Women’s Issue in the Worldview of the Russian Right-wingers in the Late Imperial Period

Abstract

The paper addresses and analyzes the attitude towards women and the question of women’s rights of the Russian right-wing politicians in the early 20th century. The paper demonstrates the views of the right-wingers on the place of women in the Russian society; their attitude toward feminism and fight for women’ rights; place and role of women in the right monarchical movement. The paper introduces some new sources into the scholarship which enable to reconsider conventional viewpoints on the attitude of rightists toward the question of women’s rights and to enhance the perception of the place of this question in ideology and practice of the pre-revolutionary Russian conservatism. Based on church and patriarchal convictions, the right-wingers largely limited women’s activities by family life, but their views on the issue of women’s rights did not rule out progress in this area. Right-wingers were not opposed to extension of women’s participation in labor activity, albeit with significant reservations. Being foes of feminism and emancipation of women, they tried to shapre a negative image of women’s rights activists, connecting this fight with the revolutionary attacks on traditional social foundations and statehood. At the same time, the right-wingers were utterly alien to misogyny; they celebrated an ideal of womanhood corresponding to their conservative worldview. The right-wingers willingly admitted women into their unions, but tended to perceive them not as party activists and leaders but as a force that would quell political tension inside the monarchical movement and would primarily deal with issues of culture, philanthropy, education, and other “womanish” matters.