RISE AND FALL OF "WOMEN OF RUSSIA"

The strong showing of Zhirinovsky's Liberal-Democratic Party of Russia in the Duma elections of December 1993 came as a shock to many observers. But these elections brought another surprise, one with more hopeful implications for the future of Russian democracy. A new political movement called "Women of Russia" won 8.13 per cent of the vote and formed a Duma fraction of 21 deputies. In six regions they won 15-20 per cent -- i.e., about a third of the female electorate (82 per cent of their total vote coming from women). Hardly compatible with the common view that apart from a tiny Westernized minority Russian women find feminist causes irrelevant.

The story of Women of Russia is told by Yekaterina Lakhova, who was its chair. The movement was created by an alliance of women's organizations, the largest being the Union of Women of Russia, which was established in 1991 as a successor to the Committee of Soviet Women, whose resources and connections it inherited. Despite this pedigree, Women of Russia saw itself as part of the "democratic" camp, with the mission of giving the economic transformation a social orientation. It acted, in effect, as a social-democratic party. Through its presence on several Duma committees, it was able to exert some influence on legislation -- for instance, blocking privatization of the public education system.

The failure to break through the 5 per cent barrier a second time in the Duma elections of 1995 came as a big disappointment. Lakhova attributes the movement's defeat to a number of factors: Women of Russia was unjustly accused of supporting the war in Chechnya; other parties "played the women's card" by putting more women on their own lists; and activists of the broader women's movement were unwilling to commit their energies to building up a disciplined electoral machine in support of "their" politicians. In 1996 an attempt was made to turn Women of Russia into a "normal" hierarchically structured political party. But women's organizations, like environmentalist, anti-war, and other grassroots groups (and not only in Russia) tend to be too democratic in spirit to succeed in the world of "serious" politics.