New Opportunities, Old Patterns: Gender, Violence, and Divorce in the Russian Revolution

In late 1917, only weeks after the Bolsheviks’ October Revolution, Russia’s new leaders issued a regulation permitting divorce.  For the first time, ordinary Russian citizens could obtain a divorce for any reason.  The divorce regulation represented a major change from the restrictions of Russian Orthodox Church practice, where divorce was permissible only in extreme circumstances.  This decree then, like many of the Bolsheviks’ early reforms, suggested the potential promised by the Bolsheviks to eliminate exploitation and promote equality.  Women in particular rushed to take advantage of the new regulation and divorce rates skyrocketed in 1918.  In the context of the war, with so many displaced people, divorce became an important way to legalize reality.  After the initial euphoria, however, the changes to family policy seemed more threatening to traditional family and gender norms, often with severe consequences.  Fear of divorce and threats of divorce contributed to shaping the nature of the early Soviet family as much as the embrace of divorce, as old social norms competed with new ones in this period of upheaval and uncertainty.  This paper provides a close investigation of divorce and its consequences in the revolutionary period, arguing that the Bolsheviks’ social reforms undermined traditional gender norms, creating unintended and violent reactions, usually against women.  Although focused on the Russian context, it contributes to broader discussions about gender relations and family policies in revolutionary situations.