The idea that the Soviet Union and other soviet-controlled states in Eastern europe were egalitarian or fair for the sexes is a
complete and utter myth that has been thoroughly debunked, and was patently clear to be a myth throughout the 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s. That some people long for dictatorship after the authoritarian dictatorship crumbles is no surprise, this is incredibly common in all forms of structured societies, a form of Stockholm Syndrome: Former liberated cult members who might still long for the cult, people being abused in extremely religious cultures who block out the abuse and have good things to say about their life, children who are sexually abused by their parents or caretakers, former prisoners who are often bewildered and lonely after leaving prison who can't adjust to the outside world. Peddling articles like, "Well some women want to go back to the Soviet dictatorship," is like the ignorant racist drivel by White Supremacists that "Some blacks
longed for the plantation after the Civil War! Life was simpler, happier then! Master provided food for all and our poor, boorish negro didn't have to worry about such difficult things like learning to read and write." Good grief.
There were no feminist movements in the Soviet bloc in the 1960s and 70s, despite feminist movements gaining popularity in every Western country. Why? Well, the Soviets would have told you, "Look! These women need to fight for their rights in these countries -- but the soviet women already have rights!" Is it true? Did women have rights in Soviet Russia all along, and so they never needed women's liberation movements? Well, that's what Grandfather Josef says so it
must be true!
There's an old Russian joke that the NYT Moscow bureau chief
Hendrick Smith popularized in the West...
The patriarchal dominance in the West is a problem, in Western Europe and the United States, but Soviet bloc countries are the textbook definition of a patriarchy the model with which any Men's Rights Activists strives for. Propaganda posters would celebrate the freedom that Soviet women had, wow, look at the political freedom our women have, they were enfranchised 5 full years before women in the United States! And yet... think... Can anybody think of any woman who
ever served in the Soviet politburo? Is there any photo of famous Soviet leadership -- not just the highest leadership but any leadership councils, "representatives," regional boards, advisory groups -- with women serving on them? Of course not.
In the 70 years of Soviet Communism,
four women served in government.
Four, two of which were under Gorbachev in the waning years of of the Soviet dictatorship, and their is virtually nothing written about their careers, while one was forced to commit suicide due "to scandals," while the KGB covered it up that she died of sudden heart failure.
Women's movements in the fall of the USSR
exploded from 1990 to 1999. If the USSR were such a harmonious egalitarian paradise as Pravda and the Kremlin wanted the world to believe, there would have been no women's liberation movement in the former Soviet Union, and yet, there was. And then, by the late 1990s and the rise of Putin and the return of Russian dictatorship, those were brought to a halt. Russia is now known as one of the most mysoginistic, patriarchal societies in the developed world... It's not like this came out of nowhere: It was part of the fabric of Soviet society, woven into the collective consciousness. When the wall came down and a flurry of liberal movements sprouted, and then within a decade, the patriarchic police state had resoundingly reigned them in.
The West, Europe, the United States, is no egalitarian utopia.
We all know that. Many of us know that. But if you are trying to convince yourself that the Soviet Union was some paradise of equality, then you're lying to yourself. If you're trying to convince
other people that the Soviet Union was a paradise of gender equality, then you're a dishonest ignorant liar.
