In the early years of Soviet Russia and the Soviet Union, the so-called "co-wife system" was often accused by the West of having a so-called "co-wife system" within it.
Whether or not the Soviet Union went against the trend of human progress and promoted the so-called "co-wifery" is a major question that lingers in the hearts of people all over the world.
So, did Soviet "co-wifery" ever exist?
Why did the West regard it as a lever and publicize it for so many years?
The "Co-wife Order" incident
In June 1918, a trial at the Moscow Myasnitsky Street Exchange attracted the attention of the people of all Soviet Russia.
The defendant in the trial, named Khvatov, is the owner of a local cloth shop in Moscow, and he is accused of fabricating the "** Girls' Commons Decree" and posting, publicizing and even putting the content of the "Decree" into practice throughout the country.
The "Act" consists mainly of 19 ordinances, the main content of which, as its name suggests, is aimed at promoting the so-called "public ownership of women".
It begins by declaring:The beauty has become a caged bird of the bourgeoisie, and this situation has caused major disruptions to the normal existence of humanity around the world.
Later, the "Decree" set out a series of shocking regulations that broke through the bottom line of human morality, such as "all people aged 17-39 in the country are the property of all working people", "male citizens have the right to 'enjoy' women", "if a woman's former husband refuses to comply with the law, he will be deprived of the right to 'enjoy' the provisions".
According to this "decree", all eligible female citizens in the Soviet Union will become "public property", while male citizens only need to join the so-called "working family" and obtain the qualification certificate of the local trade union or factory committee, and can "enjoy" women's rights four times a week.
The Decree also states that every man who joins a "working family" must give 10 per cent of his income to the administration to pay subsidies to women to help them raise their offspring.
In the case of a married woman, she must also be separated from her original freedom, but the former spouse has priority in "enjoying" the rights of the woman.
If the married couple refuses to do so, the man loses this priority.
On February 28, 1918, the "Decree" was promulgated by Khvatov in the name of the People's Commissariat of the Saratov Province of Soviet Russia, and was announced to be supervised by the "League of Russians".
Because the "decree" was branded with the words "People's Committee" and "People's League", its authenticity was difficult to distinguish between true and false for a while, and it quickly caused an uproar in the Soviet Union.
But in fact, the "Russian League" is nothing more than a gray organization active in the civil society.
It was founded in 1905 and is composed mainly of a group of pro-chauvinistic, anti-Semitic, anti-parliamentary no-** activists.
In early March, a group of angry citizens of the Saratov province broke into the headquarters of the local non-** activists.
The populace cursed the no-** activists as "scoundrels" and "hooligans", and they broke through the closed door of the headquarters and smashed everything in the building.
The frightened no-** activists could only hug their heads and evacuate through the back door.
However, the farce of the absurd "co-wife order" is far from over, because Khvatov and others have already begun to put "co-wifery" into practice.
Before being hunted down by the authorities, Khvatov had already bought a house in the Moscow village of Sokolniki, which he called the "House of Love".
Members of the family commune can live in the "Members' Love Palace" after paying their membership dues, and every 10 of them live in a house with a two-person compartment between the two rooms.
With the consent of the other members, a man and a woman can live in a cubicle.
After the news of Khvatov's "love palace" spread, a large number of young people led their girlfriends to join the commune, and some women were forcibly sent in.
For a time, the farce of the "co-wife order" caused a huge sensation in Moscow and even the entire Soviet Russia, or it caused infamy from all walks of life.
At the same time, the social chaos created by Khvatov and others also attracted the attention of ** and **, and Khvatov was immediately sent to court on suspicion of forging the "decree".
Aftermath of the farce
The "co-marriage" incident is unheard of in the history of jurisprudence, and in order to thoroughly understand this incident, Soviet Russia quickly sent an investigation team to intervene in the trial.
The investigation revealed that Khvatov fabricated "co-gamy" for the sole purpose of obtaining ill-gotten gains.
All the dues paid by the members of the family community "went into the pockets of Khvatov and others.
Khvatov was sentenced to 5 years in prison and confiscated all illegal property at the first trial.
Surprisingly, Khvatov's absurd behavior attracted the support of a small number of defenders, and his five-year sentence was commuted.
When the judge announced the verdict, a large group of women rushed into the scene in anger, shouting together: "Tyrant! Lose your conscience! ”
After the earth-shattering shouts, the women threw rotten eggs and rotten leaves at the judge, the defender, and Khvatov.
Seeing that the scene was out of control, the bailiff directly transferred an armored car.
Heavily armed soldiers surrounded the entire venue, and the women died down.
After the situation in the court calmed down, the court members made a final decision consultation.
After nearly three hours of argument, the court acquitted Khvatov.
But he was not freed, and Khvatov, who had long been regarded as the "devil" by countless Soviet Russians, was assassinated the day after his release and died tragically in his cloth shop.
Unfortunately, Khvatov's death did not put an end to the "co-wifery" incident.
Although the "co-wifery" was fabricated by Khvadov and other non-Japanese people, the influence of this absurd decree was far from dissipating, but spread like lightning throughout Soviet Russia, and brought extremely tragic consequences to the Russian people.
In 1918, the severe food shortage in Soviet Russia caused social unrest, and large-scale riots broke out in many cities.
The spread of the "co-wife order" has intensified, and it has been regarded as a formal decree by many ignorant places, and has even been put into more absurd and terrifying practices.
In Yekaterinaburg, in particular, the terrible act of "publicizing women" has simply developed to the point of "reaching the top".
Locally, anyone who is a member of a Bolshevik organization can apply to the revolutionary organs for a "permit for the public ownership of women".
Porosden, the Bolshevik commissar of the Bolsheviks in Yekaterinaburg, issued a "permit" to his assistant Kamashev.
Kamashev then selected 10 young girls, and those who were selected could not resist in the slightest.
Not only that, but the city's soldiers also "publicized" more than 60 girls.
Most of them are young students from the bourgeoisie, all of whom are beautiful and noble.
But because of Khvadov's false edicts, these young and innocent girls have become tools for men to satisfy their desires.
What's even more terrifying is that many girls were directly arrested on the street and suffered tragically, many of whom were sent to the internal affairs department.
The fate of these girls was generally miserable, and they were either tortured to death or their whereabouts unknown, and very few survived.
Whether it is "co-marriage" or "public ownership of women", although they are only fabricated by a few people with ulterior motives, the bad effects of these rumors are real.
The turmoil left by this incident in Soviet Russia is not insignificant, and even affects the marriage relationship of Soviet Russians.
It was not until after World War II that the marriage system in Soviet society was perfected, and the marriage relationship between men and women was valued.
Khvatov's "masterpiece" and practice have not only been harmed at home for many years, but have become household names among the people of the whole country, and have even spread to all countries in the world, becoming a major lever for the Western world to smear and slander the Soviet Union.
So, what does the outside world think of the "co-wife order"?
Why did European and American countries grasp this non-existent "decree" and chatter for decades?
Europe and the United States regard "co-wifery" as a handle
In the summer of 1918, when the news of "co-marriage" in Soviet Russia spread to the European and American worlds, such headlines appeared one after another in the West"The Soviets have begun to marry in groups", "Bolshevik civilization is going to ruin".
Westerners, who already have ideological opposition to Soviet Russia, quickly seized on the handle of "co-marriage," which is contrary to human ethics and contrary to human civilization, and launched a series of ulterior motives against Soviet Russia.
Many countries even openly declare:"It was forbidden to form a family with the Bolsheviks. ”
An English writer named Wells once traveled thousands of miles from London to Moscow to personally ask Lenin for confirmation of the matter.
The two men engaged in a three-hour conversation as Wells tried to find out whether the so-called "co-marriage" had actually been enacted in Soviet Russia.
Lenin explained to the other side the ins and outs of the "co-wife order" and explained:"The decree rumors have nothing to do with Soviet power. ”
Subsequently, whether it was Soviet Russia or the Soviet Union, the whole society began to turn to asceticism, trying to pursue the seriousness of social norms in order to avoid falling into the center of the global storm again.
Beginning in 1930, the title pages of Soviet social newspapers and magazines were no longer able to mention any sexual topics.
In the streets and alleys of the city, it is also difficult to see men and women in scantily clad clothes and frivolous manners**.
Obviously, the Soviets tried to completely dissociate themselves from the absurd "co-marriage" through a pure-hearted society, and it turns out that they did to some extent.
The atmosphere of Soviet society was reversed, the criticism of the international community also changed, and the "co-wifery" that did not exist was gradually sealed in the dust of history and forgotten by the people.
Unfortunately, the Western world did not intend to give up this good opportunity to attack the Soviet Union.
As a result, Westerners spared no effort to declare: "The Bolsheviks are not limited to the plundering of people's assets and the loss of life, but they also want to completely destroy the moral code of mankind." ** Immoral behaviour abounded during the October Revolution, and the demise of the norms of gender relations and the institution of marriage was caused by the Bolsheviks. ”
The cunning of Westerners lies in the fact that they confuse the idealized and correct idea of public ownership with the immoral and immoral "co-wifery".
Outsiders who do not know the truth are very likely to be influenced by the West's remarks and then question the Soviet Union.
And this is exactly what Westerners want to see, so for decades after that, the Western world has always held on to the issue of "co-marriage", which is the most labor-saving way to smear and slander the Soviet Union.
Conclusion
The co-wife decree "hurt the people of Soviet Russia, but fortunately this system existed only in Khvatov's fabrication, and did not become a fact, as the Western world claims."
As for the Western world's long-term grasp of this "handle", this is fundamentally the West's slander against the Soviet Union.
Resources. Fang Liang, Unraveling the Mystery of the So-called "Co-wife System" in the Soviet Union[J] Tourism Times, 2011,000(5)::p48-49
The absurd co-wife farce in Soviet Russia. Wencui Weekend. 2012-09-20