the center they could not work.  All communist women were registered for work.  At the beginning of September, “The week of the child” was observed.  The task of this week is to raise all available children’s homes to the proper level and to help homeless children, [and] to open a school in the forest for tubercular children.   

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Comrade Iliasova. (Samara guberniia).  Work is not at all organized although female workers of the guberniia department help out.  There are no people, no technical forces, no literature.  Most of all there is no department in the center.  Everything depends on the center.  We want to set up a bureau.

Rakhmatulina. (Saratov).  I was ordered from the Women’s Department to the Guberniia Tatar Bureau only a few days ago so nothing has been done.  In the guberniia there are 250 thousand Muslim women, in Samara itself—2,000, of these 20 are communists.

Yenalieva. (Astrakhan).  There is a section in the guberniia communist party that has people some of whom are actually members.  Weekly assemblies; twice a month separate women’s meetings.  They often organize rally-concerts.  Children’s homes for Muslim children have been set up.  Work is conducted only in the city.  On 6 September a non-party city conference was held, 1,000 women attended.  The conference was conducted with the participation of the department of female workers.  A close connection has been established with the department, work is conducted according to the instructions of the department.  In the female delegate’s assembly in the department there are representatives:  3 people assigned to the Department for the Protection of Labor and 3 to the Department of Enlightenment.  There are schools and almshouses for Muslim women.  A connection has been established with the Union of Youth.

Uragildiaeva (Uralsk).  Work is done in the Muslim children’s house; the department has assigned female workers.  Special work among Kirghiz women is very difficult because they are a nomadic people.  A non-party conference of 60-70 people was held.  There is no comrade for work especially among Muslim women.  There are 7 female communists.

2.  Draft instructions proposed by the Ts.B. of the Peoples of the  East.

Stasova:  The discussion may only touch on women within the RSFSR; as regards the separate republics—Turkestan and Azerbeidzhan—this is entirely special work that belongs, in general, to the agitation and propaganda department.  The resolution of the Comintern is published.  We have Muslim women who are surrounded by Russians, living in conditions similar to ours.  Among the women of the East special approaches are needed, special methods.  In the East, women’s assemblies in the cities are possible only in the mosques.  There it is essential to begin work among the men.  Work among the Turkic, Persian, and other peoples is too broad a task, only the Caucasian Bureau [Kavbiuro] has the power to deal with it and also to work among Georgian and Armenian women.  Family conditions alone are the most important point of agitation.  In Sharia [law], for example, marriage is arranged for 7-year old girls.  It is necessary to give attention to:  1)marriage age, 2)the attachment of mothers to children, 3)the situation of widows:  after the death of the husband, the woman is thrown out with only the property from her dowry.      

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In the instruction there is no indication of the need to agitate for literacy.  Attention must be paid to engaging women in production.  Women are engaged particularly in spinning, the production of silk, broadcloth, rugs.  It is proposed to review the instruction:  1)in relation to Sharia law, 2) meeting not with young female communists, but with the elderly who are tied to the past, [and] who may take into account all that is possible.

Comrade Itkina.  Suggests conducting the discussion about the instruction in 2 directions:  1^st work in the RSFSR and 2^nd in the countries outside it.

Comrade Stal.  Although the North Caucasus has entered the RSFSR, the peculiarities which comrade Stasova noted also pertain to the North Caucasus woman.  Muslim women in Terek oblast play a large role in manufacturing (Ingush, Ossetians).  In order to work out the correct instruction a long and thorough knowledge of their life and customs is essential, in the meantime a very cautious approach to work [is required].  Special caution must be observed in relation to the religious question.  In the countryside it is impossible to present oneself as a party [member], but only as an informant of Soviet power.  Among the Kabardins and Chechens, even among the men, there are almost no communists. 

Stasova(as an addendum to her report).  The need in Azerbeidzhan is awful.  Recently a decree was published on men not leaving their houses [sakhlia] during the time set for women to go for water because they come out of the house almost naked.  In Azerbeidzhan, lives are still improbably vestigial.  A 14-year old girl is sewn in a skin, among the Kalmyks and Ossetians they wear the camisole [kamzol] to retard physical development, and only at age 17 do they remove these chains.  Mechnikov is investigating the dying out of an entire tribe from tuberculosis, the result of these terrible corsets.  There is a proposal that a decree be published on transitional clothing at a certain age.

Sultan-Galeev.  The instruction only embraces the organizational question.  Methods are not the same for different peoples.  The instruction can only be worked out in detail after the conference.  In 1918, the Congress submitted a resolution on the equality of men and women.  The cardinal decision of all questions is only possible after a broad conference.

Ibragimov.  In Turkestan there is only one department in Tashkent, but in every other place there is absolutely nothing.  Previous negotiations came to naught.  The instructions have the goal, mainly, to raise interest in work.  It must be reworked.  For work among each nationality:  for Kalmyk, Tatar, Bashkir, Kirghiz, and urban women special instructions are needed.  Such instructions and orders are needed not only for the RSFSR, but also for women in Turkestan and in the other republics.

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Comrade Razvan.  The center pays no attention to this work, but it is already beginning in the localities.  Questionnaires need to be distributed and, with this information, theses and instructions compiled.  Elect a commission, give it the appropriate instruction, and start working.

Itkina.  The work of those in the RSFSR is much easier.  It is possible to lead by general instruction, to elect delegates, and send them into soviet departments in large numbers, to set up departments especially close to women (children).

The work with female delegates proceeds at the level of the consciousness of these delegates:  to send delegates to the commission to liquidate illiteracy, to convene periodic non-party conferences.  Today it is essential to resolve the question:  are we creating sections under the guberniia departments or assigning individual organizers [?]  The instruction must be ready by the conference, but it can then be reworked after the conference. 

comrade Stasova.  The proposed draft of the instruction is to be copied and sent out to all organizations, that is the first thing, convening the conference is second.  Organizations must be under the local Women’s departments. How they are setup depends on local conditions.  Right now Commissions are not being created.

Itkina.  It is proposed to rework the instruction taking the proposed draft as a basis.

Iliasova.  We have spoken in favor of Women’s departments being under the Muslim Bureau and not under the local Women’s departments.  We must work separately, this is not a personal preference.  We could not find a comrade, a female worker, for work in the local Women’s department, this makes it necessary to use female intellectuals, but this is not desirable.

comrade Razvan.  It is necessary to send instructors to the localities.  Sections are required and not individual, independent organizers:  the work will go forward only in this way.  In the localities there are assemblies and conferences of female delegates in preparation for the conference of women of the peoples of the East in the localities.  It is necessary to collect material there and then work out theses and instructions.

Sultan-Galeev.  The question of the section, this is the sole form of organization.  Where?  We must establish unconditionally that it is essential to organize them under the departments of female workers, under the guberniia committees.  Everywhere it happens that to communicate someone is speaking Russian.  The work must be conducted in their own language.  Concrete proposals:  from among the comrades present to leave 3 comrades here to work out the instructions, and send the remainder to the localities.

Rakhmatulina.  The organization must be under the Muslim bureau.  We aren’t denying a connection with the departments, but the section must be organized separately from the department.

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comrade Iliasova.  I worked in the department of female workers and nothing was accomplished because all the time is expended on translations and not on work.  Among the Muslim women there is almost no knowledge of languages.  We must work independently.

Ibragimov.  [People] must be kept in the center not only for organizing conferences, but also for publishing brochures, articles, books.  The work of the local organizations must be in the local women’s departments.

Itkina.  Sections have to be organized under the women’s departments because the general methods, the approach, of agitation among women is being worked out only by the departments of female workers, under the Muslim bureau all this work disappears.  It is necessary to conduct this work in the native language, of course.  Liquidations will be misunderstood if the departments undertake the real work in the localities.  Of course, close contact is necessary, contact with the Tatar-Bashkir collegiums [tatbashkollegiia].

A practical proposal:  in all guberniia and uezd committees organize sections for work among Muslim women (where not possible, assign one organizer).  A bureau of 3 comrades.  Convene well-organized non-party conferences of Muslim women.  Where possible, where there are manufacturing enterprises, in Kazan, for example (uniform workshops, labor artels), organize delegate assemblies of Muslim women.

Muftaferdinova.  These meetings need to be held where possible, but separate from the Russians.

Itkina.  For delegate assemblies conditions of production are necessary and for leadership a small group of communist women.

After the discussion, the following resolutions are passed:

1.  Organize sections of Muslim women in the departments.

Passes by all voters, 2 against, who stand for the organization (under the tatbashcollegium).

2.  Non-party conferences.

To pass.

3.  Delegate meetings under all the appropriate conditions.

To pass.

4.  On work in the village.

Broad agitation around soviet work, the distribution of literature.

The question of work in the center.

Sultan-Galeev.  Proposes to reserve 3 comrades for work in the center.

Itkina.  Speaks against because comrades Burnasheva (Turkestan) and Beimbotova (Kazan) have already been named for recall from the localities, 3 comrades may be kept to work out the instructions only, and then send them to the localities.

Akhtiamov.  Proposes that the comrades who have already arrived remain until those sent for come.

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Razvan.  It is necessary to use here the comrades who have already arrived.  Work must be given out broadly, and not only among Tatar and Bashkir women.  Complete victory of the revolution in Azerbeidzhan depends on broadly working there among women.

Muftaferdinova.  [Speaks] in favor of keeping the comrades here, especially comrade Iliasova who writes and translates.

Comrade Iliasova.  The Ts.O. is not to blame, it is the historical conditions.  Only now, in the 4th year of the revolution have some active female comrades been assigned.  To keep the comrades who have arrived here for leadership is impossible because they are young, good, communist women, but they have no experience in leading political work.  What will this troika of comrades do[?] Very serious work lies ahead for it.  Who among them will take it up[?]  Literary-minded worker-translators can work locally, their work can be published here and in the localities.

Iliasova.  The comrades should stay here precisely to familiarize the center with local conditions.

Sultan-Galeev.  The resolution is tabled.

The meeting is now closed.  To instruct the Ts. Dept. and Ts.B. of the final decision.

Passed (9 against 6)