‘She has become an Israeli’: women in the Russian Subbotnik movement of the 19th century

Abstract

The research focuses on the ‘female segment’ of the Russian Subbotnik movement – the religious phenomenon in Russia of the Modern Era. In archival documents of the 19th century, investigating the cases of the ‘Judaizers sect’, significant, and sometimes even key figures happen to be women born to Judaizing families or converted to the ‘Jewish faith’ after their marriage. They are representatives of the diverse regions and classes of the Russian Empire. They are sectarians acting primarily in their homemaking capacity: wives, daughters, mothers, daughters-in-law, mothers-in-law. At the same time they are convinced upholders of ‘the Old Testament faith,’ ready to sacrifice their well-being, ordinary lifestyle, and sometimes even the most precious — their own children and husbands for the sake of loyalty to the ‘God of Israel’. The author examines different aspects of the lives of female followers of ‘the Mosaic law’: patterns and motives of conversion, position in the family, family and interconfessional relations, the role in Subbotnik communities and also the specific character of the fate of the female ‘Russian Israelis’ in the context of the anti-sectarian legislation of the empire. Analysis of sources shows that women played an important role in Judaizers’ families and communities in the 19th century. They brought up their children in the faith, displayed perseverance in dealing with authorities and also prevented other members of the sectarian community from converting to the dominant confession. An investigation into cases of Subbotnik women represents both victims and actors who influence the life of other people, sometimes by rather harsh methods. Personal histories, the subject of the author’s research, reflect on the one hand the particularities of female religiosity in Russian sectarianism, and, on the other hand, the peculiarities, tendencies, and problems of the Judaizers’ movement during the reign of two Russian monarchs: Alexander I and Nicholas I. Refs 13.