Summary
October 1917 brought not only political but also sexual revolution to Russia, with the early Soviets promoting female emancipation and the end of the traditional family, before a swift return to the old moral order.
"Sexual revolutions often come together with great historical changes," Vladislav Aksyonov of the Institute of Russian History told AFP.
Russian women also began to fight for their political rights and the right to make their own sexual and reproductive choices.
In 1917, Russia "was ahead of Europe and the United States in giving women the right to vote," Aksyonov said. British women would have to wait until the following year to win that right, while their American counterparts were not granted it until 1920 .
Together they founded the newspaper "Rabotnitsa" ("Female Worker") in 1914, dedicated to the struggle for women's rights. Its central idea was that women are slaves, oppressed by work and domestic life, and that only through revolution can they achieve equality with men.
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