Apropos of nothing, the Soviet Union went from essentially a feudal state to the most progressive country in the world for women in a matter of less than a year. The United States has yet to amend the Constitution to enforce equality on the basis of gender.

In 1920 the USSR became the first country on Earth to legalize abortion, to which women had unrestricted access. Mothers were granted 1 year maternity leave, and comprehensive maternal and postnatal care. By 1925 infant mortality fell by 50%.

Exhaustive efforts were made to eliminate women’s dependence on marriage for financial security. Divorces could be mailed in on demand. Unemployed spouses were given 6 months assistance if seeking divorce, as well as housing if needed.

Childcare was available to all to enable women’s participation in the workforce. Equal pay was law. It was also made illegal to discriminate against pregnant women in the workplace.

Before the USSR was even formally established, an official wing of government devoted to women’s issues, the Zhenotdel, was founded in 1919. The US has no equivalent 100 years later.

“The degree of emancipation of women is universal measure of emancipation.” - Marx

How free are a handful of progressive politicians going to get you in a country that has gendered violence woven into its very DNA? That has made little to no progress since Seneca Falls?

I see little choice left but to start anew. Even though many of these policies and programs were rolled back, the fact that they happened with virtually no precedent fills me with revolutionary optimism. We are only at a dead end if you are committed to staying on the road.

Of course, the Soviet Union was still rife with all manner of bigotry. Institutionalizing equality does not immediately translate to liberation. The Soviet view that class superseded all other forms of oppression begat unique issues.

They USSR was chronically unable to reckon with the fact that abolishing class did not abolish aeons of bourgeois social attitudes. As such, women were trapped between state and society. This conundrum will lie at the heart of forging a true socialist future for all genders.

"What the October Revolution Gave to Working and Peasant Women", 1920. The woman gestures towards a library, a workers' club, a night school for adults and a maternal care center.