During the Russian Empire, abortion was a crime. Criminal punishment was envisaged both for the person who performed the abortion and for the pregnant woman herself. After the coup organized by the Bolsheviks in the fall of 1917, later called the “Great October Socialist Revolution”, the country rapidly got on the new Bolshevik rails. Following the October Revolution, as the Bolsheviks cast aside the remnants of the “old world”, the attitudes towards family, sex, and gender that were associated with the “bourgeoisie” received increased attention and became the subject of critical examination.

First, the 1919 Family Law weakened the institution of marriage and crippled the structure and function of the family. Notably, it introduced groundbreaking concepts such as no-fault divorce and civil marriage recognition, revolutionizing the dissolution of marriages and challenging the traditional religious significance of matrimony. Additionally, the law fervently advocated for gender equality, empowering women with equal rights within the marital bond and reshaping familial dynamics by defying societal norms and hierarchies. Second, sexual permissiveness was propagated, as evidenced by the Bolshevik posters of the 1920s (Figure 1)[2] – “Every Komsomol (male) can and must satisfy his sexual aspirations”, “Each Komsomol (female) is obliged to meet him halfway, otherwise she is a petty bourgeois”. Then, against the backdrop of an ideological struggle against “bourgeois remnants” the People’s Commissariats of Health and Justice jointly adopted resolutions “On the artificial termination of pregnancy”, making the Soviet Union the first country in which a woman could legally have an abortion[3].

In the first few years after decriminalization the number of abortions skyrocketed. As contraceptives were not readily available the only known birth control method was abortion. In response, the All-Union Congress on the Protection of Motherhood and Infancy resolution was passed in 1923, noting the central role of enlightenment and education of women on contraception as tools to curb the increase in the number of abortions. But even this measure did not mitigate the rapidly increased number of abortions. With birth rates rapidly plummeting, and population growth representing the future and workforce of the nation the Soviet state gradually tightened the abortion law.[5]

Since the decrees were passed so that women would give birth to more children, all work on the development of contraception and its promotion among women was curtailed in the country. Doctors were no longer required to provide guidance and advice on contraception use. As expected, immediately after the introduction of the ban and cease of contraception development, the number of abortions decreased, while births increased. But the effect of the ban was short-lived. With the second and third five-year plans rolling out, labor mobilization intensified, and as a result, women were required to work, give birth and bear the responsibility of managing the entire household in the conditions of communal apartments. Consequently, the desire to restrict the size of the family proved to be more compelling than the state’s pronatalist efforts. In addition, the structure of abortions began to change for the worse: the proportion of incomplete abortions began to grow, the death rate from abortion and its consequences increased, and the number of infanticides surged.[15]

By the mid-1950s, the Soviet authorities began to understand that it was impossible to increase the birth rate by administrative and repressive methods. This situation led to the statement of the Minister of Health, Maria Kovrigina, that “a woman should not be turned into a being that just keeps giving birth”, “a woman should have the right to decide for herself.”[19] After Stalin's death in 1953, state abortion policy began to gradually soften. And finally, on November 23, 1955, abortion was once again legalized in the country. As the state endorsed contraception at the same time as legalizing abortion, Soviet women gained greater control over their fertility. But then the government unfolded its anti-abortion campaign once again. Pronatalism was reaffirmed by describing abortion as a “serious evil” that could destroy a woman’s health, deprive her of the “happiness of motherhood” and negatively impact “family relations”.[20] The ideology of parental needs of Soviet citizens and conscious motherhood was promoted, the latter was interpreted not only as the civil duty of a Soviet woman, but also as the main condition for her personal realization, therefore undermining her empowerment.

Although the Bolshevik Party had drafted the most progressive legislation in the world, the reproductive function of women always remained the focus of the Soviet population.[21] The freedoms and rights of the “new Soviet women”, granted in the 1920s took a turn back to the “old Soviet woman” – being restricted to the factories, family and economy. Gender played an important part in the pronatalist strategy of the Soviet state. On the one hand, women were important productive resources both quantitatively boosting the numbers of the labor force, and qualitatively by virtue of their place within the labor hierarchy.[22] On the other hand, women were also expected to ensure the biological reproduction of the nation as a whole and in particular the long-term reproduction of the labor force.[23]  Ultimately, the juxtaposition of progressive legislation with the persistent focus on women's reproductive function reveals the intricate paradox of the Soviet Union's gender policies, wherein the dichotomy between women as economic assets and as bearers of the next generation underscores the complex interplay between societal aspirations and individual agency.