RUSSIA, EX-SOVIET REPUBLICS CELEBRATE WOMEN’S DAY
RIA Novosti, Russia
March 8 2006
MOSCOW, March 8 (RIA Novosti) – Russia and other former Soviet
republics along with several other countries around the world are
currently celebrating March 8, International Women’s Day, on which
men show their appreciation to women by giving them flowers and gifts.
March 8 became an official celebration in Russia soon after the
Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, and remains popular in former Soviet
republics and Eastern bloc countries.
After the fall of communism in Eastern Europe and the breakup of the
USSR, several governments ceased to officially observe the holiday,
but Women’s Day retains wide popularity in many of these countries.
Estonia, a former Soviet republic which joined the European Union
in 2004, ceased to officially observe the holiday after gaining
its independence in 1991, due to its negative associations with
communism. However, many Estonian men continue to indulge women on
March 8.
Armenia cancelled International Women’s Day for similar reasons after
gaining independence, creating a new public holiday on April 7, Day of
Motherhood and Beauty. However, March 8 is still unofficially marked.
March 8 is still a public holiday in Azerbaijan. After the country
gained independence, the authorities had considered scrapping the
holiday, but President Heydar Aliyev, father of current President
Ilham Aliyev, opted to retain it when he came to power in 1993. There
has been recent pressure from clerics in the predominantly Muslim
state to celebrate women on a religious day instead, for example,
the birthday of Prophet Mohammed’s daughter Fatima. However, these
proposals have not met with wide popular support.
In the Central Asian republic of Turkmenistan, all women receive gifts
purportedly from their authoritarian President Saparmurat Niyazov,
known as Turkmenbashi, on March 8.
International Women’s Day, based on National Women’s Day in the U.S.,
was first proposed in 1910 by Clara Zetkin, an influential socialist
German politician and a fighter for women’s rights. Zetkin intended
it as a call to women around the world to battle for equal rights.
International Women’s Day in the USSR was initially intended to
celebrate the achievements of women workers, and would include state
ceremonies declaring the government’s achievements in improving the
status of women.
The celebrations have largely lost their feminist and political
overtones, and in present-day Russia and its neighbors, the focus is
on traditional chivalrous acts, including taking ladies out to dinner
or doing the housework.
On Moscow’s subway system, congratulatory messages to women will be
broadcast throughout the day on the Metro’s public address system. In
the Urals city of Perm, thousands of couples will gather in an attempt
to break the world kissing record.