La emancipación de la mujer

by Vladimir Ilich Lenin

¿Puede desligarse la causa de la emancipación de la mujer de toda la lucha por la causa obrera, de toda la lucha por el socialismo? Evidentemente, la respuesta debe ser negativa. Precisamente porque existe una vinculación muy estrecha entre toda la lucha de la clase obrera y la mejora de la situación de la mujer, Lenin se detuvo con frecuencia en sus discursos y artículos a examinar esta última cuestión, y cada una de sus opiniones guarda una gran relación con lo que le inquietaba y preocupaba en cada momento. Por lo tanto, desde el comienzo mismo de su actividad revolucionaria, Lenin dedicó una singular atención a la situación de las obreras y las campesinas y a la incorporación de la mujer al movimiento obrero y a la actividad pública, es decir, a participar activamente en la sociedad. Unido a ello, planteaba la necesidad de poner a cargo del sector femenino más atrasado la Administración del Estado, desde donde podría reconocer y defender sus derechos, así como tendría la capacidad para preparar, celebrar y organizarse en congresos y sindicatos. En fin, esta recopilación de artículos y discursos exponen el pensamiento socialista de Lenin inscrito en el desarrollo político, social y cultural de las mujeres. La edición cuenta, además, con un prólogo de N. Krúpskaya, su esposa, y un apéndice de Clara Zetkin titulado Recuerdos sobre Lenin.

Genres: Feminism, Nonfiction, Lenin, Politics, Theory, Philosophy, History

176 pages, Paperback

First published January 3, 1969

About the author

Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, better known as Vladimir Lenin, was a Russian revolutionary, leader of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (Bolsheviks), statesman and political theorist. After the October Revolution he served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 until his death in 1924 and of the Soviet Union from 1922 until his death in 1924.

Reviews

[pablo! · Rating 5 out of 5]

Como todo Lenin, muy fácil de leer.

No voy a explayarme mucho pero básicamente:

- El fragmento de Recuerdos sobre Lenin, de Clara Zetkin cierta bellísimamente
- Lenin hacía mansplaining como el que más.
- Optimista como el que más, plantea unos bosquejos sobre transversalidad y la necesidad de una cuestión femenina separada de la cuestión obrera general que me encantaría ver más desarrollados.

[Joseph Bierlein · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lenin exposes the communist character of women's emancipation and puts at the forefront of the conversation the necessity of the Proletarian dictatorship in the pursuit of gender emancipation.

He notes that inequality and sexism in the workplace and at home is the result of the deep exploitation of women, rooted in exploitation combined with feudal and bourgeois psychologies. The task of women in the home, according to Lenin -- cleaning and childrearing -- is the least productive and most will-crushing labor.

Emancipation of women must include the freeing of women from wage-labor, the construction of community kitchens, nurseries and so on, so as to incorporate women into the workplace to the extent that they are truly equal with men.

He also speaks extensively on the political freedoms that must be granted to women, particularly freedom from court-processes in marriage and divorce, freedom of access to reproductive healthcare, and other legal issues.

This text is a necessary component of understanding the work that must be put into the struggle for the emancipation of women and all people with female bodies. The task of communists today is to fight for this emancipation.

Today, a special emphasis is put on reproductive rights. Discussion of this issue must encompass all components of the political economy that affect reproductive rights such as wage-labor, the right to an abortion, the right to healthcare, and so on. It is more and more clear that such rights are only achievable and guaranteed under a dictatorship of the proletariat, and that freedom of choice and freedom of medical procedures can only be guaranteed when women and men have been freed from the exploitation and oppression inherent to the rule of the bourgeoisie.

The recent exposure of the impending attack on abortion rights in the United States is only one facet of a broader attack on the freedom of working women, and the job of the communists is to defend the existing political freedom of abortion while also struggling to extend the fight to broader issues regarding reproductive and women's rights.

[Danae · Rating 2 out of 5]

Le doy todo el crédito a este libro por establecer con claridad varios de los aspectos que impiden la emancipación de las mujeres del mundo, me gusta que sea explícito en definir el trabajo de dueña de casa como una esclavitud oculta y un desperdicio de trabajo que podría ocuparse en la construcción del estado comunista. Lo mismo respecto a la imposibilidad de la revolución de masas sin la participación de la mujer y la crítica al hombre comunista que se cree superior a su compañera.
Pero al final este es solamente un libro de extractos de discursos de Lenin, no es un tratado claro respecto a la emancipación femenina, es un poco triste porque se nota mucho el esfuerzo de la esposa de Lenin, compiladora de este libro, en demostrar que existía una preocupación por la participación de las mujeres en la revolución. Sin duda Lenin, un hombre inteligente, detectó que sin mujeres no iba a llegar a ninguna parte, pero los hombres de izquierda siempre son más hombres que de izquierda y nunca pueden sacarse el privilegio de encima cuando se trata de feminismo (excepto Engels) y es por esto que este libro no alcanza a ser un aporte sustantivo respecto al rol de la mujer en las sociedades de izquierda y sólo un compilado de buenas intenciones jamás concretadas por una estructura tan masculina y patriarcal como la de los partidos políticos.

[Sheryl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sure it's propaganda but you gotta give the guy credit for including women to extent he did. And what ever you think of the former Soviet Union there were more opportunities for women there in mid century 1900s than there were in the US.

[AHW · Rating 3 out of 5]

Contains material of strategic interest. If you’re looking for a treasure-chest of marxist analysis on women’s struggle, though, find something else - maybe Lise Vogel or Angela Davis.

A particularly horrific example of Lenin’s reactionary social attitudes around the struggles of proletarian women - The is Clara Zetkin paraphrasing Lenin in her memorandum books, from the end of this collection:

——————————

““I have heard strange things about that from Russian and German comrades. I must tell you what I mean. I understand that in Hamburg a gifted Communist woman is bringing out a newspaper for prostitutes, and is trying to organize them for the revolutionary struggle. Now Rosa [Luxemburg] a true Communist, felt and acted like a human being when she wrote an article in defense of prostitutes who have landed in jail for violating a police regulation concerning their sad trade. They are unfortunate double victims of bourgeois society. Victims, first, of its accursed system of property and, secondly, of its accursed moral hypocrisy. There is no doubt about this. Only a coarse-grained and short-sighted person could forget this. To understand this is one thing, but it is quite another thing how shall I put it? To organize the prostitutes as a special revolutionary guild contingent and publish a trade union paper for them. Are there really no industrial working women left in Germany who need organizing, who need a newspaper, who should be enlisted in your struggle? This is a morbid deviation. It strongly reminds me of the literary vogue which made a sweet madonna out of every prostitute. Its origin was sound too: social sympathy, and indignation against the moral hypocrisy of the honorable bourgeoisie. But the healthy principle underwent bourgeois corrosion and degenerated. The question of prostitution will confront us even in our country with many a difficult problem. Return the prostitute to productive work, find her a place in the social economy that is the thing to do. But the present state of our economy and all the other circumstances make it a difficult and complicated matter. Here you have an aspect of the woman problem which faces us in all its magnitude, after the proletariat has come to power, and demands a practical solution. It will still require a great deal of effort here in Soviet Russia. But to return to your special problem in Germany. Under no circumstances should the Party look calmly upon such improper acts of its members. It causes confusion and splits our forces. Now what have you done to stop it?”

Before I could answer Lenin continued: “The record of your sins, Clara, is even worse. I have been told that at the evenings arranged for reading and discussion with working women, sex and marriage problems come first. They are said to be the main objects of interest in your political instruction and educational work. I could not believe my ears when I heard that. The first state of proletarian dictatorship is battling with the counter-revolutionaries of the whole world. The situation In Germany itself calls for the greatest unity of all proletarian revolutionary forces, so that they can repel the counter-revolution which is pushing on. But active Communist women are busy discussing sex problems and the forms of marriage ‘past, present and future’. They consider it their most important task to enlighten working women on these questions. It is said that a pamphlet on the sex question written by a Communist authoress from Vienna enjoys the greatest popularity. What rot that booklet is! The workers read what is right in it long ago in Bebel. Only not in the tedious, cut-and-dried form found in the pamphlet but in the form of gripping agitation that strikes out at bourgeois society. The mention of Freud’s hypotheses is designed to give the pamphlet a scientific veneer, but it is so much bungling by an amateur. Freud’s theory has now become a fad. I mistrust sex theories expounded in articles, treatises, pamphlets, etc. in short, the theories dealt with in that specific literature which sprouts so luxuriantly on the dung heap of bourgeois society. I mistrust those who are always absorbed in the sex problems, the way an Indian saint is absorbed In the contemplation of his navel.

“It seems to me that this superabundance of sex theories, which for the most part are mere hypotheses, and often quite arbitrary ones, stems from a personal need. It springs from the desire to justify one’s own abnormal or excessive sex life before bourgeois morality and to plead for tolerance towards oneself. This veiled respect for bourgeois morality is as repugnant to me as rooting about in all that bears on sex. No matter how rebellious and revolutionary it may be made to appear, it is in the final analysis thoroughly bourgeois. Intellectuals and others like them are particularly keen on this. There is no room for it in the Party, among the class-conscious, fighting proletariat.”

I interposed that where private property and the bourgeois social order prevail, questions of sex and marriage gave rise to manifold problems, conflicts and suffering for women of all social classes and strata. As far as women are concerned, the war and its consequences exacerbated the existing conflicts and suffering to the utmost precisely in the sphere of sexual relations. Problems formerly concealed from women were now laid bare. To this was added the atmosphere of incipient revolution. The world of old emotions and thoughts was cracking up. Former social connections were loosening and breaking. The makings of new relations between people were appearing. Interest in the relevant problems was an expression of the need for enlightenment and a new orientation. It was also a reaction against the distortions and hypocrisy of bourgeois society. Knowledge of the modifications of the forms of marriage and family that took place in the course of history, and of their dependence on economics, would serve to rid the minds of working women of their preconceived idea of the eternity of bourgeois society. The critically historical attitude to this had to lead to an unrelenting analysis of bourgeois society, an exposure of its essence and its consequences, including the branding of false sex morality. All roads led to Rome. Every truly Marxist analysis of an important part of the ideological superstructure of society, of an outstanding social phenomenon, had to lead to an analysis of bourgeois society and its foundation, private property. It should lead to the conclusion that “Carthage must be destroyed”.”

[Laura R. Aparicio · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simplificando mucho, es una compilación de textos de diferentes obras, Congresos o cartas en que se tratan cuestiones relativas a los derechos de la mujer (aborto, prostitución, divorcio, etc.) dentro del sistema capitalista, así como de las posibles tareas de las mujeres dentro del Partido. Se recogen también los recuerdos de Clara Zetkin sobre conversaciones con Lenin.

[Stijn Bakker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting, although some texts aren't really about women, even if he mentions the word "women" just once the text is included in this book

[Celia Marín · Rating 4 out of 5]

ojalá siguiera este vivo, me tomaría un café con él

[Jon · Rating 5 out of 5]

“You all know that even when women have full rights, they still remain downtrodden because all housework is left to them. In most cases housework is the most unproductive, the most savage and the most arduous work a woman can do. It is exceptionally petty and does not include anything that would in any way promote the development of women….The building of socialism will begin only when we have achieved the complete equality of women and undertake the new work together with women who have been emancipated from that petty, stultifying, unproductive work” -Lenin

[nico flores · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very important and insightful historical document for those interested in women's liberation and in Lenin. It contains a plethora of diverse documents from different speeches, writings, and other excerpts of Lenin's work as well as a very detailed interview conducted by German communist Clara Zetkin. Of course, the preface by Nadezhda Krupskaya was invaluable in placing Lenin's position in context and laying it out concisely. Though Lenin's work has to be understood in a certain historical and material context, there are still many relevant parallels to our struggle today. Given that this book is fairly short and that it is written in a very digestible way (as much of Lenin's work is), I highly recommend it to anyone wanting to familiarize themselves with Lenin's work as well as with the women's struggle during the beginning years of the Russian Revolution.

[kz · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful collection of speeches, pamphlets and letters by Lenin. Although I disagree with Lenin on the sex worker question and the “bourgeois character” of “promiscuous activity” on a woman’s behalf, I do respect a lot of the thought and analysis on Lenin’s part about the material conditions that capitalism put on to the backs of women in all countries and stride to make the USSR a fully socialist society to provide for both working men and women everywhere. Observe, while the Soviets were granting full equal rights into law in 1919, the US was only granting women the right to vote in bourgeois elections at that time. I would definitely recommend pick up this short read.

[Devin · Rating 5 out of 5]

A revolutionary collection of Lenin's best writings on the liberation of women, the struggle that must be waged for it, and the solidarity that must exist, all leading to the inevitable conclusion that socialism is the only way through which the masses, comprised largely of women, can be liberated.

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Woman Question in Socialist Russia

The message may be problematic in parts but this collection of short writings does show the strides made by socialist/communist Russia in the treatment of women. Though the use of the phrase "the woman question" is a little irksome, it was the vernacular of the time.

This was my first reading of any writing by V.I. Lenin and gave me a good introduction to his goals for women in post-revolution Russia. Some of the pieces in this collection are brief, as Lenin apologizes for not being able to attend certain conferences, with him writing of the continued support of conferences for and by women, and including motivational points and congratulations.

The point of this writing is to show a consistent message in the pieces, that a socialist society must have "full equality for all citizens irrespective of sex, religion, or race." This equality was indeed guaranteed under the law of the new government after the revolution. Lenin recognizes this as the first step, and writes that the social change in the minds of Russian citizens is what must next be approached. And in this he empowers women by giving them the responsibility and the role of educating other women on what this equality means, including divorce rights, children born out of wedlock holding the same status as children born in a marriage, ability and access to employment outside of the home, and even autonomy over herself (birth control and abortion are both discussed and are accessible to women after 1917). These collected pieces demonstrate a continued need to educate citizens, especially to the poorer classes under the Monarchy and the serfs working the fields.

Many of the ideas espoused in these writings, and the goals of a Russian socialist society, are very progressive, even for our time. Equality was named in the laws but also extended to the workplace, with equal wages, equal representation on labor boards and courts, and in divorce proceedings where a woman could seek a dissolution of the marriage and not be dependent on a husband for the means to survive. By being able to work, women could support themselves, especially with the creation of kindergartens and nurseries to take care of the working woman's children. In one essay, Lenin encourages newspapers to post information about where the nurseries and homes open to women and children are available in the area. A continued theme of communication across all strata of Russian citizens and using the available means to spread the message is found in these texts.

There is also the issue of sex in these writings. Lenin touches on sex work, and recognizes it as work, but also sees an oppression of women who had no other options but to become prostitutes. He suggests helping these workers acquire other employment, as it was now guaranteed by the government, to help them escape the situation and to eradicate prostitution in Russia. There is also an interview at the end of the book by Clara Zetkin, which which "free love," and promiscuity is discussed. In this interview, Lenin does sound orthodox and traditional. He states women, and men, are free to engage in sexual activity, but that promiscuity is a hindrance to the socialist worker and absorbs energy that is needed to spread the socialist message. He does say this is true for both men and women, which is equal responsibility, but does appear to still espouse traditional thought on the act of sex before marriage.

This issue of sexual equality is problematic in this respect. And though there was access to birth control, abortion, and childcare, there are moments where Lenin does tend to mansplain to women. For instance, abortion is accessible, but he states that women should refrain from abortion if possible, because the people "are already laying the foundation of a new edifice and out children will complete the construction." Basically, women needed to continue having children for the sake of the country and the continued growth of socialism and communism. This is troubling as much of the revolution took heavy burdens away from woman but this idea puts a heavier burden on her. Perhaps this is because he does see women as the leaders of their sex and of the young people being indoctrinated into political thought. A woman is still the mother at the hearth, teaching her children by the fire, though the message has changed.

Within the difference pieces of writing there is the continued proclamation that a socialist country is more democratic than one populated by capitalists. For, in a socialist society, every citizen is equal, as is every vote, and judges, board members, and committee officials are elected by popular vote (rather than an electoral college). Throughout the collection, Lenin stresses that "wherever there are landowners, capitalists, and merchants, women cannot be the equal of men even before the law." When these are in place, a woman is subservient to the landowners, etc, but is also beneath her husband in terms of power and labor value. At the time, Russian women had access to social programs that helped her to work, as opposed to being "slaves" to the household, which is a continued state that Lenin rails against in his writings from 1917 - 1922.

[Iñigo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Me ha gustado mucho, aunque no deja de ser una muy breve colección de discursos y textos cortos de Lenin explicando la importancia de la mujer en la revolución y los importantes derechos conseguidos en los primeros meses tras la revolución.

En el fondo, el libro solo muestra que Lenin siempre tuvo la cuestión de la mujer en mente y que le dio mucha importancia, pero poco mas.

Lo mejor del libro casi son el prólogo de Krúpskaya y el epílogo de Zetkin. Especialmente este último muestra el genio de Lenin en las conversaciones y discusiones directas. De ahí sale este fragmento que me ha encantado:


“Aseguré a Lenin que compartía su punto de vista, pero que, indudablemente, este punto de vista encontraría resistencias. Mentes inseguras y medrosas lo rechazarían como «oportunismo peligroso». (…)
-¡Qué le vamos a hacer! -exclamó Lenin, algo irritado-. Este peligro se extiende a todo cuanto decimos y hacemos. Si por temor a él vamos a abstenemos de actos convenientes y necesarios, podemos convertirnos sencillamente en místicos contemplativos indios. ¡Nada de moverse, nada de moverse, no sea que caigamos desde la altura de nuestros principios!”

[Elena Maurer · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite feminist works. This quote from Lenin’s writing is the simplest ways to describe the inequality that has been faced by women all over the world for as long as we have existed.

“By the 1940s, while Soviet women made up more than half of the waged work force, the cooking, cleaning, child-care, laundry - all aspects of the maintenance and reproduction of labour power — fell almost exclusively on their shoulders. The result was that the overwhelming majority of women became less able to participate in social, economic and political life, let alone on an equal basis with men.”

Women are required to make up 50% of the labor force and do 100% of the home maintenance. And yet they only receive 50% or less of profits.

[Karoll Díaz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Es un libro interesante, sin embargo tiene muchos términos que son difíciles de entender si no sabes mucho de política. Creo que se centra un poco más en como para el autor el socialismo es la única manera en el cual la mujer pueda emanciparse y no en la historia de la emancipación como tal (lo cual me hubiera gustado mucho). No obstante, se aprende muchas cosas del libro que son muy interesantes.

[Azad Sindhi · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Emancipation Of Women in real meaning, Lenin's critique on free sex and over discussion of bourgeois standards of free sex and youth being dragged to it is in reality dangerous for Comrades, it's a fine reading.

[María Naranjo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Es un libro bastante valioso por su aportación fidedigna al contexto, basado principalmente en textos originales y que refleja a la perfección la idea y preocupaciones con respecto a la lucha de las mujeres y la conquista de sus derechos en aquella época y en el seno del comunismo.

[Juan Ruiz · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have yet to read a writing by Lenin that makes an impression on me ...

[Estefania · Rating 5 out of 5]

Parece increíble leer textos de principio del siglo pasado y haya ocasiones que parezca que habla del día a día.

[Pau Bosca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un llibre lleuger en el que es recullen alguns texts importants de lenin sobre l'emancipació de la dona, potser esperava algo en més profunditat/un fil mes clar però es un llibre senzill per llegir.

[Axis Siempre Gana · Rating 3 out of 5]

La puta cocinada de Clara Zetkin y Lenin en el apéndice es histórica

[Callie M · Rating 5 out of 5]

A collection of Lenin's writings on the emancipation of women. It is a short book, more of a pamphlet really. Highly recommended!

[Comrade Zupa Ogórkowa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a memorable or compelling compilation of Lenin’s writings.

[yo:3 · Rating 4 out of 5]

ok si mato a mucha gente pero he was onto something

[Cora Andrés · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lloré. Bastante bueno pero al haber leido tanto del tema hay determinados apartados que se me repiten. Buen libro para leer mientras hago repasos de estudio.

[Ana Cecilia Esperón Romero · Rating 5 out of 5]

⭐4.5

[Holly · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book compiles Lenin's speeches and writings on women's emancipation, which he believed could only be accomplished by the political empowerment and economic independence of women as carried out by a mass revolutionary women's movement. Lenin consistently acknowledges the limitations of the highly progressive legislation on gender equality enacted by the Bolshevik government, recognizing that active political struggle and women's participation in the organization and administration of the Soviet state did more to break down the patriarchal relations of capitalism than any laws ever could. Unlike some factions of his party who considered women's issues negligible at best, Lenin viewed women as a vital political force which must be won over to the revolution through agitation and organizing directed towards their needs and aspirations. His conversations with Clara Zetkin reveal Lenin's conservative attitudes towards the new modes of sexuality sweeping through industrialized Russia after the revolution--he dismisses the 'new morality' as bourgeois promiscuity and seems to underestimate the extent to which the burgeoning emphasis on 'free love' emerged organically from a society undergoing revolutionary transformation. He advocates for greater discipline, especially among the youth, but admits that, "Communism should not bring asceticism, but joy and strength, stemming, among other things, from a consummate love life."
A recurring theme in these documents is the "barbarously unproductive, petty, nerve-racking, stultifying and crushing drudgery" of housework and its stranglehold on women's autonomy. His oft proposed solution to women's domestic servitude--communal childcare, food service, and housework--combines a progressive socialisation of reproductive labour with a regressive insistence that women must continue to bear responsibility for these services. Clearly women must be, and were, heavily involved in organising socialised domestic work since they possess the necessary technical knowledge, but it seems that the real emancipation of women from these domestic burdens entails the equal participation of men. Clara Zetkin recalls Lenin's concern with the patriarchal prejudices which prevent most men from helping with housework; he names the re-education of men as an urgent political task in order to "root out the old slave-owner's point of view, both in the Party and among the masses." However, a reading of his wife, Nadezhda Krupskaya's biography finds her shouldering the whole domestic burden, cooking and cleaning for her husband on top of her busy political work. Like many of us who hold radical convictions but live within oppressive systems, Lenin reproduced patriarchy in his relationship while combating it in society.
Lenin's ideas on socialist reproduction were shaped by his female comrades like Alexandra Kollontai, Comissar of Social Welfare. She helped found Zhenotdel (Women's Department), an organisation established in 1919 to create communal dining halls, houses, nurseries, and launderies, with promising results: "between 1919 and 1920, it's estimate that 90% of the Petrograd population was fed communally, and in 1920, 40% of Moscow housing was communal" (Women and Socialism). Although Zhenotdel was largely successful at providing for communities and fostering women's political and economic empowerment, the initiatives suffered from lack of resources due to civil war, and a resurgence of conservatism in the Party ensured Zhenotdel received less funding in the mid 1920s. It was abolished in 1930 as a wave of reaction set in under Stalin, criminalising abortion and harkening for a return to the nuclear family. Stalinism eroded many of the gains in women's legal equality and self-organisation won by the revolution, while the state's growing productivity brought a higher standard of living for workers, and opened up new opportunities for women to advance in higher education, science, and the military. Such is the dialectic.

Women and Socialism by Sharon Smith.

[Grace · Rating 3 out of 5]

The title is misleading - there's actually very little about women at all for a book called "The Emancipation of Women." Simplifying, Lenin's view was that three things kept women behind men in the Soviet Union: religion, unequal laws, and women's place in the production process (women supposedly did not take part in production per se, instead being confined to the home). In Lenin's view, with the fading of old religious beliefs, the imposition of new equal laws, and the integration of women into the production process, women would be emancipated. This was not the case however as we can see from the history of the USSR. Of course, this is ~1920 so it's not like Lenin could have read a whole lot of feminist theory, but even so that doesn't make this more worth reading.

Lenin doesn't even try and question patriarchal assumptions he might be making. For example, he wrote a very condescending series of letters to a female fellow communist who was promoting free love in which he talked down to her and called her bourgeois (why is free love bourgeois? Lenin doesn't explain). He also assumes that man and woman are natural biological categories (he believes men are stronger than women, who need to be protected, etc). It would have been more useful I think to read a book that summarized Lenin's views on women (which can probably be done adequately in less than 40 pages) along with other Bolsheviks of the time. Wilhelm Reich's The Sexual Revolution provides something like that.

edit: this is better than i gave it credit for

[Marc Lichtman · Rating 5 out of 5]

A collection of Lenin's wonderful writings on fighting against the oppression of women, this includes a portion of Clara Zetkin's 'Reminiscences of Lenin' containing the discussions she had had with Lenin on what was then called "the woman question." Zetkin, a close friend of Rosa Luxemburg in Germany headed work among women workers first in the German Social Democratic Party, and then in the Communist Party. It also has a brief preface by Nadezhda Krupskaya, Lenin's widow.

What you would never know from this book, however, is the extent to which the plans for the liberation of women were more and more reversed in the Stalin era. For that I would suggest reading Women and the Family by Leon Trotsky, especially the chapter "Thermidor in the Family" taken from 'The Revolution Betrayed.'

Also recommended: Women in Cuba: The Making of a Revolution within the Revolution.