Families in 20 th Century Totalitarian States

1. Families in 20th Century Totalitarian States Russia, Italy and Germany

2. Big questions of modernity can be explored by looking at families

3. General Trends in 20s and 30s • State became increasingly rigid regarding the family • Decreasing fertility rate tied to: • Later marriage • Economic costs of having children • More literate=smaller families

4. RUSSIA

5. Marx’s Ideology • Goal was: change state/economics • MUST CREATE NEW PEOPLE! • Everything would start from scratch, including personal relationships • Doesn’t offer ideas of HOW Russia

6. Marx’s Ideology • Marx concerned with oppression of women • Marx saw marriage as a form of prostitution • Both sexes should be liberated from monogamous family • 19th century bourgeois women had no rights Russia

7. Bolshevik Ideology • What is a good Communist like? • If people don’t show up for work, what do we do? • Government • What is the role of the state? • Do we have one set of laws for everyone? • What if people break laws? • Do we even need laws? Russia

8. Bolshevik Ideology • Family • Should there be marriage? • Do kids belong to their parents or do they belong to a collective? • Should parents and kids live together? • Should parents be obliged to care for their kids? Russia

9. Bolshevik Ideology • Women • Were men more communistic than women?? • Men worked in groups on farms • Women had worked in homes • Would women slow down communism? Russia

10. Family • In 1917 denounced family as bourgeois institution • Aleksandra Kollontai, 1923 • “The family, in its bourgeois sense, will die out.“ • But utopian and practical campaigns did little to change it Russia

11. Women (Zhenotdel) • At start, women were significant • Krupskaya • Lenin's wife • Took charge of shaping culture • Organized literacy program • Banned many authors • Alexandra Kollontai • Noblewoman turned Communist • Taught virtues of free love Russia

12. Urban Women • Decide to focus on urban women to bring change • Write popular fiction • Relationships should exist as long as they make women happy • Most urban women educated so didn’t buy it Russia

13. Rural Women • Went after rural women • Rural women living same for centuries • Under thumb of religion/men • Poor • Sent emissaries out to preach divorce and abortion Russia

14. Women’s Equality • Political • Full equal voting rights • Elected to soviets • Economic • Lower pay • Social • Full legal equality in marriage • Free education led to new life Russia

15. Kollontai • Soviet state would "lift the burdens of motherhood from women's shoulders and transfer them to the state.“ • The Love of Worker Bees • Woman communist in love with man with bourgeois tendencies (with a mistress) Russia

16. Professional Women • Young women became professionals • Parents were barely literate • Young women raised on 1920s propaganda • Other women with less education or lower aspirations care for home and children? • Yet as girls were educated and entered professions, Soviet ideology on gender equality also changed Russia

17. “What the October Revolution has given to working and peasant women”, 1920 • “Women, adhere to the cooperation”, 1917 Russia

18. Family Problems • Problems in Stalin’s perfect society • Great impact in collectives • Women fought each other in kitchens and bathrooms • Millions of homeless children • Rising juvenile crime • Widespread male irresponsibility Russia

19. Stalin Reorganized Party(1930) • Rise of women threatened his structure of Party • 1930 reverted to traditional emphasis on family/motherhood • Ceremonial weddings came back • Paid child allowance if parents married • Harder to get divorce • Strove to raise birthrate • Glorified motherhood • Banned birth control and abortion Russia

20. Women’s Employment • Rights took 2nd place to industrialization • Women’s equality meant equal work responsibility • Childbirth had negative effects on promotions • Equal rights postponed until communism achieved • Would improve family income/Russian economy • Collectivization forced peasants onto state farms • Urban women in work force increased • Nothing changed at home • Worked outside home as much as men • Took care of household when not on job Russia

21. Women at Home • Water • 2/3’s of urban families got water from communal tap • Doing laundry could take 2 days • Food shopping • Traveled further to shop • Shortages caused long lines • Needed: • Different attitudes about home responsibilities • More and better childcare facilities • Better shopping arrangements Russia

22. “You, working women of all countries! Get into the front lines with the fighters against the war, fascism and capitalist exploitation! USSR, Hurrah to March 8th—The International Communistic Women’s Day!” 1936 • ”Female delegate, stand to the fore!”, 1931 Russia

23. Women’s Social Changes • By end of 1930s • In theory, all jobs open to women • Only real change took place in image state created for women • Many revolutionary ideals discarded • Idea of free love abandoned • Kollontai shipped off to Norway • Later complained "the women's question raised by the revolution had received a man's answer.“ Russia

24. WWII Patriotism A Partisan's Mother The Homeland-Mother Calls! Russia

25. Children • Should be in collective • Guided toward Soviet ideology • Began childcare • Rural women thought kids would be kidnapped if they went to daycare • Usually used corporal punishment • Husbands against wives • Parents against kids • Belt-Burying Campaign • Must talk to kids, use reason Russia

26. Children’s Education • Education controlled by state • In 1932, Stalin introduced program of discipline and education • Fabricated Stalin’s role in 1917 revolution and his relationship with Lenin • Books strictly censored Russia

27. Youth Organizations • Children expected to join • Taught to be good communist • Emphasized outdoor activities and clean living • Groups • Octobrists for 7 to 9 year olds • Pioneers for 10 to 15 year olds • Komsomol for 14 to 28 year olds Russia

28. “Young Men and Women! Go to FZO construction schools, learn to be the best in your specialty!” 1941 • “Care for Children”1923 Russia

29. “Long live the great Stalin!” 1931 • "Praised be the Great Stalin!" 1950 Russia

30. ITALY

31. Ideology • Italian Risorgemento of 1861 • Created notion of woman as “Mother of the Hearth” • Mussolini attempted to subjugate everything to state • Like Communism • Had nostalgia for family that never existed • Communism wanted to make whole new family configuration Italy

32. Family • Women and family have only one purpose • Battle of the Births • Nation’s virility measured by number of babies • Create large number of people for cheap labor • Imperialist expansion Italy

33. Women • "Women must obey...my idea of her role in the state is in opposition to all feminism. Naturally she shouldn't be a slave, but if I conceded her the vote, I'd be laughed at. In our state, she must not count.“-----Benito Mussolini • All women were “married” to Mussolini • Had them send him their wedding rings • Melted them down to have gold for international market Italy

34. Family Structure • Mussolini needed population increase • Women moving to city more likely to start controlling birth of children • Wanted to keep women in country • Returned to Roman model • Men owned wives/kids • Husbands could use police to track down run-away wives • Men could do anything with adulterous wife/sister/mother Italy

35. Family Legislation • Reversed all laws giving women rights • Bachelor's tax • Laws of Public Safety • Abortions/birth control=crimes against state • Took prostitutes off street • Granted family allowances • Based on number of children • Birth and marriage loans • Career preference to fathers of large families Italy

36. Propaganda toward Women • Put out in school and on the streets • Women expected to be good wives and mothers • Domesticity, maternity, and self-sacrifice • Medals to women with many children • 17-20 children brought gold medal • Made winners national heroes • Sent out across Italy on promotional tours • Pictures put in magazines and newspapers Italy

37. Work Legislation • Italy did not need women to work • Not very industrialized • Women legally paid 2/3 less than men • Only allowed to work in jobs considered strictly for women • Telephone operators and secretaries • NOT teachers • 10% limit on female employment in offices • Most restrictions ended during WWII Italy

38. Women’s Daily Life • Upper class women had few freedoms • Main function was to have/raise children • Active in “Fascist Women” • Middle class women enjoyed more freedom • Worked • Lower class women enjoyed most freedom • Little time for leisure • Usually bore more children than others Italy

39. June, 1936

40. Children • Realized family was most influential part of child’s life • If regime could get adults to believe, then children would, too • Conformity • To create 'Fascist religion' regime put together elaborate shows of national pride • Young children most prone to these Italy

41. Children • "The Government demands that the school be inspired by the ideals of fascism...it demands that the school at all levels and in all its instruction train Italian youth to understand fascism, to ennoble itself through fascism, and to live in the historic climate created by the Fascist revolution.“ ---Benito Mussolini Italy

42. Children’s Education • Goals: • To suppress intellectual independence • To teach ideology of Fascist state • To select and promote elite • Textbooks taught woman's place in home • Duty was to procreate for good of state • Teachers tried to deter girls from getting higher education Italy

43. Children’s Organizations • To create “Fascists without spot... Fascist soldiers who would be conservators of national values and to secure military garrison of the new Italy." • Boys’ to produce good citizens/soldiers • Uniforms • Mysterious rituals for sense of belonging • Girls' to produce good citizens/mothers Italy

44. Children’s Organizations • Figli della Lupa (four-and five-year-olds) to the Fascisti Universitari • Membership “voluntary” • Assured preferential treatment in military service and careers • Pressured families and children • Northern cities had 70% joining • Higher than other areas of Italy Italy

45. Children's school notebooks, 1935 • Children were required to use these notebooks with colored Fascist cartoons and quotations from Mussolini on the front and back

46. 1934 • 1938

47. GERMANY

48. Blood Heritage • You carry in your blood the holy inheritance of your fathers and forefathers. You do not know those who have vanished in endless ranks into the darkness of the past. But they all live in you and walk in your blood upon the earth that consumed them in battle and toil and in which their bodies have long decayed. Your blood is therefore something holy. In it your parents gave you not only a body, but your nature. To deny your blood is to deny yourself. No one can change it. But each decides to grow the good that one has inherited and suppress the bad. Each is also given will and courage. You do not have only the right, but also the duty to pass your blood on to your children, for you are a member of the chain of generations that reaches from the past into eternity, and this link of the chain that you represent must do its part so that the chain is never broken. But if your blood has traits that will make your children unhappy and burdens to the state, then you have the heroic duty to be the last. • Faith and Action, 1938 Germany

49. January, 1938, Commemorating Nazi seizure of power January 30, 1933 Germany

50. Ideology • “Marriage … cannot be an end in itself, rather it must have the larger goal of increasing and maintaining the species and the race. That only is its meaning and its task.” • Mein Kampf Germany