The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1931-11-06
BY JULIA BLANSHARD,
STAFF Writer for NEA Service and
Irhe TSn,na


The Times.
copyright. 1891. NEA Service. Incl
IF you were a woman living in
Il Russia
You would have equal rights"
with men - whether you wanted
them or not.
You would be expected to work
and support yourself and be Of as
much use in building the new Soviet
state as any man. There is abso-
lutely no sex discrimination. You
could enter any profession and rise
to position of authority, If you
made good.
You would find no barriers or
prejudices against your doing the
heaviest or the most disagreeable
kind of manual labor.
II never had much use for women
workers until I came to Russia" is
the tribute paid them by Colonel
Hugh Cooper. eminent American
engineer building Dneiprostroi, the
largest dam in the world.
Il never even had a woman stem
ographer at home. When I came on
this job found I had to consult
women engineers, hire women labor
erS. And do you know they are
more conscientious and better than
men!"
Standing on the top Of this dam
l looked down hundreds of feet to
the temporary road and saw women,
with great felt boots on their feet
tramping down the new cement.
I'VE always put one woman at
least on every shift" the official
told me. "They raise the morale"
IN the Youth Day parade saw
l. two women sailors, obviously
regular "gobs," marching with men
sailors.
Russia has two women generals
in the Red army.
Two-thirds of all the medical stu
dents in Russia are women.
Women lawyers are legion, women
architects work side by side with
men on all the new buildings.
Travelling in the south of Russia,
one night we got off while the train
refueled. A woman engineer stepped
out Of the locomotives cab. A wom-
an dressed in clumsy felt boots and
mans coat, big hose in hand,
climbed up and refilled the water
tanks.
The next day we saw women lay
ing a railroad track.
THE huge Park of Culture and
l. Rest" in Moscow is run by
young, attractive Russian girl, Betty
Clan.
Krupskaya, Lenins widow, is the
tirelesS foe of illiteracy. Through
her efforts Russia is organized with
the slogan, 1--WE will teach every
body to read and write by 1881"
No woman holds a position OF
supreme Importance in the Com
munist party, for no woman belongs
to the Supreme Economic Council.
But many a local Soviet has wom-
an head.
The young Komsomol girls are
new women of Russia. They are
switched to various jobs, for their
enthusiasm for the Five-Year Plan
is worth much to their government.
Each individual in Russia, man
or woman, stands on his own merits
as person. Wives of prominent
Communists get no reflected glory.
A RECENT book on Stain de-
L n Scribed him as an oriental who
kept his beautiful young wife in the
virtual confines of harem.
I asked the press department for
an interview with her. The under
secretary looked perplexed
MRS. Stalen?" he queried. why
an interview with Mrs. StaIn?"
I explained our inordinate inter-
est In all our Mrs. Hoovers, our
Mrs Coolidges.
"But Mrs. Stain is private citi-
zen,' he answered. 1.-THE govern
ment can make no appointments
for private citizens. Why don't you
just phone her if you want to see
her. There is a phone in her
name"
did. She was in the Crimea
with him on vacation. But I found
that Nadya Aluluieva, which is her
name, leaves the Kremlin every
morning, takes the crowded street
car just like any other Moscow
woman, and goes to an institute
where she is studying to be chem
ical engineer, to work in the fac
tories that manufacture artificial
silk.
Stains wife was born in 1902, has
been married to Stain eleven years,
has one girl and one boy by him.
and herself is only six years younger
than Yaskov, Stains son by his
first wife.
THERE are no weak women" in
Il Russia, seemingly. When any
one arrived or left our apartment,
which was on the fourth floor
walk up-it was Sascha, our slender
little maid, who insisted on carrying
all the luggage.
On a cooperative farm I passed
a huge concrete building that was
being constructed entirely by women
laborers. They were putting up the
walls, laying floors, putting in win
dows, doing the plumbing.
Their men folks were out in the
fields doing farm work with the
new modern machinery the CO.
operative had bought from abroad.
In Moscow when new concrete
streets are laid, it is women who
do the heaviest work. You see
women bricklayers working high on
the fourth or fifth stories Of new
buildings.
In athletic contests the equality
of women also is shown. At the
Park Of Culture and Rest" I saw
a group OF German sailors playing
ual1ax, tYoTf NTH a f1asY4 If T51fc~gon