The Soviet Story Behind International Women's Day

From its earliest days, the Soviet Union recognized the power of women—not as a symbolic gesture, but as a necessity. Women weren’t just part of the revolution; they were the ones who sparked it.

On March 8, 1917 (February 23 on the Julian calendar), female textile workers in Petrograd went on strike, demanding “bread and peace.” With food shortages worsening and World War I dragging on, their calls for change spread quickly. Factory after factory joined in, and within days, the protests became an uprising.

Tsar Nicholas II, who had survived the failed revolution of 1905, could not hold on this time. He ordered soldiers to suppress the protests, but many refused and instead marched alongside the strikers. Less than a week later, he abdicated. His brother declined the throne, and over three centuries of Romanov rule ended.

After the revolution, the new Soviet government moved quickly to codify women’s rights. The 1918 Constitution of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR) granted women full legal equality.

That same year, the First All-Russian Congress of Women Workers and Peasants established committees to improve women’s education, employment, and childcare. These later became formal “women’s departments” within the Communist Party, giving women direct representation in policy decisions. The state built nurseries, expanded literacy programs, and encouraged women to take on roles in male-dominated industries.

The Soviet Union institutionalized International Women’s Day as an official holiday, tying it to the revolutionary struggle. In 1921, during the Third Communist International, March 8 was formally declared International Working Women’s Day, commemorating the role of women in the February Revolution.

The USSR promoted the holiday not just domestically but internationally, using it as a symbol of socialism’s commitment to gender equality. Other communist countries followed—China recognized the holiday in 1949, granting women a half-day off work, while in Central Asia, the Soviet-backed Hujum movement worked to eliminate gender oppression, including forced veiling.

By the mid-20th century, International Women’s Day was deeply embedded in Soviet culture. In 1965, the Supreme Soviet officially made March 8 a non-working public holiday, honoring women’s contributions to Soviet industry, wartime defense, and international peace efforts. Unlike in the West, where women’s rights movements often had to fight for recognition, the USSR positioned gender equality as a core part of its ideology.

Despite its revolutionary roots, International Women’s Day eventually expanded beyond socialist states. In 1975, the United Nations adopted it as a global observance, though it distanced the holiday from its Soviet origins, encouraging member states to celebrate it “on any day of the year, in accordance with national traditions.”

Today, over 100 countries recognize March 8, but in many former Soviet states, it remains a national holiday—a lasting legacy of the revolution that began with women demanding bread and peace.