The ''zhenskie sovety'' (shortened to ''zhensovety'') were women's councils set up in localities of the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

after 1958. They were described as "descendants of the

Zhenotdel The Zhenotdel (), the women's department of the Central Committee of the All-Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks), was the section of the Russian Communist party devoted to women's affairs in the 1920s. It gave women in the Russian Revolution ...

but enjoy less scope and autonomy than did their namesake". Although formally dissolved following the

collapse of the USSR The dissolution of the Soviet Union, also negatively connoted as rus, Разва́л Сове́тского Сою́за, r=Razvál Sovétskogo Soyúza, ''Ruining of the Soviet Union''. was the process of internal disintegration within the Sov ...

in 1991, the councils were influential in providing support for the

Women of Russia Women of Russia (, ''Zhenshchiny Rossii'', ZhR) was a political bloc in Russia. History The party was established in the autumn of 1993 by merger of three women's groups, the Union of Women of Russia The Union of Women of Russia (Russian: Со� ...

political bloc in Russia.

Beginnings

The organisations were part of Khrushchev's leadership of

Nikita Khrushchev Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (– 11 September 1971) was the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and chairman of the country's Council of Ministers from 1958 to 1964. During his rule, Khrushchev s ...

, and a notable example of an official

women's movement The feminist movement (also known as the women's movement, or feminism) refers to a series of social movements and political campaigns for radical and liberal reforms on women's issues created by the inequality between men and women. Such is ...

in the late Soviet era. The aim of the ''zhensovety'' was to promote social services,

Marxist–Leninist Marxism is a left-wing to far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand class relations and social conflict and a dialect ...

thinking and political education for working-class women in the USSR, to encourage women to become politically active (or, if they were housewives, more involved in the workforce and increase economic production).

Decline and revival

The ''zhensovety'' declined under the leadership of

Leonid Brezhnev Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev; uk, links= no, Леонід Ілліч Брежнєв, . (19 December 1906– 10 November 1982) was a Soviet politician who served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union between 1964 and ...

, and were revived in under Mikhail Gorbachev's policy of '' perestroika''. Councils existed in most of the

Soviet republics The Republics of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics or the Union Republics ( rus, Сою́зные Респу́блики, r=Soyúznye Respúbliki) were national-based administrative units of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics ( ...

, and they were placed under the aegis of the Soviet Women's Committee. According to A. A. Muzyriia and V. V. Kopeiko, there were about 230,000 councils with more than 2.3 million members, and varied greatly in size and scope. However, they were not welcomed by the emerging feminist movements in the USSR, who saw then as part of the state apparatus, harbouring the '' nomenklatura'' (high-ranking officials) and not fully supporting women as the subjects of political change. Genia Brownins describes the ''zhensovety'' as a top-down affair before ''perestroika'', and the council leaders tended to be male, and CPSU members. They were, however, freer from control by higher authorities than most Soviet organisations. Following the

in 1991, the leader of the SWC (later re-organised as the Women's Union of Russia (WUR)),

Alevtina Fedulova Alevtina Vasilyevna Fedulova (russian: Алевтина Васильевна Федулова, born 14 April 1940) is a Russian political activist and former leader of the Soviet Women's Committee (later the Union of Women of Russia). Early lif ...

, took a more assertive approach and encouraged women's participation in politics (which had declined during the ''perestroika'' and '' glasnost'' reforms). In October 1993, the electoral bloc ''Zhenshchiny Rossii'' (

) was formed, gaining support and strength from the ''zhensovety''.

References

{{reflist Feminism in the Soviet Union Organizations established in 1958 Bodies of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Feminist organizations in Russia Women's wings of communist parties