User:Wdixon5/sandbox

== Article Evaluation == I evaluated the article on Family in the Soviet Union. It is an informative and detailed article, but it is lacking in citations, and it even says this at the top of the page. There is only one reference for nearly 10 paragraphs of information, and this reference cannot be directly accessed either. This includes a lot of numbers and statistics that are without citation. The talk page does not have any activity other than information that this page is part of a project on detailing the USSR on Wikipedia. In addition, I feel that the opening paragraph for the article is lacking in focus and does not provide a good introduction/overview of the topic. Despite these problems, the article is informative and helpful about the topic, and appears to be free of bias, it just doesn't have sources to back it up.

Week 3 Article Notes
I have gathered several sources from the ASU library that I think will be useful, and have read over the Family in the Soviet Union article some more. Since we are focusing on the Stalinist era, I think the "evolution of the soviet family" section is what we will need to focus on. As I noted last week, the information on this article seems to be solid, but it is all pulled from one source, that being the Library of Congress database. The article only lists the Library of Congress website, so if one wants to find the sources they have to navigate that vast database still to find the information. What I am hoping to do is review the information in the article and try to find sources that support it from the sources that I have gathered. This will allow me to correct any minor flaws there may be in the information, as well as provide a more solid foundation of evidence so that if someone were researching this topic, they would know where else they can go for additional information.

Lastly, I would like to edit the lead section as I feel it is lacking in focus. It gives one broad overview statement and then an out of context quote from a 1968 that, in my opinion, makes the lead more confusing than helpful.

Reproduction and Family Planning
The primary form of contraception practiced in the early USSR was coitus interruptus. Scarcity of rubber made condoms and diaphragms unavailable, and contraception was rarely discussed by political figures.

The U.S.S.R. was the first country in the world to legalize abortion. For many years prior to the October Revolution, abortion was not uncommon in Russia, although it was illegal and carried a possible sentence of hard labor or exile. After the revolution, famine and poor economic conditions led to an increase in the number of “back alley” abortions, and after pressure from doctors and jurists, the Commissariats of Health and Justice legalized abortion in 1920. Abortions were free for all women, although they were seen as a necessary evil due to economic hardship rather than a woman’s right to control her own reproductive system.

Through the 1930's, a rising number of abortions coupled with a falling birthrate alarmed Soviet officials, with a recorded 400,000 abortions taking place in 1926 alone. In 1936 the Soviet Central Executive Committee made abortion illegal once again. This, along with stipends granted to recent mothers and bonuses given for women who bore many children, was part of an effort to combat the falling birthrate.