The countries in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union have in common that they all underwent extensive social changes in the 20th century and became ‘socialist states’. The regimes were based on Marxist ideology and established ‘people's democracies’, with the Communist Party in a dominant role and state control of the economy. With the exception of Yugoslavia and later Albania, all the countries in Eastern Europe became members of the Warsaw Pact and part of the Eastern Bloc.

In 1990/91, the communist regimes collapsed, and the world region went through some of the biggest political and economic upheavals since World War II. The Eastern Bloc was dissolved. The Soviet Union, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia were split up and the number of states tripled.

Liberation becomes oppression

Promising socialism

In 1917, a quite extraordinary thing happened: a social upheaval had as an explicit goal to liberate women. After the Tsar was overthrown in Russia, a socialist republic was established based on the writings of Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels and Vladimir Lenin. Socialism was supposed to liberate the people from the yoke of capitalism. The working people should rule, and a revolutionary transformation of society would abolish the oppression of class society, including men's oppression of women. Women should be liberated and become financially independent.

Russian rule was autocratic. The population consisted of different ethnic groups and the Russian Orthodox Church had a strong position. In the 1800s, the country was economically underdeveloped and poor. Most people ran farms in the traditional way. The population grew rapidly, and the soil was a sought-after resource. Around 1900, large-scale industrialisation was launched, and people flocked to the cities. But the Tsar was unable to introduce democratic reforms like other European countries did. The miserable conditions led workers to protest and go on strike, which culminated in the revolution of 1905. In the election of the first parliament, special groups of men got the right to vote.

In the cities, many women played an active role, were engaged in politics and academic life, created their own organisations, and fought for the right to vote. Engels and August Bebel encouraged the formation of an independent socialist women's movement, and central feminists such as Clara Zetkin in Germany and Emmeline Pankhurst in England were socialists. It was a demonstration of female textile workers that triggered off the February Revolution in 1917.