Pre-revolutionary Kabardino-Balkaria economically was extremely backward, agrarian territory, with feudal and patriarchal farm patterns. Like other peoples of the East, women here were powerless and oppressed in the family and society. They were without exception illiterate and economically dependent on men. Kalym, polygamy, marriage of minors — all this puts women in a humiliating position, killed human dignity in them.
After the establishment of Soviet power, the picture starts to change gradually. The So-viet state provided participation of women, on a par with men, in a social production and in social and political activity. This work was carried out in very difficult conditions of struggle against harmful traditional remnants of the past in relation to women.
Local authorities, following the instructions of the center, launched a large-scale work on the restoration of the national economy. A woman goryanka becomes an active participant in all these processes. Within the secondary analysis of the public female policy of 1920—1930 the following problems are designated: legislative registration of a new course in female policy, practical realization of purposes of equalizing the rights of women and men in the new country. The authors introduced into scientific circulation a complex of discovered archival materials, significantly complementing our understanding of the transformation of the status of women in the Kabardino-Balkaria during the first five-year industrial plans.
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