Feminism in Russia, 1900-1917

Abstract

This thesis examines the development of feminism in Russia and its relationship to women's movements abroad. Chapter one contains a brief survey of current theories used to explain the rise of feminism in Europe, North America and Australasia between 1850 and 1900, followed by a sketch of the Russian movement's history during the same period. Chapters two and three are a detailed account of the gradual politicization of Russian feminism in the early years of the twentieth century, in the context of the liberation movement against autocracy, when feminists first began to demand political rights for women. These chapters focus on the upheaval of 1905, the establishment of the State Duma and the rapid reaction which followed the dissolution of the First Duma. Chapter four relates the circumstances in which the first nation-wide congress of women was held at the end of 1908 and describes its proceedings. Chapter five looks at the progress of the women's movement outside Russia, the formation of the two major international feminist organizations (the International Council of Women and -1the International Woman Suffrage Alliance) and the contacts between Russian feminists and their colleagues abroad between the, 1830s and 1914. Chapter six traces the fate of women's organizations in Russia during the reaction, the small legislative gains made in the Third and Fourth Dumas between 1909 and 1914 and -the gradual recovery of momentum between 1912 and the outbreak of the First World War. The conclusion sketches the activities of feminists during the war, the impact of the February Revolution, the- final granting of women's suffrage in July 1917 and the eclipse of the feminist movement after the Bolshevik takeover.