Women, Protest, and Revolution: Soldiers' Wives in Russia During 1917

Abstract

This study explores the role and political impact of soldiers' wives in three Volga provinces of Russia: Nizhnii Novgorod, Kazan, and Tambov between February and October 1917. Despite relatively low levels of formal organization, soldiers' wives made a significant mark on revolutionary politics at a local level. Common grievances, which centred on the inadequacy of state support in the context of rising food prices and shortages, were the defining feature of soldiers' wives as a group. Though they secured little direct representation in government, and did not affiliate with any political parties, they operated collectively to address their grievances, both in petitions and in public demonstrations. Their demands continued to escalate in 1917, and the government was unable to cushion them from Russia's profound economic crisis. Soldiers' wives rejected both Soviet and provisional government leadership as a result, and their alienation contributed to the sense of political crisis that pervaded 1917.