Why, at the end of the Russian Empire, so many young ladies sought hard labor and the gallows

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

At the end of the history of the Russian Empire, convicts - like those sentenced for the murder of prostitutes or unfortunate wives from the lower classes - had to get used to a new type of comrades. Now the convicts went new: with good manners, educated, very clean. They were "political" or "terrorists", and only Russia knew such a large number of them.

Convict women of a special kind

While the main supplier of political prisoners in Europe and the United States were suffragists - women who fought for civil rights - in Russia, anarchists and socialists joined their ranks. This means that in addition to the rights for women, they still thirsted for justice for different estates, for national minorities (first of all, Jews who were constantly defeated in their rights), in general, for everyone.

At the same time, it was the class injustice that made their life in hard labor bearable: the guards singled out the "political" among the widows of artisans, peasants, prostitutes and thieves. I turned to “you”, did not demand to get up at the entrance, did not force me to sing prayers as a punishment, did not throw them into the punishment cell - and not because I sympathized with the ideas of these women. It's just that the political ones were very clearly in the eyes of these people "young ladies" and "ladies", and with them, it is known, the treatment is different. The "political" did not mind.

They probably were not tempted to object - after all, in the prisons of central Russia, from where the "young ladies" were sent to hard labor, the attitude towards the terrorists was completely different, and the entire time of detention was a confrontation of the administration. After an ordinary prison, it was no longer at all tempting to share the share of "ordinary" prisoners, who, among other things, had to work all day - sewing and knitting clothes for men's prisons, spinning yarn for the state, cooking for the whole prison, and so on.

There were other indulgences, which the "political" accepted calmly. They were allowed to wear their own clothes and use their own blankets (government officials were just awful); those sentenced to life imprisonment had to wear shackles - but the "political" ones wore them only during checks.

But the main thing that the "political" were happy to dissociate from was the constant harassment and rape to which the "ordinary" convicts were subjected. The "young ladies" were not touched out of class respect, but before their very eyes, neither the escorts nor the male prisoners were shy about pestering ordinary criminals - the latter also believed that it was literally a duty on the part of the prisoners to move their legs apart under them, for failure to fulfill which they would also punish it is possible, as for the insult inflicted. As a result, most of the convicts had to endure the horrors of imprisonment and work pregnant, and there is nothing to say about how quickly infections spread between them, especially during the epidemic of syphilis.

By the way, it was the "political" ones who willingly sat with the children. They could not do more for the criminals: everything could come to the breaking of class boundaries, and this would mean not only the issuance of state blankets and turning to "you". To the best of their ability, the "political" also provided other assistance, for example, they helped to write additional food and tea for the money that came from the outside. It was also customary to celebrate with the criminals: sing and dance.

All this is more than understandable - but where did so many "young ladies" come from in the penal servitude, and how did it happen that Russia was ahead of any other country in the world in terms of the number of women political prisoners?

Russia: a special case

All researchers speak about the high proportion of women among terrorists in Russia, as well as about the high politicization of young educated women in general. It must be understood that, although in general, similar processes were going on in Russia and Europe, the position of the Russian woman was still different. For example, she could be economically independent, having reached the age of majority (twenty-one years), and not only economically - from that moment, her parents could not forbid her to get a higher education or get married. That is, when the girl turned twenty-one, in Russia she could get married without the presence and consent of her parents - and in the second half of the nineteenth century, many used this.

In addition, in a marriage, a woman had inalienable property (dowry) - however, as activists of women's education like Botkin spoke with bitterness, very many girls were raised so economically illiterate that they wrote a power of attorney to manage the property of their husbands, not being able to dispose of themselves. their property, nor to evaluate the husband's ability to do it. Moreover, the dowry was sacred and inviolable not only in educated circles, but even among the poorest peasants - and a woman who without words endured the beatings and bullying of her husband went directly to court, as soon as he touched her chest or beat her from her father’s house a goat. It is hard to believe, but for all the patriarchal horrors, such an attitude towards the female dowry was the norm.

After the abolition of serfdom, Russian women began to differ from Europeans in one more aspect: co-workers and poor noblewomen had to en masse to look for work for themselves, and as a result, a working girl became the norm in Russia (noblewomen in this regard opened the way for the bourgeoisie) - at that time, how in Europe it was obscene for a long time and girls who were carried away by some profession or simply wanted to live not so poor had to fight with their own family.

Finally, the third important aspect that influenced the confidence and activity of women is the mass movement of the intelligentsia of both sexes for a woman to receive a decent education. While some were trying to get permission from the authorities, others were preparing programs for future higher courses and students who were ready to study at foreign universities, and still others simply arranged open lectures on school and university disciplines in their apartments, making it possible to catch up with educated peers not only for women, but also for people from commoners, poor bourgeoisie, artisans and even peasants - when one of them was looking for an opportunity to get an education. Education makes a person more active, as you know.

Almost all the terrorists were educated girls, but there was one more feature - most of them were precisely noblewomen. The fact is that, faced with the need to work twelve hours a day and rent a closet for a penny (in which they also had to clean themselves), girls from former serf families realized that almost all of Russia lives like this, and even worse. They could be offended by the tsar for having deprived them of their slaves - but education broadened their horizons, and they decided to fight for justice for all Russians.

During this period (the second half of the 19th century - the beginning of the 20th), there were many civic activists who believed that only by intimidation it was possible to force the state machine to start listening and acting - in general, those who stood for terror. Since these were mainly the same circles that fought for women's rights and gave lectures - only the most radical part of them - it is not surprising that there were many girls among the radicals. For some of them, the motto “personal is political” was relevant: for Jewish women. Jews now and then suffered from pogroms, in addition, a number of restrictions were in effect against them.

The girl is the best icon

There was one more reason why the girls became terrorists and were so active. Each of them was sure that if not in the first, then in the second or third terrorist attack they would either be killed on the spot, or they would be judged.

In the case of death, the death of a woman is shocking, as they believed, more than the death of a man, which means that the comrades will have more motivation to take revenge and thus continue the work. As for the court, the hours-long court sessions are an ideal opportunity to deliver speeches (which would be suppressed as propaganda somewhere in the square) in front of a large number of spectators and reporters.

Moreover, the young girl, pushing speeches, more fascinates the audience: the archetype of Jeanne d'Arc or some city dweller is working, shaming the faltering, ready to stop defending the city from the enemy of men. This means that more people will be imbued with what she said. Roughly speaking, a girl is the best icon, and it is a sin not to take advantage of this, having a great political goal. Becoming a martyr was a deliberate choice for each of the terrorists.

Indeed, the terrorists evoked a lot of sympathy. They even seemed more beautiful than ordinary women - they were described as femme fatale. I must say, this does not mean that they all behaved the same way and proudly sparkled their eyes. For example, Evstolia Rogozinnikova became famous for the fact that during the meetings she laughed loudly at the words of the prosecutor. By the way, they did not replace her death penalty with hard labor, contrary to the established practice - they hanged her.

The choice of the victims of the terrorist attack was never accidental; it was tied to certain cases of repression and support for arbitrariness against citizens. Even the bewildering case of Vera Zasulich, who killed Trepov, who was not in any way tied to police arbitrariness: you just have to look at what family Zasulich was (Polish) and what else Trepov was known for (suppression of two Polish uprisings). “Personal is political” was not just playing with the Jews.

In general, the women's issue in the empire was very complex and interesting. How they realized in Russia that women leaving abroad are a brain drain.