The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-04-30
WOMAN SUFFRAGE IS PRACTICALLY
 SURE IN RUSSIA
Women Indulge in Educa. tional Rather Than Mill
 tant Demonstrations.

Petrograd, April 2S-Woman's suf- frage has come quietly and unostenta- tiously to Russia. The Provisional Government has not yet officially an- nounced it's full views on the subject. but individual ministers have stated that it is decided that women will vote at both the municipal and rural coun- ciIs elections, and also in the cleo tions for the General Constitutional Assembly. e-t
 Universal suffrage for women will be a curious and interesting experi- ment in Russia. From the mass of peasant women fully intelligent vot- ing can scarcely be expected at pres ent, but no doubt for them the vote will be a highly stimulating and edu- cative opportunity. The men voters do not expect that women of this class will vote independently. and say therefore that their participation will only slightly affect the result.
 The attitude of the average peasant to his women folk is still, on the whole, contemptuous, but sometimes a capable woman rules a whole vil- lage, and it is well known fact that in certain religious sects the women are the leaders.
 In Petrograd there have been sev- eral woman's suffrage demonstrations since the revolution, with speeches in the City Hall and processions with red flags. They have not been mili- tant, but rather educational demon strations, remainder to the women themselves to be up and doing, and a reprOach to those men who, while not seriously objecting to woman's suf- frage, wish it were not coming so soon.
 Educational facilities, to women in both the secondary and university schools were granted in Russia long before most other European coun- tries. For years past, too, women have had rather greater liberty of thought and action than men, and while there has been no very strong or organized suffrage movement, wo- men have been directly engaged in public work by the side of the men, and 1t seemed to nobody any great step from the position they thus en- joyed to the actual vote.
 When the revolution came, every one joined in, women as we'll as men. Women who had been nursing or studying or writing or working in re- lief societies or~co-operative stores or intuition factories, or simply house keeping, came forward and took their places naturally in the many-sided movement. Women were prominent in the bread processions which were reluctantly fired on by the soldiers. Women workers and girl students marched with the soldiers and work men, and took revolutionary, red Jagged rides in the communicated automobiles.
 Women leaders came to the Duma with information and advice, estab- lished connections, and helped to gather up the loose ends of the chaotic movement. Women and girls crowded into the Dunna with the throng of soldiers and workmen, radiated out into the myriad commit tees, distributed food, operated type writers, and found for themselves suitable places in the general organ ization. Young women were found frequently as speakers at the inn promptu mass meetings where orators of the people haranguad the cxewaz at street corners A woman's or ganization plastered the town with bills urging equal recognition of the sexes.
 A woman writer was placed at the head of the organization of temporary soup kitchens opened for the soldiers during the revolution week. The City Council elected to it's permanent com mittee several women, including Madame Milukoff and Countess Panin. There were meeting specially organ ized by women house servants to urge an improvement in their working conditions but, as nobody knew what to demand, nothing further happened. There have been continuous meetings