'The success of a revolution," V.I. Lenin declared at the first all-Russian conference of working women in 1918, "depends on how much women take part in it." And based on his writings, there was little doubt he believed this. Problem was, most Russian women weren't interested. Unlike what was going on elsewhere in Europe, where the suffrage movement was under way and the Industrial Revolution had drawn many women into the workforce, industry in Russia was in its infancy and the female population was mostly rural and illiterate. The focus was on family, not what Marxism could do for the...