Rabotnitsa

(The Woman Worker), a monthly sociopolitical, literary, and artistic magazine for women, published by the Pravda publishing house in Moscow; it was founded on the initiative of V. I. Lenin. The first issue appeared on Feb. 23 (Mar. 8), 1914, in St. Petersburg; its circulation was 12,000.

Rabotnitsa was the first Bolshevik mass legal magazine to defend the interests of the women’s labor movement. Founders of the magazine and members of its editorial staff included A. I. Ul’ianova-Elizarova, N. K. Krupskaia, I. F. Armand, A. V. Ar-tiukhina, V. M. Velichkina, F. I. Drabkina, A. M. Kollontai, P. F. Kudelli, Z. I. Lilina, L. R. Menzhinskaia, K. I. Nikolaeva, E. F. Rozmirovich, K. N. Samoilova, and L. N. Stal’. Seven issues were published in 1914, of which three were confiscated by the police. On June 26 (July 9) publication ceased because of police persecution.

Rabotnitsa resumed publication on May 10 (23), 1917, as a weekly magazine of the Central Committee of the RSDLP(B). From this date to Jan. 26 (Feb. 8), 1918, 13 issues were published, with a circulation ranging from 30,000 to 43,000 copies. The fifth issue contained Lenin’s article “Is There a Way to a Just Peace?” and the seventh issue contained his “Three Crises.” The magazine helped enlighten women workers politically and unite them under the party’s banner; it also propagandized Leninist ideas on socialist revolution. After the October 1917 Revolution, Rabotnitsa helped convoke a citywide Petrograd conference and helped prepare for the First All-Russian Congress of Women Workers (1918). The difficulties of the Civil War of 1918–20 caused publication to become temporarily suspended; the magazine resumed publication in Moscow in January 1923.

Rabotnitsa aids in the ideological and political education of Soviet women, encouraging them to take part in state and public life and in the building of communism. The magazine advocates proletarian internationalism and international labor solidarity as aids in overcoming imperialism and propagandizes social justice, the emancipation of women, and worldwide peace. Rabotnitsa has been awarded the Order of Lenin (1964) and the Order of the Red Banner of Labor (1933). Circulation, 12.6 million (1974).