it is idle to dream of the “freeing of labour.” For this reason, it is greatly to the interest of the working class that there should be complete fighting comradeship between the female and the male portions of the proletariat, and that this comradeship should be strengthened by equality. The Soviet Power is the first to have realised such equality in all departments of life: in marriage, in the family, in political affairs, etc. In all things, throughout Soviet Russia, women are the equals of men.
It is incumbent upon our party to effect the realisation of this equality in actual life. Before all, we must make it clear to the broad masses of the workers that the subjection of women is extremely harmful to them. Hitherto among the workers it has been customary to look upon women as inferiors; as for the peasants, they smile when a “mere woman” begins to take an interest in social affairs. In the Soviet Republic the working woman has exactly the same rights as the working man; she can elect to the soviets and be elected to them; she can hold any commissar’s office; can do any kind of work in the army, in economic life, and in the State administration.