Из протокола совещания работников среди женщин Востока Minutes of the meeting of workers among women of the Eastern peoples

Translation

<<l.1>>

The meeting took place from 22 to 28 March, 9 sessions were held.

These protocols reflect the work of the first 3 sessions at which local reports were heard.

The 1st Session of the Meeting of the Woman’s Department Heads of the Eastern Republics.

Comrade Smidovich opens the 2nd Meeting of workers among the women of the peoples of the East.

The 1st Meeting of workers among the women of the peoples of the East, convened in April 1921, called for an advance in work among women in the East despite the fact that the past  two years were years of some reduction of work due to reasons arising from the new course in economic policy.  Now we are already emerging from that situation of some crisis.  The state of work among women in both Russia and in the East is now on the rise.  This relates not only to the work of delegate assemblies, but to all other types of work among women, too.      

Women’s departments had to adapt to the new conditions of work, and they have done this.  But even though the crisis might be considered overcome in Russia, this cannot be said of work among women in the East where conditions of work are much more difficult and complicated.

The successes of work among female workers and peasants in the RSFSR speaks to the fact that female workers are finding a way out of the difficult conditions of their lives in organizational work in party, soviet, trade-union, [and] cooperative construction, and by strengthening their identification.  This example of the Russian female worker also energizes the female toilers of the Eastern peoples.

I call you to amicable organizational work at this Meeting in order to draw all the necessary conclusions from the summarization of our work.

In the name of the TsO collegium, I propose the following comrades for the presidium:  Smidovich, Kovrova, Tseplin, Norina (Department of female workers).  Simonov (Turkestan).  Vyrlin (South-Eastern Bureau).  Dalniaia (Georgia).  Nivozonva (Azerbeidzhan).  Golubeva (Transcaucasian committee).

The list is unanimously accepted.

The agenda is presented and the rules accepted unanimously.

As honorary members, the presidium elects comrades Lenin and Klara Zetkin.  Comrade Niravova suggests sending greetings to comrade Lenin from the Meeting.  The proposal passes.  A proposal to send greetings to comrades Klara Zetkin and Kollantai passes.

Comrade Smidovich suggest that because comrade Kuibyshev is busy,

<<l.3>>

In 1922, the Gorsk TsIK announced that [it] would make the first report, reschedule its report to tomorrow at this same time, but for now proceed to a hearing of the local reports.  Comrade Smidovich’s proposal passes.  For the first local report, Comrade Vyrlin is given the floor.

Comrade Vyrlin makes a report on the 11 gubernias that make up the South-Eastern bureau:  the work among the mountain peoples began recently; the bureau’s women’s department was only organized in June 1923.  Before this it conducted work in the gubernias, but it was not amalgamated in a single center.  Now the women’s department is organized in all parts of the South-Eastern oblast, and a satisfactory connection has been established with them all.  At the present time departments have been set up in the gubernias and partly in the okrugs (uezds).  This can be said of the Gorsk republic, (Kabardin), in those oblasts having female Muslim workers.  This success was achieved by means of holding a whole series of congresses and conferences in the centers (gubernias), okrugs, and even in auls.  More than 1500 Muslim women attended these congresses between August and November, all the congresses, except Gorsk, were held in the course of 2 months. 

It was decided to hold congresses in those places where it was proposed that systematic work be undertaken in future, the most outstanding element from the delegates was led through all the conferences from the aul to the krai [level].

As a result, at the krai congress, among the 100 delegates were many of the best conductors of local work.  Just by attending the congresses, they became reliable supporters in the work among the female Muslim masses.  In Kabardin, as many as 75 female Muslims are forming groups around the women’s departments.  It is the same in Dagestan.  The Muslim woman backs the party much more willingly than the male Muslim.      

We consider the preparation of workers fundamental, it is essential in Russia, and in the East in particular, in the East it is necessary to prepare workers from among the local nationalities.  This carries great importance, towards this goal there were organized:  a circle of Gorsk women [Gorianok] (Ossetians) of 40 people in Vladikavkaz, in Balkiria 15 Muslim women organized a circle.

In general, throughout the krai, 150 Muslim women were trained including the Azerbeidzhan courses and the university for laborers of the East.  It is essential to establish courses in the krai in those places where there are workers trained to do this.

Regarding the form and methods of work, include a point on punishment for the abduction of girls.

<<l.15-19>>

3 laundries have been opened, an obstetrics clinic, a children’s home, reading huts, kitchen-garden artels.  A fight against venereal diseases and prostitution is underway, the clinic for venereal diseases has been expanded, and a home for nonparty women has been organized.  The main shortcomings are the lack of workers.  It is necessary to increase staffs even if by 1 worker a raion.  Workers are trained in the Party school, 3 more trade-union organizers are needed in the section:  in Kerch, Feodosia, and Yevpatoria. 

Questions.

1.  What are the circles doing in the delegate assemblies.

2.  Are there sections of the Soviet.

3.  Are there female Tatar workers.

4   Are women’s clubs needed.

5.  How are the women’s departments in the party committee.

6.  What are the daily-life conditions of Crimean Tatar women.

Answers.

1.  The circles are conducted according to the programs, they have leaders.  Only delegates take part in the circles.

2.  There are sections in the Soviets, and the delegates are all distributed among the sections, but the sections themselves work poorly.

3.  There is no need for women’s clubs in the city, but in the village reading huts are being opened.

4.  There are no female Tatar workers with the exception of one, an instructor, who is basically the apparatus, this is comrade Voinova.  It is difficult to use her for work, she is not an organizer.  There are school teachers, but they are not very national-minded.

5.  There are just 2 communist Tatar women.

6.  The connection with the soviet organs is done through representatives.

7.  Relations with the Party committees are good, especially with the Oblast Committee.  The committee has a close connection with the departments.

Comrade Simonova (the report on work in Turkestan).  Turkestan consists of 6 oblasts.  The overall size of the population is more than 5 million:  women make up 45% of the population.  Turkestan was a colony of tsarist Russia, which is why it is backwards in relation to culture.  The literacy [rate] of men is 11%, of women—5%.  There are Sharia courts.  With the exception of railway workers, there is no proletariat.  The remainder of the population are agriculturalists or raise livestock.  In the women’s department 35 people work on the staff for the entire republic.  The majority of these are officials, and there are almost no natives among them.  New workers are being trained in the communist university, but they will not graduate for a year.

Relations with the Party committee are good; the heads of the women’s departments are members of the Party committee.  Work in the cities is conducted only among female workers, not among housewives.  Delegate assemblies are organized and work according to the TsO program.    

<<l.16>>

Trade-union work is conducted through organizers, this work [is done] among European women, among Muslim women delegate assemblies are also organized.  Delegates elected by districts are attached to the district committee, but at Muslim delegate assemblies [they] only work for the liquidation of illiteracy and the most elementary political work is conducted.  Artels have been created.  There are 6 in all excluding Fergana.

Artels are based on economic principles, for every 3 artels a club is created where cultural-enlightenment work is conducted.

The work of the women’s department to defend women’s rights amounts to agitation among Muslim women on behalf of the Soviet court.  There are 6 schools for literacy.  In the krai workers’ faculty there is a women’s reading-hut section with 100 places.

47 Muslim women were elected to the Soviets in Tashkent (3 of them to the Executive Committee).  There are female members of the executive committee everywhere.  One Muslim woman is a member of the oblast executive committee.  Work is conducted with women, members of the Soviet, outside the section of the Soviet.  The auls remain completely outside the attention of the women’s department because of the lack of people and funds.  There are almost no cooperatives in Turkestan.

The 8th of March came off better than ever before, the entire population got involved, as many as 700 Uzbek women participated in the demonstration.

Questions.

1.  Why were the delegate assemblies abolished.

2.  Have there been any murders of or assaults on female officials.

3.  What’s come of the big artels of women in Turkestan.

4.  Why are natives allowed to go to university in Moscow so freely given the lack of local workers.

5.  On what basis are delegates divided into active and passive.

6.  What is the relationship between the woman’s department and the Sharia court.

7.  Are there special cells of communist women.

8.  Where do the clubs operate.

<<l.17>>

9.  What is happening to the artels of private proprietors.

10.  What is the outlook for future work.

11.  How do male communists relate to the work.

<<l.16>>

Answers.

1.  Delegate assemblies were liquidated for lack of vitality.

2.  Murder of women’s department officials and assaults occur in the Basmachi oblasts.

3.  The artels were created spontaneously and rapidly collapsed.

4.  Comrades went to the communist university in Moscow motivated by the desire to receive qualifications as party workers.

5.  Practitioners are considered active delegates, the rest are passive.

6.  There was one cell of female communists, but it was really a circle for political literacy.

7.  There are five clubs in all (excluding Fergana); cultural-enlightenment work is conducted in them.

8.    Decrees were published on the liberation of women, but they were cancelled due to “political compromises.”

<<l.17>>

9.  Work is now being done to prepare native communists.

Comrade Serdiukova (The report on work in Fergana).

The Turkestan woman is completely cut off from the outside world.  She calls her husband master.  Fergana suffers greatly from the Basmachi, as a result the protection offered by the party and the Soviet apparatus is constantly in crisis.  There is no proletariat; there are Europeans, but they are all colonists (they are called colonizers) not workers.  There are 5 uezds in Fergana.  The staff of workers is insufficient.  The workers’ qualifications are poor.  There are no native heads of the woman’s departments.  Muslim women do not become instructors because they fear Basmachi terror.  Work is conducted mainly among European women and is done according to Russian forms.  There is a close connection with the party committees.  Soviet work up to now is conducted through the revolutionary committees.  Contact with the women’s department is through them.  The women’s department works in contact with Posledgol primarily in the sphere of organizing food-supply points.  Artels and clubs for Uzbeks are organized through them.       

Cultural-enlightenment work is conducted in the clubs; there are sewing machines there that can be used for free.  There are 6 artels in all bringing together as many as 400 women, the majority from Muslim artel members.  Artels are subsidized by the labor exchanges and Posledgol.  There are literacy schools and they are attended more or less regularly.  Only European women attend the delegate assemblies.

Regarding the legal sphere, the women’s department participates in the people’s courts and in the Sharia court, but in the Sharia court women’s department representatives only attend, but have no say.  The connection with Protection of Maternity and Infants is very vigorous.  8 March was observed by the opening of a nursery.  As a way of combating prostitution and unemployment, a home for unemployed women that serves free dinners was opened.  There are no female Uzbek communists.  12 Uzbek women were elected to the Soviet, but the city soviet practically does not work at all.

There is no record keeping of the work experience, no plan of work, no instruction.  Older officials have a bad influence on relations with the Women’s department, they conduct themselves quite disreputably.      

Questions.

1.  Who attends the Sharia court:  native women officials or Europeans.

2.  In your opinion, can the TsO draft a plan of work for the localities or should this be done locally.

3.  Is the turn to the Women’s department a mass phenomenon.

4.  Is there literature in the local language.

<<l.17>>

Answers.

1.  Native women officials attend the Sharia [court].

<<l.18>>

and their presence is always beneficial for the women on trial.

2.  There are no native prostitutes, the Uzbek woman is kept under wraps, but there is prostitution of a certain type depending on the local living conditions of women.

3.  It is necessary to summarize the experience of the work accomplished, but this has not yet been done.

4. There is a mass phenomenon of women turning to the women’s department. 

5.  Among the natives there are almost none that are literate.  There were no graduates of liquidation-of-illiteracy schools.

6.  Muslim women’s only handicrafts are spinning and embroidery.

7.  Literature comes via the agitation department of the local party committee, but it is published in Russian.

8.  Dormitories for the unemployed have tremendous significance, especially given the dearth of flats.

Comrade Begalieva (The report on work in Bukeev oblast).

Bukeev gubernia consists of 4 uezds.  The Kirghiz woman is receptive.  The party committee is well established in Kirghizia.  Bukeev oblast refers to the gurberniia that suffered famine in 1921 and is hungry now.  Worker qualifications are low.  There are 4 female Kirghiz volost organizers.  The connection with soviet institutions is well established; with the trade unions, too.  There are no artels.  There is one school to liquidate illiteracy in which 25 women participate.  There are no clubs at all.  No circles either.  Worker preparation has not been carried out.   

There are no female delegate assemblies because the Kirghiz are dispersed and communication between them is difficult.  The connection with the peoples’ courts is good.  In the court there are representatives of the Women’s department.  There is no Department for the protection of maternity and infants in Bukeev gubernia.  This department only began to be organized on 8 March, and in this regard a week of the child will be held.

The work of the women’s department began September 1921.  Most important, groups of Kirghiz women were formed.  An Urd uezd was formed to get things going.  10 women’s conferences were held (uezd and volost).  A flying troika was organized to go from place to place and monitor the work of the people’s courts.

10 students were sent to Orenburg for socialist training courses.  Inspections of children’s homes, detention homes, resulted in improved conditions. 

<<l.19>>

A collection to assist hungry women was arranged and what was collected was handed out on March 8.  In two uezds, departments of female workers were liquidated due to staff reductions.  In the others there is only one worker.  Due to a lack of funds, instructors do not go to the localities.  It is essential to open schools for Kirghiz women, arrange conferences, to attract them to a sedentary way of life, to train workers from the local population, to increase staffs for work among women, to create a fund to improve the daily life of women.

Questions.

1.  How many communist Kirghiz women are there.

2.  Do women go to the general assemblies with the men.  

3.  How can work be carried out among the nomads.

4.  How did 8 March go.

5.  How do the party committees relate to the women’s department.

6.  What are daily-life conditions like.

Answers.

1.  There are four communist Kirghiz women.

2.  Women attend the assemblies with the men.

3.  Work can be carried out during  the settled period in the settlements, these periods run for several months.

4.  8 March went well even though it was held for the first time.  It was held only in the city of Urda.  Preparatory work was carried out, a demonstration was organized in celebration of Kirghiz women, a stage show was performed in the Kirghiz language (there is a group of Kirghiz women in the women’s department and Komsomol).  A leaflet was put out.  About 500 Kirghiz women participated in the demonstration.  

5.  The party committee relates to the work of the women’s department attentively and leads it.  Kirghiz men also relate well to the work among the women.

6.  It is possible to organize handicraft artels.

7.  Given the staffs, female Kirghiz women workers can be found.

8.  The established marriage ages in Kirghizia are 16 years for women and 18 for men.

9.  There is contact with the TsO.

10.  Communist cells are leading local work.

11.  There are no clubs, but performances are put on.

Comrade Pavlova (the report on work in the Tatar republic).  Working conditions in the Tatar republic are easier than in Turkestan.  There are institutions where Tatar women work.  The Tatar republic consists of 13 uezds.  After the XI party congress the cadre of women workers was increased.  In all, there are 10 female Tatar workers, the rest of the women workers are Russian.

<<l.22>>

The composition of the 2nd All-Russian Meeting of workers among women of the Eastern peoples.

There were 18 delegates representing the 18 autonomous oblasts and republics (Azerbeidzhan, Georgia, Armenia, Kirghizia, Turkestan, Fergana oblast, Crimea, Bashkiria, the Tatar republic, the Kalmyk oblast, the Yakut [and] Gorsk republics, as well as the Krai divisions of the South-East and Transcaucasia).

From 15 completed questionnaires:  12 are heads of women’s departments, 1 is an instructor, 2 are students who received local mandates to participate in the Meeting.

By party service:  5 people since 1920, 1 since 1921, 1 since 1919, 1 since 1917, 1 since 1908, 1 since 190[7], 1 since 1906.

Three of the delegates to the Meeting belonged to the RD internationalists and SR maximalists before joining the RKP.

Of all the worker-participants in the meeting only 4 are members of local party committees and 1 is a candidate [member].

By social standing, 12 are intelligentsia and workers.  By education, 10 have middle, 3 higher, 2 home-schooled.

By nationality:  5 Russians, 5 Jews, 1 Kirghiz, 2 Armenians, 1 Turk, 1 Kalmyk.

Of the 15, only 7, apart from the Russian language, are fluent in the languages of the local population in which they carry out work.

The majority are new to work in the women’s departments.  4 have worked since 1922, 5 since 1921, 3 since 1920, 2 since 1919, and only 1 since 1917.

Of the 15 participants, only 1 attended the 1st Meeting of female workers among the women of the Eastern Peoples, and 2 the 4th All-Russian Meeting of the Heads of Women’s Departments.

<<l.29>>

The tasks of the RKP in the sphere of work among the women of the peoples of the Soviet East.

1.  The national oppression of the so-called “little nationalities” under the autocracy, an oppression that rested on class inequality, facilitated the preservation of the patriarchal-feudal form of economy and daily life of these nationalities.  This told especially in the particularly oppressed situation of women of the East, is still found in the servile subordination to men.  All the old legal relations, despite having been formally abolished by Soviet power, hold women, in regard to family [and] marriage law, in a situation close to the situation of the women of the wild tribes.

Kalym, polygamy, residing in seclusion etc., all these barbaric survivals still retain their force in the East, imposing on the women of the Eastern nationalities the stamp of passivity and backwardness far beyond what we have in other places in the USSR.

2.  The deep passivity and backwardness of fully half the laborers of the East is a tremendous obstacle on the path to liquidating the patriarchal-feudal relations and to enlist the laboring mass of the East in party and soviet construction.  To free women from the tenacious clutches of daily and religious prejudices, to help her utilize all the rights which she possesses under Soviet power is, therefore, one of the vital tasks of the RKP in the sphere of work in the East.

3.  The RKP sets as its tasks in the outlying republics and oblasts the organization of the broad strata of laborers around the soviets, furtheingr their cultural development and ridding them of every remnant of patriarchal-feudal relations, and enlisting the laborers in party, soviet, trade-union, and cooperative construction

4.  In the sphere of work among women, the RKP resolves these tasks by special methods and through the means of special apparatuses—the departments of female workers.  These apparatuses are fully adapted to work among the female laboring masses of the Eastern peoples; they have absolutely exceptional significance in the work of the Communist party for incorporating the toilers of the East into the common family of laborers.

There, where women for the most part still have not lowered the veil, and are still to be found under the sway of daily-life and religious prejudices

<<l.30>>

of course, the only possible approach to it is an approach with the aid of the social departments for work among women that, as experience shows, fight for the trust of the women of the Eastern peoples.

5.  As the necessary conditions of work among women of the Eastern nationalities emerge, the departments for work among women should be particularly strengthened in terms of the qualifications of workers and an increase of the staffs where the work is underway.  Given the exceptional importance of the work, the party should not balk at removing the most qualified female workers from the central institutions and send them to work among the women of the Eastern peoples.  It must be noted as well the importance of preparing local women.

6.  The tasks of the women’s departments consist not only in attracting laboring women to party, soviet, trade-union, and cooperative construction, in broadly propagandizing and agitating for the idea of communism, of the goals and tasks of the party etc., but also in drawing up and placing before the corresponding general party, soviet, trade-union, and cooperative organs questions that are connected with improving and changing the conditions of labor, daily life, and legal status of female workers and peasants.  The women’s departments of the Eastern republics and oblasts must introduce before all these organs proposals that are connected with the actual liberation of women and the tasks of maternity. 

7.  The difficult situation of the female toilers of the East [who], in the majority of cases, have just emerged from terrible famine, the large number of female workers who are without work as a result of the reduction of enterprises where they live, compels the party to relate to the questions of labor and daily life of the women of the Eastern nationalities with particular attention.

8.  Placing the questions of labor and daily life, the struggle with female unemployment, and prostitution at the center of its attention for the coming year, the TsO took into account the full importance of these questions in working among women under the conditions of NEP.  Some ensuing improvements in our industry allowed us at last December’s meeting to advance the question of improving the situation of the female worker, [and] on enlisting soviet, trade-union, [and] economic organs to organize her daily life on social

<<l.31>>

principles.

9.  The conditions of work in the outlying republics and oblasts of the East are hardly conducive to raising these questions on the same plane.  Here the matter is about the organization of artels and workshops that for us are significant not only in helping with unemployment, but in organizing primary manufacturing cells that serve as points supporting our work, about the organization of elementary aid to pregnant women and women at childbirth through the appropriate organs of soviet power, about the development of the toilers’ self-reliance with the goal of keeping the already existing institutions for protecting mother and child, and where possible the organization of new [institutions].  Given the especially difficult conditions of the female toiler of the East, a multi-bureaucratic commission to aid women workers under VTsIK organized according to the regulations of the Soviets to combat prostitution, which have been created in the RSFSR, might serve to support the work of the women’s departments in the sphere of improving the situation of the female toiler of the East.  The funds that are funneled into similar commissions are distributed by them to the appropriate institutions in accord with their activity.

10.  The party, in the form of the women’s departments, sets its tasks as developing the initiative of the female toilers of the peoples of the East themselves in the matter of organizing institutions for improving their daily life.  Given that cooperation is still insufficiently developed for basic work in this sphere, the women’s department must conduct work among the toilers through agitation and propaganda in the sphere of cooperation in order to strengthen it with them and to develop the self-reliance of laborers in the sphere of cooperation; the appropriate questions must be put forth in the cooperative organs where they exist.

11.  In the sphere of work among women of the Eastern nationalities must stand, as before, concrete tasks around whose resolution we are organizing female workers and peasants.  The attraction of female toilers to all spheres of construction possible under present conditions is our basic task in the sphere of work among them the resolution of which depends on involving them in the general political

<<l.32>>

and cultural life of the country.  The scale of the tasks that we have already fulfilled in comparison to the extent of the tasks remaining before us must not kill our energy.  Each achievement in this sphere, no matter how small, is the center that organizes the social opinion of female toilers, opening before her new perspectives, compelling [her] to direct [her] will toward new achievements.

12.  In order to lay a solid foundation for all work, the party assists in the creation of suitable forms of economy and social life striving to organize higher forms that correspond to existing [conditions], for example, for nomads that higher form is the transition from a nomadic to a sedentary [existence], the higher form in relation to home production is the artel etc.  In work among women, we must consider the elements that direct us along the appropriate channel and that aid in every way the creation of points that support our work.

13.  To bring about the quickest elimination of the legal and daily-life peculiarities of the situation of women of the East it is essential to direct the attention of the party to propaganda and agitation in this sphere also, among men, to familiarize them with the party’s tasks in the sphere of work among the female toilers of the East, and to combat in every way the petty bourgeois survivals inherited from the old way of life.

14.  Work among women of the Eastern peoples carries a tremendous international significance because it leads us into close proximity with the Far East.  The awakening of the Muslim woman, the woman of the Turkic tribe of the Soviet East, is an example for women of Far Eastern countries who are enduring an even greater yoke, who find themselves in still greater dependence on the patriarchal way of life.  The work conducted among women in the outlying Soviet republics and oblasts will serve as a model for the communist parties of the Far East.  This only underscores the colossal importance of work among eastern female toilers and compels that all forces be exerted to overcome the difficulties standing on our path. 

<<l.40>>

1.  The resolution of the 2nd Meeting of Workers among the Women of the Peoples of the Soviet East.

Work among women of the East, having been started by the RKP only in a few oblasts in 1920, in the main only in 1921, and in some places in 1922, despite difficult conditions has already resulted in certain successes.

The general assembly of female toilers, the attraction of them to places of manufacture, to delegate assemblies, discussions with them in the villages, at okrug, oblast, [and] volost conferences and congresses of the eastern oblasts and republics, [and] pre-congress campaigns is encompassing thousands of eastern female toilers.

The unprecedented activity displayed during the reelection campaign to the soviets, not only in the tens of women who entered the soviets in all the republics and oblasts (Bashkiria, Kirghizia, Georgia, Azerbeidzhan, Turkestan, Crimea, Tatar republic and others), but the in tremendous enthusiasm with which international women’s day was observed everywhere as well, all this bears witness to the results of the work accomplished.

Even in the peculiar conditions here, despite all difficulties, the RKP, by means of a skillful approach, has extended its influence on the broad, most backward masses of laborers.

2.  The work of the RKP among Eastern women has tremendous significance, furthering the raising of the general cultural level of the most backward part of the Soviet East, it is the best means of struggle with all daily-life and national prejudices, and creates fertile soil for a comprehensive realization of the cooperation among the peoples who have entered into the great union of socialist soviet republics.

3.  The meeting notes the passive and inattentive relation to work among women on the part of party committees in some oblasts and republics, and notes the necessity to request that the CC urge them to attend more attentively to work the importance of which is constantly noted by the party in congress resolutions, as well as in decisions, circulars, and instructions of the CC.

<<l.41>>

4.  Conducting work among women through the departments of female workers in the eastern republics and oblasts is the sole approach of the party to the mass of women laborers and, therefore, the party must attentively attend to strengthening these departments with qualified workers.  With a view to strengthening the women’s departments of the Eastern oblasts and republics it is also essential to carry out throughout the USSR a registration of all eastern female communists, and to transfer the most qualified of them to work among the women of the East, not balking at removing workers from other, equally responsible work.

5.  Work among women must be carried out by all party apparatuses as a whole.

6.  The staffs of the departments of female workers of the national republics and oblasts must be firmly established and in no case be used for other party work or abolished completely as has occurred in some oblasts and republics.

7.  Given the exceptional difficulty of working in villages and auls that are spread out over great distances one from another where the great mass of female toilers, among whom the women’s department conducts its work, live, it is essential to increase the number of rural workers there, workers and education organizers, because their work is especially important in the conditions of the East.

8.  In order to increase agitation in the home, in the auls etc., it is necessary, as a matter of party discipline, to require all female communists to conduct this work under the leadership of the women’s department.

9.  The high percentage of illiterate female toilers necessitates the active participation of the party in the struggle with illiteracy as a means of motivating the organs of enlightenment and of strengthening this part of their work, and also as a way of inducing female toilers to attend schools.  To carry out cultural-enlightenment work among women, the non-party intelligentsia must, likewise, be recruited by means of a thoughtful approach to the possibility of using each individual person from the standpoint of their sincerity and genuine non-party stance.

10.  The complete lack of literature in the national languages, especially regarding women of the East, acts as a brake on work among them.  It is essential to take all measures for the regular publication of the pages of the eastern female toiler, brochures, handbills, as well as to propose that local party organs distribute at no charge the largest possible number of these publications among women’s departments.

<<l.42>>

Given the exceptional importance of developing workers from among the women of the native population, the small numbers of which act as a powerful brake to approaching female toilers’ who do not understand the Russian language, the Meeting considers it necessary to request that the CC allocate funds for the organization of krai-level courses to prepare workers among women [and] where they can also receive basic party training.

11.  The Meeting also notes the importance of attracting female toilers into the party ranks as a means of carrying its influence into the very midst of the laboring masses of the East.

12.  Special attention must be given to the training of women of the Eastern nationalities in productive labor for which the appropriate institutions must organize workshops, artels, [and] schools for professional-technical education.

Taking into consideration the peculiarities in the way of life of women of the East, the meeting notes the advisability of organizing clubs of female toilers on the example of those already existing in Azerbeidzhan and other places in the Caucasus republics in which are organized artels, professional-technical schools, literacy schools, libraries, as well as nurseries and other institutions for the liberation of the woman.

13.  Proceeding from the fact that the basic cadre of genuinely revolutionary and active female toilers on whom the influence of the party is spreading are recruited from the proletariat and poor-peasant strata, on whom unemployment— the result of war [and] famine—is especially telling, and in view of the fact that the state at the present time is not in condition to take on itself the entire expenditure of the institutions assisting in the liberation of women, the women’s departments must rouse the laboring women masses to self-reliance and self-help by attracting the female toilers to cooperation and to  the committees of mutual aid, [and] in no case are any special societies under the women’s departments to be organized.

14.  Given the eastern republics special conditions, multi-bureaucratic commissions (in place of the Councils to combat prostitution in the RSFSR) must be organized under the TsIKs to take up the task of improving the situation of the female toilers.  These Commissions, without assuming for themselves the functions of the soviet organs for organizing this or that institution, may act as spurs to the appropriate soviet, trade-union, and cooperative organs, and as initiators of this or that undertaking in the oblast

<<l.43>>

for improving the situation of the female toiler of the East.

15.  Attaching tremendous significance to the raising of the national question at the 12th congress, the second meeting for work among the female toilers of the East requests that the CC RKP, among the practical measures the implementation of which are completely necessary if the Party is to fulfill those tasks that stand before it, also notes the work among women of the most backward, most oppressed strata of the laboring population of the East.