The Tsar's secret police, noticing that radical women were studying medicine in Switzerland, forced them back to Russia. To monitor them effectively, the government opened a medical institute specifically for these women, ironically advancing their education while attempting to control their political activities.
The Soviet Union legalized abortion in 1920, three years before other forms of birth control were available. This policy set a precedent that lasted for decades, resulting in abortion becoming the primary family planning method. The average Soviet woman had 3 to 12 abortions during her childbearing years.
Early Bolsheviks like Alexandra Kollontai championed sexual liberation, but this was quickly replaced by extreme prudery. The new doctrine argued that sexual energy distracted from revolutionary fervor. This shift is characteristic of authoritarian regimes, which view any form of personal freedom, including sexuality, as a threat to state control.
Facing catastrophic male population loss after WWII, the USSR implemented policies to trigger a baby boom. The state encouraged extramarital births by offering financial support directly to women, preventing them from seeking child support from fathers. This institutionalized single motherhood and made fatherhood socially and legally irrelevant.
The typical Soviet woman was expected to perform three demanding roles simultaneously: her professional job, all household labor without modern appliances, and child-rearing. One historian noted they had to perform these "as if each of them were her only job," creating a cultural ideal of effortless competence born from necessity.
Centuries of war and political purges created a severe and persistent gender imbalance in Russia. This scarcity led to men being viewed as a precious resource to be fought over and protected. Consequently, very low societal expectations were placed on them, fostering a culture of coddled men who were not incentivized to improve.
A chilling hypothesis suggests Russia's 2017 decriminalization of domestic violence was a form of social control. In an authoritarian system with a stagnant economy that emasculates men, allowing them to exert power at home serves as a "steam valve," redirecting aggression away from the state and onto their families.
The Russian perspective on gender roles is often inverted from the West's. Women are seen as strong and resourceful, while men are viewed as a fragile, coddled group needing protection. Consequently, Western feminism, which focuses on empowering women, is seen as having the wrong priorities for a society that needs to "lift the man."