 "Women's demonstration for bread and peace in 1917. This eventually overthrew the Russian monarchy and is known to be the reason why International Women's Day is held on March 8. File image/ State museum of political history of Russia/WIkimedia Commons")
Today, March 8 is the day when the world pauses to recognise roughly 50 per cent of its population — women — on the occasion of International Women’s Day. Countries as far as Kyrgyzstan to Kenya will mark the progress women have made so far in society and acknowledge the long road that is ahead of them.
It’s a day when social media will be flooded with all types of women-related hashtags and celebrities and brands will co-opt the day. Newspapers will dedicate an opinion piece to women’s rights and news channels will do shows honouring them.
But how many know that International Women’s Day has a significant Russian connection dating all the way back to 1917 during the Russian Revolution? Here’s how the two are linked.
History of Women’s Day
The seeds of such a day have grown out of the labour movement. In 1908, 15,000 women marched through New York City demanding shorter hours, better pay and voting rights. A year later, the Socialist Party of America declared the first National Woman’s Day.
The holiday soon caught the attention of the Europeans and a woman named Clara Zetkin (leader of the ‘Women’s Office’ for the Social Democratic Party in Germany) proposed an International Women’s Day. Her efforts culminated in the establishment of the first International Women’s Day celebrated in 1911 in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland on March 19.
International Women’s Day and the Russian connection
However, it was later decided that March 8 would be celebrated as International Women’s Day thanks to the ‘Bread and Peace’ protest in Russia’s Petrograd in 1917.
On this day — February 23 in the old Russian calendar — tens of thousands of women congregated on the Nevsky Prospekt in the centre of the Russian capital, carrying banners demanding the Tsarist government “feed the children of the defenders of the motherland”.
The protests emerged as a result of the tiring World War I and the resulting shortage of bread. The situation worsened when female factory workers, who were forced to stand in long queues for the staple, heard rumours about a planned rationing. Furious that they wouldn’t have enough to feed their children, the women, on March 8, gathered demanding food and peace.
As one man recounted in a Smithsonian report, “We could hear women’s voices in the lane overlooked by the windows of our department: ‘Down with high prices! Down with hunger! Bread for the workers!’ I and several comrades rushed to the windows… Masses of women workers in a militant frame of mind filled the lane. Those who caught sight of us began to wave their arms, shouting ‘Come out! Stop work!’ Snowballs flew through the windows. We decided to join the demonstration.”
By the end of the day, 100,000 workers went on strike, holding banners that said “Bread” and “Down with the Czar.” The number of demonstrators increased to 150,000 by the next day.
As the crowds grew bigger, Russian police forces were called in to repel them, resulting in clashes. But the demonstrators didn’t back down and as days progressed, even the Russian army joined the marchers, withdrawing their support from Tsar Nicholas. The protests that went on for a week ended with the collapse of the Russian monarchy and paved the way for socialism and the formation of the Soviet Union in 1922.
As historian and activist Rochelle Ruthchild of Harvard’s Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies told TIME, “One could argue that these demonstrations sparked the abdication of Tsar Nicholas and the end of the Romanov dynasty. This was probably the most consequential of any International Women’s Day demonstrations of any time.”
International Women’s Day in other countries
In 1922, Vladimir Lenin declared March 8 as Women’s Day to honour the role they played in the 1917 Russian Revolution and it was subsequently celebrated on that date by the socialist movement and Communist countries. Communists in Spain and China adopted the holiday by 1922.
Finally, after many years, in 1975, the United Nations adopted March 8 as International Women’s Day. By 2014, it was celebrated in more than 100 countries and been made an official holiday in more than 25.
In modern times, International Women’s Day is marked by marches, talks, concerts, exhibitions and debates. It’s also a day when bouquets of flowers are given by men to women or from woman to woman. In fact, before the start of the Russia-Ukraine war, flower sales in Russia typically doubled around International Women’s Day.
Many experts note that a day like International Women’s Day is now more required than ever. Russian leader Vladimir Putin has asked women to forego education and careers to prioritise having children. In the US, women believe their bodily autonomy has slipped away after Roe v Wade was overturned by the US Supreme Court.
Moreover, women are still a long way to achieve parity in leadership roles. Studies show that women make up only one-third of total business leaders globally. Even in politics, 60 per cent of UN member states have never had a female leader. In fact, in 2024, 45 countries in the United Nations held national elections to decide their top leadership. Of those, only four selected a woman to become head of state or government.
As Eileen Boris, professor of Feminist Studies at the University of California Santa Barbara, told TIME magazine, “Days like International Women’s Day are a time to celebrate the gains that have been made and to measure how far we have come. We also have to see that there are many more steps to take and to rededicate to the struggle ahead.”
With inputs from agencies