Feminism in Russia

Feminism in Russia began in the 18th century, influenced by the Western European Enlightenment and mostly confined to the aristocracy. In the 20th century, Russian feminists, inspired by socialist doctrine, shifted their focus to organizing among peasants and factory workers. After the Bolshevik Revolution, women gained suffrage and nominal equality in education and the workplace, but they continued to experience discrimination in certain career paths, including politics. After the fall of the Soviet Union, feminist circles rose among the intelligentsia, though the term continues to carry negative connotations among contemporary Russians.

Origins

18th century

Russian feminism originated in the 18th century, influenced by the Western European Enlightenment and the prominent role of women as a symbol for democracy and freedom in the French Revolution. Notable Russian intellectual figures like Alexander Pushkin and Alexander Herzen wrote positively about the increased power and independence of women in their society and supported the growing concern for gender equality. In his influential novel What is to be Done?, the writer Nikolai Chernyshevski embodied the new feminist ideas in the novel's heroine, Vera Pavlovna, who dreams of a future utopian society with perfect equality among the sexes.

In aristocratic Russian society, the greater freedoms allowed to women led to the rise of the powerful, socially-connected woman, including such iconic figures as Catherine the Great, Maria Naryshkina, and Countess Maria Razumovskaya. Women also began to compete with men in the literary sphere, with Russian women authors, poets, and memoirists increasing in popularity.

19th century

The first Russian feminist organization of the 19th century is considered to be the "Decembrist women." These women were female relatives of the Decembrists, a group of aristocratic revolutionaries who in 1825 were convicted of plotting to overthrow Emperor Nicholas I, and many of whom were sentenced to serve in labor camps in Siberia. Though the wives, sisters, and mothers of the Decembrist men shared the same liberal democratic political views as their male relatives, they were not charged with treason because they were women; however, 11 of them, including Princess Natalia Dolgorukova and Princess Mariya Volkonskaya, still chose to accompany their husbands, brothers, and sons to the labor camps. Though they were portrayed as heroes in popular culture, they insisted that they were simply doing their duty to their family. While in Siberia, some of them cared not only for their relatives, but also for the other prisoners. They also set up important institutions like libraries and clinics, as well as arranging lectures and concerts.

In the historical writing of the time, the humble devotion of the Decembrist women was contrasted with the intrigues and hedonism of female aristocrats of the 18th century, like Catherine the Great, whose excesses were seen as the danger of too-sudden liberation for women. Although they did not explicitly espouse a feminist agenda, the Decembrist women were used as an example by later generations of Russian feminists, whose concern for gender equality was also tied to revolutionary political agendas.

In the late 19th century, other aristocratic women began to turn away from refined society life and focused on feminist reform. In the late 19th century, Anna Pavlovna Filosova, a woman from an aristocratic Moscow family married to a high-ranking bureaucrat, devoted her energy to various societies and projects to benefit the poor and underprivileged in Russian society, including women. Together with Maria Trubnikova and Nadezhda Stasova, she lobbied the Emperor to create and fund higher education courses for women. She was also a founding member of the Russian Women's Mutual Philanthropic Society and responsible for helping to organize the All-Women's Congress of 1908.

The Revolution and Soviet era

"Kitchen and fashion – that's NOT freedom": Feminist graffiti in Russia

Pre-Revolution

At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, the focus of Russian feminism shifted from the aristocracy to the peasants and working class. Imbued with socialist ideology, young women began to organize all-women unions among female factory workers, who tended to be ignored or marginalized by male socialists.

Between 1907 and 1917, the League for Women's Equal Rights was the most important feminist organization in Russia. Like the Russian Women's Mutual Philanthropic Society, it was focused on education and social welfare, but it also pushed for equal rights for women, including suffrage, equal inheritance, and an end to passport restrictions. The 1917 Revolution, catalyzed in part by women workers' demonstrations, generated a surge of membership in the organization, and in 1917, because of their continued lobbying, Russia became the first major world power to grant women the right to vote.

Feminism in Soviet society

After the October Revolution, Russian women saw mixed gains in their rights. Women's suffrage was granted by the Bolsheviks, though in practice voting meant little in the Soviet Communist society. However, many independent feminist organizations and journals were shut down because of the Bolshevik monopoly on the press.

By the 1970s, while women's liberation was a mainstream term in American public discourse, no comparable movement existed in the Soviet Union, despite the lack of women in many professions. Though the prevailing Soviet ideology stressed gender equality in labor and education, Soviet women did not participate in the core power structure of their society.

Feminism in post-Soviet Russia

In the 1980s and 1990s, during Glasnost and after the fall of the Soviet Union, feminist circles began to emerge among intelligentsia women in major cultural centers like Moscow and St. Petersburg. Some contemporary Russian feminists are hesitant to use the term "feminist" to describe themselves, because they believe it has had negative connotations throughout Russian history, and especially after the Revolution, when it was equated with the "proletariat" woman who only cares for her career, not her family. Women have started entering local governments, if only at low-level positions. In 2003, 43 percent of local administrators in St. Petersburg were women. The feminist punk rock band Pussy Riot have performed publicity stunts in order to empower women in Russia and have faced opposition from the Orthodox Christian Church and the Putin administration.

References

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• Bisha, Robin (2002). Russian Women, 1698–1917: Experience and Expression, an Anthology of Sources. Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0-253-34084-9. Retrieved 17 June 2012. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
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• Elder, Miriam (2 February 2012). "Feminist punk band Pussy Riot take revolt to the Kremlin". The Guardian.
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• Pushkareva, Natalia Lʹvovna; Levin, Eve (1997). Women in Russian History: From the Tenth to the Twentieth Century. M.E. Sharpe. ISBN 978-1-56324-798-9. Retrieved 16 June 2012. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Ruthchild, Rochelle Goldberg (11 July 2010). Equality & Revolution: Women's Rights in the Russian Empire, 1905–1917. University of Pittsburgh Pre. ISBN 978-0-8229-6066-9. Retrieved 16 June 2012. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Salmenniemi, Suvi (14 July 2008). Democratization and Gender in Contemporary Russia. Psychology Press. ISBN 978-0-415-44112-4. Retrieved 16 June 2012. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Saurer, Margareth; Lanzinger; Frysak, Elisabeth (2006). Women's Movements: Networks and Debates in Post-communist Countries in the 19th and 20th Centuries. Böhlau Verlag Köln Weimar. ISBN 978-3-412-32205-2. Retrieved 16 June 2012. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help); More than one of |first1= and |first= specified (help)
• Soldak, Katya (14 June 2012). "Pussy Riot, Putin, The Church, and Human Rights". Forbes. Retrieved 16 June 2012.
• Tavernise, Sabrina (March 9, 2003). "Women Redefine Their Roles in New Russia". The New York Times. Retrieved 16 June 2012.
• Vowles, Judith (11 March 1999). Russia Through Women's Eyes: Autobiographies from Tsarist Russia. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-06754-5. Retrieved 16 June 2012. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)