Page:The Marriage Laws of Soviet Russia (1921).pdf/9

 recognition of the social obligation for the care of children, the re-establishment of the family on the basis of descent, and the removal of the cruel discriminations against so-called "illegitimate" children. These provisions, to be sure, are not all essentially socialistic. Certain reforms in these directions have been accomplished in the bourgeois states of the west. But in Russia it was left to the proletariat to accomplish many revolutionary changes which the bourgeoisie had failed to accomplish. The western reader, who is at least familiar with, if not altogether habituated to, such ideas as the separation of Church and State, equality of the sexes, and the recognition of the rights of "illegitimate" children, must be constantly reminded of the heavy burden laid upon the Russian proletariat by the economic and social backwardness of the country at the moment of the revolution. The full significance of such an achievement as this code can only be realized in the light of these special difficulties involved in the proletarian struggle in Russia. The Russian workers had not only to destroy capitalism; they had also to attack the remnants of feudalism which the Russian bourgeoisie had been too inert and too timid to disturb. Their success in this double task is the measure of their creative strength and ability.

Only time and experience will show how many of the provisions of this code belong to the transitional category, features which are destined to vanish with the more perfect establishment of the socialist order. In certain clauses, however, there is clearly to be discerned a conscious recognition of conditions and habits of life surviving from the