Document 72

Proposals on demographic policy submitted by L. V. Kashkin, Leningrad, 1936

GARF, f. 3316, op. 41, d. 79, ll. 56-57, 59, 61, 69-71. Typewritten original.

1. Natal citizens--from conception to weaning. Until now neither the embryo nor the intrauterine or extrauterine fetus was recognized as a citizen. This, of course, is wrong. Excluding this age from a citizen's lifetime and depriving it of rights have no legal basis. But the responsibility of natal citizens, since they cannot take care of themselves, equals zero, while the responsibility of the birth mother for them equals 100 percent.

2. Young citizens--from weaning to real maturity. Subgroups are children, adolescents and young people. Their responsibility for their health increases from zero to one hundred percent.

3. Mature citizens, their level of responsibility equals one hundred percent.

4. Old citizens. Our goal is to achieve universal longevity for the population and to eliminate senility while maintaining people's capacity to work. But for the present their responsibility for their health declines from one hundred percent to zero.

YThe health of a natal citizen relates to the health of the same citizen's other ages roughly in the same way as the country's natural riches relate to their future exploitation. The magnitude and quality of the internal riches that are extracted from the depths of the maternal organism are decisive for the development of the capacity to work in maturity. But a poorly organized extraction of natural riches may lead both to their nonproductive loss during the extraction process and their spoilage. . .

. . . Absolutely everything in a woman's behavior is reflected one way or another in the composition of her blood and in the uniformity and regularity with which all parts of her body and the fetus are supplied with blood. Hence it is the woman's duty to take care of the health of new generations. . . As for the man, he has no duty to the new generation, since children are produced not by him but by the woman. The man bears responsibility in health terms only for the quality of his fertilizing impregnation. That is the man's duty.

The very first steps of the new Population Policy along the path of eliminating these social vices, which are detrimental to the population's capacity for work and longevity, will completely change the public face and social status of Soviet women. Their awareness that childbearing production is being converted from a private matter to a state matter, that by conscientiously performing their duties in this production they can increase, in an unlimited way, our homeland's might in every field that requires a capacity for work and longevity from citizens, will give them an awareness of their dignity that they have never had before in the history of the human race.

Women in the highest childbearing categories--Stakhanovites of childbearing production who set the highest standards in it--will enjoy a level of honor and respect in our country that has never been conferred on any queen. Our new Population Policy will transform the slogan "Clear the way for the woman!" from a pretty phrase into an actual practice, into living, concrete reality. Women from other countries will have to marvel at our country, where women and children are "paramount." During the difficult minutes of their lives they will remember this.

Article 6. Every natal citizen of the U.S.S.R. shall be listed in one of the categories established by the government, based on his natal health level. The natal health level shall be entered in the citizen's birth certificate, and subsequently in his [internal] passport as a permanent fact about his identity. The natal health level shall serve simultaneously as an indicator of the citizen's future capacity for work and, on the other hand, as an indicator of his producer's (in everyday language: his mother's) fulfillment of childbearing discipline.

Citizens who were born before the law on women's childbearing responsibility takes effect and whose natal level is unknown shall be listed in the category based on their current health level.

An improvement or decline in a current health level resulting from the personal health efforts or health negligence of young citizens shall entail, on a mandatory basis, a corresponding rise or fall in his childbearing category and the amount of social security for childbirth.

Article 7. A woman's childbearing right to produce citizens and a man's impregnation right to fertilize an embryo, as a socialist right, shall be separated from the personal, individualistic conjugal right to sexual cohabitation between spouses. Childbirth-capable women and impregnation-capable men shall make a commitment, upon entering into matrimony, to take the necessary preventive measures against conceiving an embryo.

In the event that a childbirth-capable woman who is married decides to give the country a new citizen, she shall be required, prior to conception, to apply to the childbirth bureau for a formal divorce and for certification of the impregnation ability of the man she has designated for impregnation and for certification of the normal natal level of her future child.

The marriage shall be permitted to resume only upon termination of the citizen's natal age, i.e. after weaning. Liability for violation of this law shall remain in effect even in the event that the natal level of the infant does not fall into the lower categories.

Article 8. Every male citizen of the U.S.S.R. shall care for the quality and fullness of his fertilizing agent. Based on the fullness of their agent, men shall be divided into officially established categories, which shall be registered by the childbirth bureau.

Both the category of the childbearing woman and the category of the impregnating man shall be considered in the establishment of a normal natal level for a future natal citizen.