The women's movement in Kaluga THE following interview with Tatlana Markova, a member of the Social-Democratic Party (SP) in the Russian town of
Kaluga and a feminist activist, was conducted by David
Mandel towards the end of 1991. A longer version of the interview will appear in a forthcoming issue of International
Marxist Review.
The congress took up such themes as "Women and the Market", "Women as Subject and Object of Politics", and "Patriarchy and Violence against Women". The greatest interest was in economic questions.
There is also a women's party, whose conference was attended by 40 women and which claims 2 to 3,000 members. An interview with a spokeswoman in a woman's paper, brought forth a hail of correspondence. This party however does not have an official programme. The essence of their programme is "women are better than men" and "should follow their intuition"
Most of the new democratic or less democratic parties show no awareness of the need to address women's issues. Only in Ukraine has a feminist from Kiev written for a democratic party.
Feminist periodicals, which have a certain audience, are not well known, apart from Eva which appears in Lithuania and which presents itself as Christian feminist — this takes up such questions as abortion, the position of unmarried women or violence against women. It is interesting that this periodical appears in both Lithuanian and Russian.
At present the developing nationalism is worrying. Nationalism undeniably strengthens patriarchy. Women will be urged to bear more children in the interests of the nation. Old, patriarchal traditions will be unearthed. This can have an economic aspect; in Uzbekistan a factory for the production of veils may be set up.
As in most of the countries of former "really existing socialism" there has been no critical reappraisal of feminist literature and discussions.
The beginnings of the women's movement were dried out by the state ordered women's policy, so that it is now very hard to promote the women's movement as an autonomous movement.
This makes it all the more important to defend existing rights and not to cede a single inch of ground; only on this basis is the defence and extension of rights possible. Economic misery will furthermore be "coped with" at the expense of women. 8 This is a worldwide problem which confronts us. *
OU obviously believe that It is necessary to act on the political level. What is your attitude to the present Russian government?
In my opinion, Yeltsin's speech yesterday at the Russian Supreme Soviet showed that after the putsch (the failed conservative coup in August 1991) he has simply betrayed the people. Of course, I am not surprised, since I have been critical of him for a long time.
My analysis is more on the psychological than political level. Who is Yeltsin? A former Communist, a man with totalitarian inclinations. I don't want to criticize the entire Communist movement. I am told that in the West there are good people in it, that the movement there is what it should be.
But here it is linked to totalitarianism. Yeltsin spent his whole life in it, was a leader there. He is now close to 60, and one can't expect him to change completely.
Second, he suffered from that regime. He is a decent person, with a conscience and other good human qualities. Since he suffered, something shifted in his head and he realized that it was all wrong.
But the habit remains. As a clever and wily politician — you have to give him his due — he is capable of hypocrisy and betrayal, and he made use of these traits when he tried to make himself into a hero on the crest of the popular upsurge following the putsch.
Frankly, I don't believe in his sincerity. Sure, it hurt him to be attacked by his own party comrades. But history shows that such individuals very quickly forget about the people on whose shoulders they came to power.
He worried me right from the start of his activity in the Supreme Soviet of RSFSR. If he were a politician who cared about his people, he would have first of all done everything possible to defend the sovereignty of Russia, to defend his people from the Centre.
But look how he wavered. He constantly tried to find a common language with Gorbachev and to impose this position on the popular movement, not considering that a putsch could occur any day and the people would be completely defenceless against it.
This was clear from the logic of events, but he is obviously playing some unclean game.
And so I stopped trusting him as a politician. And after that came other mistakes. I learnt of these things from information I received in Moscow - in the provinces we had less information about his activity in the Supreme Soviet and about the Supreme Soviet itself — and I could draw conclusions and make a prognosis.
My prognosis was that since some 50% of the Supreme Soviet of Russia is made up nomenklatura people, we could not expect reforms that would improve the lot of the people. And, of course, they made sure they passed laws that served only their own interests, not those of the people.
We can now see all this in practice. They passed a law on privatization that suits the nomenklatura strata very well. And those so-called "democrats" , people whom until recently we called democrats, who passed this law, are basically individuals who sought to make a political career for their own private benefit on the wave of perestroika.
Real democrats, genuinely honest and principled people, are very, very rare in our political life. Indeed, it would be surprising if this were not so. After all, for 70 years public life has been conducted without any reference to principle or morality.
This is probably the natural evolution of politics in our country, and my task and that of other political activists who seek truth and justice is to try to influence the course of political life as best we can by whatever means available, adhering to a principled orientation, so lacking among our politicians. But compared to them, we are very few. • You are also active in the women's movement.
Yes, we have a group in Kaluga? , and I am a member of the women's commission of the Social-Democratic Party. • As a woman, what sort of social policy would you like to see? What are the most urgent state measures needed by women?
The most urgent measures must be
International Viewpoint #224 • March 16, 1992
directed to protecting women's living standards.
The first and main blow of the market reform will be directed against women.
They will be fired first.
Services are already being cut and becoming more expensive, undermining our ability to raise our children decently.
Look at our young girls and boys. They are growing up like little animals who will later rip us to pieces.
The law on privatization also hurts women, because there are very few women economists, people who can orient themselves well in these questions. • Do you see any concern for women's interests in the government?
None whatsoever. • What is it like for a woman to be active in politics?
First of all, I am not a true political person, since, in my view, such a person has to be well-grounded in theory. At first, I had a very difficult time understanding things and only gradually did I begin to feel more comfortable.
I recently read a book by Ivan Efremov, Thais of Athens, about ancient Greece. Thais said that where women are in the position of slaves, they grow up with the mentality of slaves, and the generation they raise will never be bold and courageous.
In other words, a society that does not understand that woman, that is the free woman, is the basis of everything, of the cultural and spiritual development of the nation, will never be able to rise above the materialism of this world, above purely selfish goals, animal instincts.
As a woman, it is hard for me in the political movement, and not only because men are for the most part merciless toward us and don't understand woman's psychology, that women tire more quickly, they are more emotional.
But it is hard also because, if I have succeeded in raising myself to a higher level of spiritual life and have a deeper grasp of things, I can find no understanding. People are so mired in the worries and pettiness of everyday life that they simply lack the strength to rise above it. • Is this only in relation to women's issues or more generally?
More generally, I think. • Tell me now about the women's movement in Kaluga.
Its history began with a woman's conference in the town of Dubno last March. I was supposed to go from the party, but I couldn't make it.
We sent someone else, a very intelligent woman, who brought back documents and told us what happened.
Even this little bit of information made me realize that we needed a women's movement, that we have very many prob-
WOMEN: ex-USSR lems that are specific to women who are about to enter a market.
So our social-democratic organization in Kaluga decided to raise these problems at the third congress of the SPD.
The SPD's programme had no section on women, and we offered to help write one. This was accepted, and now the women's commission, which I helped initiate, is in the process of writing it.
There are seven of us and today we are meeting for the second time. The next time we meet I will definitely invite you.
In Kaluga itself, I became acquainted with another woman who had also been at Dubno and had begun on her own to organize a women's movement in our town. She was working in the regional soviet social welfare department.
She is from Yakutiya, and had been put forward there as a candidate to the Russian Supreme Soviet. She did not make it solely because she was a woman.
Even at that time they were saying that a woman has no place in government.
After that, she came under strong pressure at work and had to leave the soviet. She now works as a lawyer in a commercial bank.
She returned from Dubno and began to organize the women's movement on her own. It is extremely difficult to be a leader when the movement is only beginning to blossom. She was looking for people, and we found each other.
The organization's acronym is rather original: NOZhI (knives), which stands for Independent Organization of Women's Initiative.
For some reason, she dislikes men very strongly, though the situation in her own family is quite good. She is a very decisive person. It helps that she is a lawyer. She has already helped many women with legal advice.
Initially, her idea was to create a purely legal defense movement. But when I told here about the women's commission in our party and after we had discussed the problem of privatization, we concluded that it was necessary to develop a movement with a broader profile that could deal with the various dimensions of our life.
It was only necessary to find women who could take charge of the different aspects. And we agreed that I would head the trade-union section. • What are the other directions of NOZhl's activity?
Besides the purely legal defense functions, many questions are arising in relation to the market — dismissals, people being cheated, thrown out of privatized enterprises that are then taken over by cooperatives.
I know of one shop whose employees had worked there for 25 years. They were fired, and the shop was given to the cooperative that paid the highest bribe.
The city government's concept of pri-
33 333 vatization of the commercial network is not to lease it to the collectives or to transfer it to them completely, but to give it to those who offer the largest sum.
Unfortunately, this is at present the most urgent problem.
Another problem is the material situation of single mothers. These people are now totally unprotected. There are no state allocations, nothing.
Another area of our activity is the cultural development of women, basically educational functions. • How many people are there in your organization?
It already has about 40 or 50 women, and that is quite good. So far, these are people who come because they need some particular kind of aid.
But we need people who can help the organization to function. There are only about ten of these. However, we understand each other well, and I feel our work will take off.
These are very determined people. I have to say that women are more organized than men. Their thought is more organized and so is their practice.
Life dictates this because you cannot maintain a family unless your feet are planted firmly on the ground.
And the methods that we intend to use in our work, including strikes, picketing, demonstrations and even hunger strikes, I can assure you that when women take to these methods, it will be a very serious affair.
Remember when the soldiers' mothers stood in front of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR and how they conducted their struggle?
True, I was somewhat amused when they said they would lay down on the railroad tracks. But they would have. This is pure desperation.
Our problems are extremely complex. And even though the situation is psychologically very depressing, I do not get discouraged because I am together with women who share my views. * 1. The SDP, like all other parties in the ex-Soviet Union, is a relatively small organization with at most a few thousand members. 9 2. A city about five hours south of Moscow by train.
GERMANY