Why enlightened talented Russian women refused to marry and remained old maidens

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

There are many names in the history of Russia talented and enlightened womenwho deliberately abandoned marriage and motherhood and devoted themselves entirely to creativity. In life, almost each of them had a loved one, but they went through life without a strong male shoulder. True, family disorder did not prevent them from leaving a deep mark on Russian culture.

Princess Natalia Alekseevna (1673-1716)

This amazing woman, being the younger sister of Peter I, deeply respected European culture and was one of the most educated Russian women of her time. Natalya Alekseevna was very different in character from her sisters and mother, she never cared for holy fools, poor people and adherents of the old "Moscow way of life". The princess was attracted by everything new and unknown, especially foreign. Throughout her life, she supported her brother Peter in all endeavors, sharing his views on everything new and progressive.

Like other sisters who grew up at the court, Natalya Alekseevna faced a bleak fate - life in a monastery, since the princesses were not given in marriage. Only a few were more fortunate than others when they were wooed by foreign monarchs for their sons. And she was already about twenty-five when brother Peter in 1696 became the one-right tsar of Russia, and by the standards of that time at that age a woman was already considered an old maid.

Being a supporter of all her brother's reforms, she introduces a custom borrowed from Europe at the royal court and becomes one of its main guides. Public theatrical performances were what fascinated Natalia.

In 1706, in the village of Preobrazhenskoye, the princess created a home theater, where, under her leadership, performances were staged, reflecting scenes of holy scriptures, remade to Russian reality and calling for service to the "common good." She wrote plays for performances with her own hand, and Tsar Peter assisted her sister with props.

These first steps were very far from professional theater, but the first seed sown by the princess will very soon sprout and make itself felt. Natalya Alekseevna will go down in the history of Russian culture as the first Russian woman playwright. Her authorship belongs to "The Comedy of St. Catherine", "Chrysanthus and Darius", "Caesar Otto", "St. Eudoxia".

Anna Bunina (1774-1829)

Anna Bunina is the first Russian professional poet and translator. Her belonging to the old family, from which V. A. Zhukovsky, I. A. Bunin, and Yu. A. Bunin emerged, gave her the opportunity to rise high. For the first time her poems were published in 1799, which was a landmark event. Until that time, none of the Russian poetesses and writers were published.

With her poetry, Anna earned her living and additionally received a pension from the Empress. Contemporaries highly appreciated her works: in honor of ancient writers she was nicknamed "Russian Sappho" and "Northern Corinna", as well as "The Tenth Muse".

The poetess Anna Akhmatova herself was proud of her kinship with the namesake:

Varvara Repnina-Volkonskaya (1808-1891)

Hetman Razumovsky's great-granddaughter, a Russian writer and memoirist from the Volkonsky family, a good friend of Nikolai Gogol, a close friend and "good angel" of the Ukrainian poet T. G. Shevchenko.

The princess was a highly educated and bright woman, fluent in several foreign languages, knew a lot about painting and music, and in her youth she was published under the pseudonym "Lizverskaya".

Varvara Nikolaevna, was unrequitedly in love with Taras Shevchenko. Despite the lack of reciprocity, she deeply respected his poetry and painting. She used all her connections to help distribute the first prints of the artist's "Picturesque Ukraine", and years later applied for his early release from exile. All her life she lived as an old maid, deeply in her soul regretting unrealizable love, as evidenced by her unfinished story "Girl".

Sofia Vasilievna Sukhovo-Kobylina (1825-1867)

Sofya Vasilievna Sukhovo-Kobylina is known for becoming the first woman to graduate from the Academy of Arts with a gold medal and become a professional artist.

As the fifth child of Colonel Vasily Alexandrovich's family, Sophia received an excellent education at home. And only one of the whole family, she decided to devote herself to art.

She received the first basics from the teacher of the landscape painter Yegor Yegorovich Meyer, who, seeing in the girl an artistic gift and zeal, recommended her to the St. Petersburg Imperial Academy of Arts. And already the first course project was highly praised by the teachers.

This was followed by a small gold medal for the Crimean landscapes, and later a large medal for views of the outskirts of Murom. All her life, this talented woman devoted herself to painting. She lived mainly in Italy and died in Rome.

Elizaveta Dyakonova (1874-1902)

Elizaveta Dyakonova went down in history as one of the first Russian women to receive a higher education in law.

The girl, being from a merchant family, graduated from Bestuzhev's Women's Courses - the only higher educational institution at that time for women in the Russian Empire and went to Paris to continue her education at the Faculty of Law. And she successfully achieved her goal.

She also became famous thanks to her diary, which she began to keep as a girl of eleven years old. Records reflecting sixteen years of life were published in the collection "Diary of a Russian Woman" by her brother after her death.

This diary reflected his studies at the Bestuzhev courses, student years, work in the press, participation in the women's movement for equality in education. Dyakonova herself tragically died quite young in the mountains in Tyrol, returning to Russia. On account of this girl there were many publicistic articles "On raising love for her native country", "Women's education", "Charity", etc.

Anna Golubkina (1864-1927)

The personal fate of the most famous woman sculptor, who worked at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, is interesting. As a young girl, she was unrequitedly in love and even tried to commit suicide. However, later, having become recognized and famous, she gave the following advice to girls who wanted to devote themselves to art:

Despite the fact that with Varvara Repnina at Taras Shevchenko the relationship did not work out, he also had other music-educated and gorgeous women who loved and adored him, and he loved them.