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The Making of Russian Female Social Democrats, 1890–1917*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 December 2008

Beate Fieseler
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The social composition of female RSDRP members (who constituted between 11% and 15% of the total party membership) prior to 1917 is analyzed using prosopographic methods. The analysis reveals that women social democrats tended to come from higher social classes, and to have a higher educational attainment, and professional occupations. Thus, it is misleading to characterize the RSDRP as a “workers' party”, for only its male contingent was composed mostly of workers.

The analysis of the process of radicalization reveals the cultural barriers whioch these women had to overcome before they would join the party. Breaking free from their role in society meant, for them, leading fuller lives as women and an oppurtunity to dedicate themselves to the people.

Type
Research Article
Information
International Review of Social History , Volume 34 , Issue 2 , August 1989 , pp. 193 - 226
Copyright
Copyright © Internationaal Instituut voor Sociale Geschiedenis 1989

References

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3 After the publication of these first two installments in 1931–1933, the project was discontinued. However, manuscripts concerning the letters Gm-Kar (in 19 volumes along with 52 volumes of autobiographical sketches) do still exist in Soviet archives and Soviet historians are currently working with this material. They will probably revive this big undertaking with the support of the computer facilities now available. See, for example: Lozhkin, V.V., “K Voprosu ob Izuchenii Sostava Uchastnikov Sotsial-Demo-kraticheskogo Dvizheniia v Rossii (1883–1903gg.) (Metodika Obrabotki Dannykh)”, Istoriia SSSR, 2 (1983), pp. 89–95Google Scholar; Tych, Feliks, “Lexikalische Hilfsmittel zur Geschichte der Arbeiterbewegung”, Internationale Wissenschaftliche Korrespondenz zur Geschichte der Arbeiterbewegung, 19 (1983), p. 160.Google Scholar

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