Ekaterina Lakhova: "The main thing that distinguishes women from men is instinct of self-preservation"

Interviewed by Vladimir Nesterov, Especially for  Vestnik Kavkaza

Ekaterina Lachova, chairman of the Women's Union of Russia, member of the Federation Council committee on the federal structure, regional policy, local government and northern affairs is a  guest of Vestnik Kavkaza   on the eve of International Women's Day

- This year, the Union of Women of Russia celebrates its 25th anniversary, which is always a good reason to sum up what has been done. In your opinion, how much have Russian women changed during this time? And what are the most outstanding achievements that you can tell us about?

- Actually this is good that you brought up the topic of the Union of Russian Women, because the Union of Russian Women is the legal successor of the Committee of Soviet Women. The Committee of Soviet Women was very famous formerly in the world. And I must say that it was created as the Women's Anti-Fascist Committee in 1941.The famous aviatress Grizodubova headed the committee. And then it was renamed  the Committee of Soviet Women after the victory in 1945 And it played an important role in the recovery, in creating peace both outside as well as inside the country. That time women had a very active civil will.

- During the war, many men had died, and the majority of those who came back, were disabled…

- The rear was greatly facilitated by women and children. When the Soviet Union collapsed, being in the Committee of Soviet Women we were afraid that our organization would not exist anymore. Actually, at the Soviet period it was different political system, one ruling party. And the party had its drive belts, they were veterans organizations, youth organization - Komsomol, women's organizations, trade unions. When the Union collapsed, the Committee of Soviet Women urgently gathered all the regional offices. The women signed the contract, agreement and created the Women's Union of Russia, which became the legal successor of the Soviet structure.

Russia, by the way, became the legal successor of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. The Committee of Soviet Women was among the initiators of the convention.

Therefore, we celebrate the 25 –year anniversary this year, and if the  previous Committee had existed it would have turned 75 years next year

Valentina Tereshkova, who headed the Soviet Women's Committee for 19 years, and made a great contribution to the development of the women's movement at that time. And in 1993, the Women's Union of Russia initiated two amendments to the Constitution. For example, there was article 19 about equal rights, equal freedoms and opportunities for men and women. Because men and women have equal rights, but the right to implement their  rights for women is different, because a woman has to give birth to first, second, third child, but maybe in the future she  would like to realize herself professionally. And if this woman is a single mother with a child, that means  public policy must be adopted to the fact that  rights should be realized equally

And the second amendment, which we have in the old Constitution, for example, was a maternal and child health security. We have achieved security of motherhood, fatherhood and childhood. Because we believe that a strong family, a stable family  is the family where there are mom and dad, and that fathers should also take quite an impressive part in the upbringing of their children.

When our president announced the TRP to be implemented, for example, I was delighted. I immediately thought about the way my grandson would perform pull-ups. He can do push-ups, but pull-ups can be a problem

Participation of men in the education of their sons, who will subsequently defend their country, and education of girls is also very important. That is why; it is a victory for us.A lot of initiatives have been presented from non-governmental organizations, which tried to pass through the laws that we passed in the 1990s. For example, the Family Code was taken by our group. The  faction Women of Russia is a world-scale precedent , in my opinion, which no one in the world will never repeat again,  even probably in Russia, a women's group in the parliament cannot be repeated. And we did it in 1993, a women’s faction existed during the most difficult period of transition

- The Women of Russia has branches in almost every region of our country. Are there branches in Crimea and Sevastopol?

- There are, but they are not yet registered. But the Crimean organization, which is headed by Valentina Tumanova, has already received a registration number and presented us with the documents to become a member of our organization. We approved the creation of this organization.

In Sevastopol, there is a women's organization, and we have already been there, and made contract agreement on social partnership with the head of Sevastopol Sergey Ivanovich  Menyailo. Our organization regularly enters into such agreements with the governors. The first agreements were made with the Altai region, the Kursk region, the Kaliningrad region, the Kirov region and a number of regions with which we have signed agreements on social partnership.

Of course, I was struck by the woman in Crimea and Sevastopol. We have a project in the Union of Russian Women, which is civic engagement of our women's organizations.  Last year we trained 85 women from Crimea and Sevastopol, who came to us, we taught them, talked to them, shared experiences. We brought representatives of our regional offices, who explain to Crimeans they way we are working  from the Altai region, from Chuvashia, from Chelyabinsk  Sevastopol, so the Crimean organization can quickly integrate into our social organization. But they themselves are doing a very good job.

Recently we opened the exhibition “Crimea in my heart” or as we call it “Crimean Spring” in the gallery of the Women's Union of Russia, just before the 8-th of March. We invited our senators Olga Kovitidi and  Olga Timofeeva. I believe that we, as a public organization, were among the first who celebrate this holiday.  It was pleasant to see the warmth present in those pictures.

- A branch of Women of Russia, of course, is also represented in the republics of the Russian Caucasus. Traditionally, it is assumed that a woman in the Russian Caucasus, first of all is homemaker, wife and mother... How active are the representatives of these offices, and what issues do they seek to solve?

- I want to say that women  homemakers are everywhere. in the south it is presented in larger scale. In the Caucasus, women are very strong and wise. In Ossetia, Dagestan, Kabardino-Balkaria, Karachay-Cherkessia ... Our most active branches are in the Stavropol Territory and South Ossetia. They carry out activities, which are associated with family, traditions and culture.

Today there is a women's NGO Mother Russia, which is headed by Valentina Petrenko. The organization  began to work actively in the Caucasus, Ingushetia, Chechnya. Women came from Chechnya,  Ingushetia, declaring a desire to join our organization. We do not mind. . We do not try, you know, somehow in artificial way to push from the top to create our organization. If you are ready, then welcome

The most important thing is that in many respects the organization's work depends on the people. If a person is not indifferent, does not use a public organization to achieve some of his political objectives, and really loves it, is involved in the structure, then everything will work.

-  Let's talk about the international cooperation of the Union. Is there any foreign experience, which can be adopted? Is there any unique experience of ours, which is  adopted with pleasure by other countries? 

- The Union of Women of Russia is a member organization of ,the Organization of the International Congress of Families, the International Organization of Rural women, the International Federal women's organization. We are accredited with the Economic Department of the United Nations. On March 9 the Commission for Women will meet at the United Nations, our government is going to report on that event.  Representatives from our organization are included to the delegation

We share our experiences in the field of agriculture. Two years ago, we organized an international event and it was visited by  representatives of Lithuania, Kazakhstan, Belarus. We took them to the Moscow region, presented them our agribusiness companies. Then two delegations of our regional offices went to Lithuania.

The League of Polish women has applied to our organization, to the Women's Union of Russia, with a proposal to host a festival, dedicated to Anna Herman. Russian Channel one made series about Anna  German, and it turned out that they have a generation of youth, which  does not know who Anna Herman was, does not know her songs. General Director of the Channel One Konstantin Ernst,  told me that in Poland this film is so much liked, that it has been shown twice and  became the highest rated movie. In the autumn we held a festival in Poland, there were ten participants from Russia, and the first place was awarded to our participant. The festival was taken as  a holiday, it was perceived at a very good level. The local channels were a little afraid to broadcast it, but our  The First channel organized the translation...

Simon Osiashvili, who sang in Russian, was in jury and even his songs were perceived very well by Polish people.

This year was supposed to be marked as the year of Poland in Russia, but the Poles refused. However, the League of Polish women did not refuse to cooperate with us, although have asked us to hold the festival in Brest, closer  to the Polish border. Now we are preparing. This is an international event, which aims to strengthen friendly ties between peoples.

- And how about the interaction with the CIS countries? Perhaps it should be much more intense?

- In early December, we conducted  a conference related  to the events in Ukraine, we conducted a forum  for peace, security and stability in the world, and invited representatives of Kazakhstan, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Armenia. I did not expect such strong performances from women. We have a contract, an agreement of our Union, which was officially signed with Kazakhstan and Belarus; Now in connection with the creation of the Eurasian Economic Union, we establish closer contacts with organizations of Armenia and Kyrgyzstan. They respond with great pleasure. I think that if we invite Tajikistan and  Azerbaijan for the cooperation they too will respond. What unites all women?  Women are united by the issue of peace. Peace on earth. Stability. Future of their children, the future of their families. And I think this is the main distinguishing feature of our women from men, no offense to them to be said, women’s inherent instinct of self-preservation, the instinct to save the child and the family. When women will be that way, I believe, the world then gain its benefits.