"The Communist Party of the Soviet Union is greatly concerned
with improving the labour and everyday life conditions of women. 'The Party's
policy,' runs the CC CPSU Report to the 24th Party Congress, 'consists
in creating new opportunities for women in both upbringing their children
and in taking a more active part in the public life, for their rest and
education, and for bringing them into a closer contact with cultural values.
Long Live Soviet Women, active builders of a communist society!'"
("Moskovskaya Pravda", March 3, 1972)
"A devoted worker and a public activist, the Soviet woman has
always been and is the primary educator of our successors. The women are
raising a healthy and cheerful young generation, surrounding them with
care and love and enveloping them in their maternal warmth; they are istilling
in them the best features of Soviet Man-devotion to communism, a lofty
consciousness, love of work, an all-consuming love of the Motherland and
a profound sense of internationalism. On behalf of all our people, we express
a deep gratitude to you, women- mothers, for your everyday painstaking
and noble activity, for your loving maternal heart, for your tireless efforts
in consolidating the family!"
("Trud", March 8, 1972)
"The emancipation of women, their social liberation was going
on in parallel with building a new life: the socialist restructuring of
the economy, the transformations in the cultural sphere and the establishment
of socialist democracy."
("Moskovskaya Pravda", March 8, 1972, Valentina Tereshkova)
"It is high time to send such phrases as 'the weaker' and 'the
stronger' sex to an archeology museum. The Soviet women have proved that
the fair sex may be even cosmonauts. Though women and men differ in their
physical characteristics, nobody would try to prove in good faith that
woman's intellectual powers are inferior to those of man. Moreover, I am
sure that some women are better developed and better educated than certain
representatives of my sex. I am convinced that we could have escaped many
wars, massive slaughters and cataclysms, if women-the wives and mothers-were
entrusted with the resolution of the entangled contradictions."
("Komsomolskaya Pravda", March 7, 1975, Martti Larni)
"I am a builder by trade. And, both as a builder and a woman,
there's nothing I cherish more than peace at the borders of our Motherland
and peace across the world. That is why the struggle for peace, for the
freedom and independence of nations, which is being translated into life
by the CC CPSU, by its Politburo, led by Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev, is consonant
with the most ardent hope of all women on the globe, of all people of the
good will."
("Trud", March 8, 1972)
"Russia is losing its positions in resolving the women's question
at an amazing speed. Women cannot give birth to children because of their
fear of the future, because of the scarcity of the material means. The
hunger actions and the participation in strikes ... our women do not wish
to turn into dumb slaves."
("Pravda", March 7, 1996)
"The feminist movement is one of the most dynamic in this country.
The Ministry of Justice has officially registered some 400 women's organizations,
dealing with the most diverse social problems, and the fact in itself testifies
to the expansion of women's public activity."
("Trud", May 29, 1996)
"Over 50 per cent of the unemployed women are busy raising their
underaged children, including 6 percent of single mothers. Today, 1.2 million
women in Russia are employed on the jobs, not satisfying the sanitary-hygienic
norms; 620,000 work under the noise and the ultrasound, and over 60,000-under
a high vibration."
("Pravda", March 14, 1996)
"The ideal of women's equality is a product of the fundamental
ideology of the barracks socialism, one of its major Utopias." ("Argumenty
i facty", May 1996, Igor Bestuzhev-Lada)
"Woman is in parts a human being."
("Argumenty i facty", May 1996, Leonid Zhukhovsky)
... the sexual 'exploitation' of women has turned into a regular industry
all over the world; by the money it brings in, it is second only to the
narcobusiness and to the trade in weapons. These data were made public
at the world colloquium on the problems of violence against women, held
at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris."
("Trud", March 7, 1996) "
... but now the Centrizbircom has offered no opportunity to a single
woman to cross the road of any man. So men may sleep in peace. There is
a ceiling, above which no woman can jump. In all evidence, you may claim
to be a Deputy, but never-the President. The male subconscious is adamant
on this account: 'Now look what she is after! But this is really the limit!'"
("Argumenty i facty", May 1996, Galina Starovoitova)