Women in the October Revolution

    •   In 1907 a group of Bolshevik women formed the Working Women’s Mutual Assistance Centre in order to spread socialist ideas among working-class women.

    •   From 1914, they published the magazine Rabonitsa (‘The Women Worker’); Lenin’s wife Nadezhda Krupskaya was on the Board.

    •   Sofia Goncharskaia led a four-week strike of the Launderesses Union in March 1917.

    •   By July, a women’s Red Guards Nursing Corps (‘Red nurses) had been formed.

    •   Alexandra Kollontai worked closely with Union of Soldatki (Soldiers’ Wives) – of which there were millions – and won their support.

    •   Women took organisational roles during the October Revolution – e.g. conductor AE Rodionova kept the trams running, taking rifles to the insurgents.

    •   In 1920 Lenin said: “Women workers acted splendidly during the revolution. Without them we should not have been victorious.”

Going Deeper

The following links will help you widen your knowledge:

Alexandra Kollontai: Women Fighters in the Days of the Great October Revolution (1927)

Mary Davis: Women who helped lead the Russian Revolution

Megan Trudell: The Women of 1917