Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1917-05-13
WOMEN IN RUSSIA
GET VOTE QUICKLY
Individual Members of New
Government Give Their
Views on Suffrage.
LEADERS IN MANY WAYS

Correspondence Of The Associated Press)
Petrograd, April 26,-Woman's
suffrage has come quickly and unos-
tentatiously to Russia. The pro-
visional government has not yet Of
fcially announced its full views on the
subject, but individual ministers have
stated that it is decided that women
will vote at both the municipal and
rural councils elections, and also in
the elections for the central constitu-
tional assembly.
Universal suffrage will be curious
and interesting experiment Ill Russia.
From the mass of peasant women
fully intelligent voting can scarcely be
expected at present, but no doubt for
them the vote will be highly stimu-
lating and educative opportunity. The
men voters do not expect that women
of this class will vote independently,
and say therefore, that their partlcl-
patton will only slightly affect the re-
suit.
The attitude OF the average peasant
to his womenfolk is still, on the
whole, contemptuous, but sometimes
a capable woman rules whole vii
lage, and it is a well known fact that
in certain religious sects the women
are the leaders.
In Petrograd there have been sew
cral womans suffrage demonstra-
tons since the, revolution, with
speeches in the city hall and process
sions with red flags. They have not
been militant, but rather educational
demonstrations, reminders to the
women themselves to be up and
doing, and a reproach to those men
who, while not seriously Directing to
woman's suffrage, wish it were not
coming SO soon.
Women in Universities.
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,
women have been directly engaged in
public work by the side of the men,
and it 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 well as men.
Women who had been nursing or
studying or writing or working in re-
lief societies or cooperative stores or
munition factories, or simply house
keeping came forward and took their
place naturally i'll the many-sided
movement Women were prominent
in the bread professions which were
reluctantly fired on by the soldiers.
Women workers and girl students
marched with the soldiers and work
men. and took revolutionary, red
tagged rides in the commandeered
automobiles.
Women Help Out.
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 Duma with the throng of SOL
diers and workmen, radiated out into
the myriad committees, distributed
food, operated typewriters and found
for themselves suitable places in the
general organization. Young women
were found frequently as speakers at
the impromptu mass meetings where
orators of the people harangued the
crowds at street corners. A woman's
organization 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 its permanent COM
mittee several women, including Nine.
Miliukoff and Countess Panin. There
were meetings specially organized by
women house servants to urge an i'm
provement in their working condi-
tons, but, as nobody knew what to
demand, nothing further happened.
There lave been continuous meetings
of women at the Women's university
and Medical college, with stormy CON
ficts between the moderates and the
radicals, and thousands of resolutions
have been passed, declaring for equal
suffrage, resumption of work, continu-
alton of the war, and support of the
provisional government.
School Girls Get the Spirit.
School girls everywhere have been
imbued with the new spirit. They
have organized, elected committees
and councils, and passed resolutions,
usually under the advice and counsel
of their teachers. The schools hum
with the voluntary study OF civcs and
economies.
Pupils in the various schools of
Petrograd proposed the formation of
a Union of Pupils, to which each
school. was to send a proportional
delegation. The principals vetoed the
enterprise, and said if the delegates
met they would resign. The dele
gates did meet, the organization was
formed, and the principals did not re-
sign.
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