THE ACTIVITY OF SOCIAL ORGANIZATIONS OF SIBERIA AMONG THE WOMEN-WORKERS IN 1920s

The subject of the article is the activity of public organizations of Siberia among the women in 1920s to increase their public work. There were special organs in different structures of the state's political system to work among women: women's departments in the party, representatives from the trade unions, the commissions on the woman's labour. Their task was as much as possible to involve women in the work on labor protection, social insurance, in mutual aid funds, in culture-instructive organizations, in trade unions. Women-workers were purposefully put forward in the local committees of trade unions, administration of unions, at the conferences, at the delegate meetings, as well as in the Soviets. Women's departments of the party organizations used such methods of agitation and propaganda among women, as political courts, conferences, the revolutionary holidays, etc. The delegate meetings were the basic form of the communist party work among women. They were elected by the representatives of the most backward layers, and the women's departments of the party organizations had an impact on other women through them. One of the priority tasks of the communist party was to involve women-workers into its ranks. The main task of the institute of the trade union's representatives among women was the involvement of the latter in the trade union movement. The trade unions in their activities touched upon the questions of the social conditions of women's life. Their functions included the development of a network of child care institutions, public canteens in the factories, the activities of the social insurance institutions, cultural-educational work. The involvement of women in industrial and social activities significantly changed their mentality, created the new patterns in determining of their place in society, reformed the system of traditional values, which considered women as a wife and a mother above all. The work in the public organizations was for many of them a way of self-affirmation, the ability to get out from under the authority of her husband, to contribute to the building of a new society, which was unknown yet in the world. In social work, industrial activity, the women saw a means of their self-awakening as a personality, as an individual. The women's activity in industrial and social life, the party membership radically changed their social status. The woman was actively involved in the field of public relations, was out of the husband's authority. Thus, the process of integrating women into the industrial and social activity has radically changed the views on social purpose of women and the perception by the woman of their place and role in society. And, of course, a huge role in this process played a variety of social organizations, primarily the communist party, the young communist league, and the trade unions.