Response#7: Stalinist Family Values by Hoffman and Everyday Stalinism (chapter 6) by Fitzpatrick

Part 1: Hoffman’s chapter, Stalinist Family Values, focuses on the issue of state control over the family in an attempt to pursue Stalinist pro-natalism. Mainstream Bolshevik belief was against Kollantai’s withering of the family preferring to divert sexual energies into building socialism. With the incoming threat of a second world war, the state pushed for a pronatalist stance by promoting the family and motherhood. Of course in Soviet Russia reality never quite met up with expectations. Fitzpatrick’s chapter, Absconding Husbands, demonstrates how Soviet women, supported by propaganda, had to fight to get the state to chase down their absent husbands.

Part 2: The rapid turnabout for Kollantai’s sexual revolution was by no means a surprise. Western democratic revolutions in the name of egalitarianism in the past have often released women equality movements for a short, evanescent period of time before the inevitable hand of conservatism comes to slap it down. Sexual revolutions backfire for three main reasons: sexually transmitted diseases, male promiscuity, and pregnant females.

Sexually transmitted diseases have bothered humanity for as long as time immemorial. Nasty diseases such as syphilis and gonorrhea leave particularly terrible symptoms. The advent of antibiotics would change such issues and lead to another sexual revolution in the postwar era. However, that would again come under attack with the outbreak and spread of HIV and AIDS, viral diseases unaffected by antibiotics. But the 1930s Stalinism era was before antibiotics. Thus, the spread of venereal diseases became an issue for Soviet medical professionals. Especially since these diseases would lower the health of their precious workers and in turn reduce production.

Male promiscuity is always present, as men do not suffer from the negative effects of sexual encounters as much as women do. In addition, females run the risk of pregnancy while the males do not. Therefore, releasing a sexual revolution with the desire of breaking marriage in favor of forming loving relationships led men to believe in “free sex.” Multiple partners and harems galore! Unfortunately, as demonstrated by Fitzpatrick, the men were not as keen on keeping any promises of marriage or child support. Not a surprise at all considering a long history of absent husbands in marriages.

Pregnant females are not an issue to a pronatalist. The more births the better. However, the care of the child and its development is more important. There is a reason why developed countries have an even age population distribution in comparison to developing countries where the youth outnumber the elderly by huge margins. More “societal funding” can be placed per child if there is parental support. Without a parent or with a struggling single mother the child is tossed around like a hot potato to different orphanages or caretakers. The poor funding of the Soviet Union’s programs was highlighted even further during this failure of a pronatalist policy.

As usual we see that the ideals do not match up to reality. The sexual revolution was overturned by a pronatalist stance. That in turn was defeated by a failure in funding. The result: no one satisfied and the standard family remains.