Sophia
Chernosvitov, the daughter of a lawyer, was born in Tulu, Russia
in 1872. She joined the Social Democratic Labour
Party in 1898 and took part in the 1905
Revolution.
Sophia
married P. V. Lunacharskii but after his early death she married Peter
Smidovich, a leading Bolshevik in
Moscow.
Smidovich
was arrested several times and in 1910 was exiled to Siberia
until being released as a result of the political amnesty that followed
the February Revolution and played an
active role in the October Revolution.
A staunch
feminist, Smidovich joined with Alexandra
Kollontai and Inessa Armand to form
the Central Commission for Agitation and Propaganda Among Working
Women (Zhenotdel).
Alexandra
Kollontai became increasing critical of the Bolsheviks
and joined with her friend, Alexander
Shlyapnikov
(Commissar for Labour) in
advocating the control of industry by trade unionists rather than
party officials. In
1921 Kollantai published a pamphlet The Workers'
Opposition, where she called for the trade
unionists to be given more political freedom.
As a result
of this attack Kollontai she was abroad as a diplomat Joseph
Stalin appointed Smidovich as head of Zhenotdel.
However, Stalin disbanded the organization in 1930.
Available
from Amazon Books (order below)
