Establishment of prostitution fighting boards early in the 1920s: female and male positions in center and local directives (on the basis of Ural materials)

Abstract

The article gives a characteristic of the year 1923 as a special transient stage in fighting
prostitution from the actions based on revolutionary consciousness to the actions based on
revolutionary legal consciousness after introducing in 1922 the norms of responsibility for
keeping disorderly houses, women recruitment and procuration by the Criminal Code of the
RSFSR; it shows the establishment of boards on fighting prostitution under the offices of public
health with participation of the representatives of professional unions and police instead of
joint committees on fighting prostitution in different Ural regions (Perm, Ekaterinburg and
Chelyabinsk governments). It is stated that Perm board on fighting prostitutions was established
practically three weeks earlier (February 10, 1923) than the Petrograd one which started its
work on March 1, 1923. On the basis of comparison of central and local directives provisions
on the example of Perm prostitution fighting board work there are discovered differences in
male and female understandings of the question of prostitution preventive measures and women
prostitution prevention at the beginning of the reconstruction period. In the end of the article
the author makes a conclusion that the established structure covered just the governorate level,
there was a tendency to make prostitution as the only aspect of women activity, there was a
keen struggle for the working places between men and women, determined by the competition
in the conditions of high unemployment level in the labour market