Page:Alexandra Kollontai - Communism and the Family (1920).djvu/3



Will the family be maintained in the Communist State? Will it be just as it is to-day? That is a question which is tormenting the women of the working class, and which is likewise receiving attention from their comrades, the men. In, recent days this problem has particularly been agitating all minds among the working women, and this should not astonish us: Life is changing under our very eyes; former habits and customs are gradually disappearing; the entire existence of the proletarian family is being organised in a manner that is so new, so unaccustomed, so "bizarre," as to have been impossible to foresee. That which makes women at the present day all the more perplexed is the fact that divorce has been rendered easier in Soviet Russia. As a matter of fact, by virtue of the decree of the People’s Commissaires of December 18th, 1917, divorce has ceased to be a luxury accessible only to the rich; henceforth the working woman will not have to petition for months, or even for years, for a