In tsarist Russia, the economic and political situation of the female worker was difficult and humiliating. She was subjected to severe exploitation and received 1.5-2 times less for equal work than a man. The participation of women in industrial production1 involved them in the labor movement, awakened their class consciousness. Since April 1912, after the Lena events, the working-class movement in Russia, as is well known, has again assumed a mass character and an offensive character. By the beginning of 1913, workers and women workers who had not previously taken part in strikes were being drawn into the strike struggle. The women's proletarian movement was most noticeable at that time in the textile, chemical, clothing and footwear industries, in the bath and laundry establishments of St. Petersburg, Moscow and Ivanovo-Voznesensk; and occasionally - in various places in the Vladimir and Kostroma provinces, the Volga region, the Kingdom of Poland and the Baltic States .2 On March 31, 1913, Pravda noted: "The modern rise of the working-class movement is distinguished, among other things, by the marked and independent participation of women workers in the movement. We saw strikes in the weaving industry, where women were the skirmishers of the struggle. If earlier women often disrupted strikes initiated by men, then over the past 2-3 months there have been cases of almost the opposite nature." Bolshevik organizations intensified political and educational work among female workers. The St. Petersburg Committee (PC) of the RSDLP sent to textile, tobacco, and clothing factories and workshops experienced Bolsheviks K. N. Samoilova, P. F. Kudelli, F. I. Drabkina, and E. F. Rozmirovich, as well as advanced students of Bestuzhev higher women's courses, Lesgaft courses, teachers and managers of physical education, and the Medical Institute .3 As the women's movement continued to grow throughout 1913, on December 29, 1913, a meeting of representatives of the party organizat ... Read more