University of Southampton Research Repository ePrints Soton

the
very
roots
of the
Society
were a
number of
independent
circles founded
at
the end
of the
1860s,
notably
a
women's circle
run
by
S. Perovskaia and the Kornilov sisters.
This
group
concentrated their work in
St.Petersburg,
with
women
living
in the
industrial
districts of the
capital disguised
as
workers.
There
were
22
women
(21.5
per
cent)
among
the
Society's
known 102
members.
In
1873,
the
Chaikovtsy began
their
'going
to
people'
by
sending
their
representatives
not
only
to
industrial
towns
but also
to
villages.
The
movement
reached
mass
proportions
but failed
to
survive
beyond
1875.
It
also failed
to convert
peasants
to
their beliefs. Too
many
of the
propagandists
had been arrested and
put
E.
Pavliuchenko,
Zhenschina
v
russkom osvoboditel'nom
dvizhenii,
231

37
into
prisons
to
await atrial.
During
the Trial of the
193,
members of the Great
Propaganda Society
made
up
more
than half of the accused.
There
is
one
aspect
which
sets
the
two
trials
apart.
The
women
at
the first
trial,
the Trial of the
50,
all
came
from
one
circle. The Trial of the 193
brought together
women
from different radical groups
who
were
engaged
in
spreading propaganda
both
among
urban industrial workers and
the
peasantry.
Among
these
was a
small group of
women
who
were
charged
with
working
in the
Myshkin printing
house where
illegal
literature for the
propagandists
was
produced.
Table 3: Female revolutionaries of the 1870s
NAME
DATES
Armfeld NA
(1850-1887)
Chemodanova-
Sinegub
LV
Dement'eva AL
(nd-1922)
Kornilova-
Griboedova VI
(1848-1873)
Kornilova-
Serdhikova
LI
(1852-1892)
Kovalevskaia MP
(1849-1889)
KovaPskaia
(nee
Solntseva)
E
(1851-1943)
Rozenstein-
Makarevich AM
(1854-1925)
Shleissner-Natanson
Ol'ga
Tomilova EKh
Zasulich-Uspenskaia
AI
Zasulich-Nikiforova
EI
ORIGIN
Gentry
Father-
factory
owner
Father-
factory
owner
Gentry
Illegitimate
child of
a
nobleman;
Meshchanka
Father-
merchant
Gentry
Gentry
EDUCATION
PROFESSION
Studied
abroad
teacher
doctor
Alarchin
Courses
Teacher
Alarchin
Courses
student
Alarchin
Courses
and studies in
Zurich
Studied in
Zurich
MARITAL
STATUS
Single
Married
a
fellow
revolutionary
Married
to
P.Tkachev
Married
Married
Married
One child
Married
First husband
a
fellow
Narodnik;
Second and third-
Italian
socialists
Married
a
fellow
revolutionary;
two
children
Married
to
a
colonel
Married
to
a
Nechaev circle
member
Married
to
a
Nechaev circle
member
POLITICAL
AFFILIATION
Osinskii Circle
Chaikovka
Social democrat and
a
close comrade-in-arms
of
Tkachev
Chaikovka
Chaikovka
Osinskii Circle
Chaikovka
Chaikovka
Chaikovka;
Land and
Freedom

38
The
sample
list of 12
female
revolutionaries shows similar
patterns
to
those identified
in the
previous
two
tables. Exact dates of birth
are
available
only
in five
cases
but
indirect references made
to
others indicate that
they
too
were
young
women.
For
instance,
the
two
Zasulich sisters
were
elder sisters of the
more
famous Vera but the
age
difference between the three
was
not
very
significant.
Two of the
women,
the Kornilov
sisters,
were
from the
family
of
a
factory
owner.
Rozenstein's father
was a
wealthy
merchant
and the Zasulich sisters
came
from
a
gentry
family.
One notable
exception
is
E.
KovaPskaia.
A
product
of
a
liaison
between
a
wealthy
landowner and
a
serf,
at
the age of
seven
she
persuaded
her father
to
grant
her and her mother freedom. He later
even
helped
her
to
buy
the title of
meshchanka. With the
support
of the
money
left
to
her
by
the
father and the assistance
of her future
husband,
Koval'skaia
set
up
free
courses
for
women.
In
1869 she
opened
up
literacy
circles for
women
workers where
they
were
taught
basic
skills
and where
socialist
theory
was
explained
to
them. This is
one
of the first
examples
of
a
study
circle aimed
specifically
at
working
women.
The
educational
experience
of these
women
echoes that of other
female
revolutionaries from the 1870s with three
attending
the Alarchin Courses and/or
doing
a course
in Zurich in their chosen
professions
of either
teaching
or
midwifery.
All but
one woman are
known
to
be
married.
Six
were
married
to
fellow
revolutionaries. A. Rozenstein
was
married three times. All three husbands
were
revolutionaries,
two
of
whom
were
Italian socialists.
Avoiding
arrest
Rozenstein left
for abroad in 1877. For
a
while she lived in Switzerland with her second
husband,
the
Italian socialist A.Kosta.
Eventually
she settled in
Italy
where she married for the
third
time. This time her
husband
became
F.Turati,
another
leading
Italian Socialist.
At least
two
of the
women,
Kovalevskaia and
Shleissner,
had children.
There
were a
number of features in the female
Chaikovtsy
members which
were
similar
to
their
counterparts
from the Moscow circle. For
instance,
the average
age
on
entering
the
movement
of the Moscow Circle
women was
21 and for the
Chaikovtsy
it
was
24. So the
majority
was
relatively
young. An
analysis
of their social
origin
demonstrates that
they
came
mainly
from
privileged
groups of
land-owning
or
propertied
gentry.
Women workers and female
peasants
were
almost absent from
them,
which is
really
easy
to
understand since the freedom from serfdom
was
granted
only
ten
years
ago. There
were
individuals
though
who could be
seen as
'a
blend' of
the
two
social
extremes.
E.KovaPskaia,
a
member of the
Chaikovtsy
group,
was a

39
daughter
of
a
serf
mother and
a
landowner
father,
A.Toporkova's
father worked in
a
workshop
and S.Ivanova earned her
living by working
as
a
seamstress
and
type
setter.
The educational level of the
women was
generally
the
highest
a
Russian
woman
could
achieve
at
that time.
Literacy
was
vital for the
type
of
revolutionary
work
performed
by
activists.
Knowledge
received
by attending
courses
could lead
women
to
teaching
or
medicine,
the
two
professions
that would later become the main
source
of
female
recruits
into the
movement
for the
next
twenty
to
thirty
years.
With few
exceptions
the
women were
married,
an
indication that many
were
still
largely dependent
on men
either
financially
or
socially
if
not
spiritually
or
mentally.
Some
women
went
on
to
have children but others
were
prevented
by
the
revolutionary
life
style
or
made
a
conscious choice
not to.
Female revolutionaries
performed
the
same
work
as
their
male comrades in the
movement
which include
propaganda,
agitation, production
and
distribution of
illegal
literature. As
a
result the
punishment
that
women were
apportioned
seems
to
have
been
identical
to
men's. Women
came
into the
movement
via
study
circles
playing
a
role of mutual initiators with their fellow students. It is
not
surprising
then that in many
cases
whole groups of
siblings
were
becoming
involved
in
revolutionary
activities and that when
women
had
a
choice
they
were
more
likely
to
marry
a man
from within the
movement.
Ethnically,
with
only
few
exceptions
(e.g.
G.Gel'fman),
female revolutionaries
were
Russian.
The initial
disappointment
which
most
women
must
have felt after
the
failure
of the first efforts in
taking
propaganda
to
the
people
and
the
shock of
receiving
terms
of
imprisonment
or
exile had
a
different effect
on
these
women.
For
a
number of them
it led
to
health
problems, including
nervous
breakdowns,
while
a
significant minority
committed
suicide,
like B.
Kaminskaia,
E.
Zavadskaia and S. Bardina. Out of the
women
who worked in the
Myshkin printing
house
only
one,
S.
Ivanova,
returned
to
the
movement.
But
many
others
were
determined
to
continue their work and
struggle.
Those
who
were
acquitted
took time
to
reflect
on
the
way
forward,
like
S.
Perovskaia.
Having
served
a
part
of their
sentence,
others tried
to
escape from their
place
of exile
and
rejoin
the
movement.
This
happened
to
S. Bardina.
These
early
efforts
were
short-lived,
but the
women
had
an
enduring
influence
hot
only through
their
high
idealism but also
by
their full
participation
in
policy
making
and
implementation.
Vera
Zasulich,
who later became
one
of
the
founders of
social
democracy
in
Russia,
commented towards the end of this
century
that in the
1870s
female revolutionaries 'ceased
to
be
exceptional'
and that
they
achieved
'a

40
good
fortune seldom attained in
history:
the
possibility
of
acting
in
a
capacity
not
of
the
inspirers,
wives and mothers of
men,
but in
complete
independence,
as
equals
with
men
in social and
political
activity'.
6
The show trials of 1877
backfired
on
the
government,
with those in the
dock,
notably, Bardina,
seen
in heroic terms, while
many
of the accused
were
further
radicalised
by
their harsh
treatment at
the hands of the authorities.
Attempts
to set
up
a
new
type
of
organisation
had
begun
even
before the tsarist
government tried
and
sentenced
the first groups of
revolutionaries.
The main initiators
behind
it
were
M.
Natanson and his wife
O.Shleissner,
familiar
to
us
from
the
Chaikovtsy
Circle.
By
the
start
of 1877 'The Northern
Revolutionary-People's Group' began
its work. In 1878 it
was
replaced by
Land and
Liberty
(Zemlia
i
Volia).
A
new
form of
politics,
terrorism,
developed
alongside
the work of
spreading
propaganda.
The latter
became
increasingly
difficult due
to
police
harassment,
while the brutal
treatment
of students
in
prison
left their comrades
feeling
impotent.
Vera Zasulich
responded
to
the savage
flogging
of
one
student
by attempting
to
assassinate General
Trepov
in St.
Petersburg
in 1878. The General survived and she
was
put
on
trial,
but
not
only
was
Zasulich
acquitted,
she
was
lionised in the
foreign
press,
and
was
taken
as an
exemplar
by
many
in Land and
Liberty.
Within
a
year,
there
was a
terrorist faction
(Liberty
or
Death)
which
argued
for
targeting
the tsar, in the
hope
that his death would
serve as a
catalyst
for social revolution.
That
strategy,
however,
was
difficult
to
reconcile with the
long-term
work of
propaganda,
and Land and
Liberty
soon
split
into the
larger People's
Will
(Narodnaia
Volia
-
which attracted
many
of the
female
members of Land and
Liberty,
including
Vera
Figner)
and
a
smaller Black
Repartition
(Chernyi
Peredel
-
which
Zasulich
joined).
Given how
difficult
it
was
to
penetrate
the world of
factory
workers,
who
lived in accommodation
provided
by
the
employers,
and in view of the
omnipresence
of the
secret
police,
the radical
intelligentsia
came
to
rely heavily
on
study
circles
to
reach their audience. Hence the
importance
of the
minority
of
mainly
male skilled
workers
who alone could afford
to rent
flats outside the factories and
buy
books. The
secret
police's
success
in
crushing
such initiatives
not
only
resulted in the continual
loss
to
the
nascent
labour
movement
of
relatively
experienced
leaders
through
imprisonment
and
exile,
but led
some
to
abandon the
long
road of
propaganda
and
R.Kovnator
ed.,
Stat
7
o
russkoi
literature,
96

41
grassroots
organisation
for terrorism.
Yet
even
those attracted
to
the
People's
Will
continued
to set
up
study
circles and libraries and
to
preach
the message that
unity
was
essential.
From
Propaganda
to
Terrorism
The 1870s
began
with hundreds of
young
people turning
to
propaganda.
They
often
worked
in small groups with
only
loose ties
joining
them into
a
large
single
organisation
without
any
one
group
playing
the role of
a
centre.
These groups lacked
the hierarchical
structure
which will characterise
political
parties
of the future
generations.
This
type
of
organisation
did
not
allow for individuals
to
be
singled
out
for
a
leadership
role. Such
a
democratic
structure
was
favourable
to
women.
It is
not
surprising
then that
just
ten
years
after
being
admitted into
public
life
they
were
able
to
claim
a
place
among the radical elements of Russian
society.
Many
of the
women
who feature in the annals of the
history
of the
revolutionary
movement
in Russia in the 1880s had their first
experience
of radical
action in the 1870s.
Some
featured
in the
political
trials of the
preceding
decade,
like
S.Perovskaia,
E.
Koval'skaia and O.Liubatovich. Not all learned
to
adjust
to
the
changing
conditions and
new
emerging
methods.
In
1883
one
of the heroes of the
seventies,
S.Bardina, having
escaped
from exile in the
hope
of
rejoining
the
movement, found terrorist ideas and tactics
unacceptable
and after
only
a
few
years
abroad,
felt
so
alienated from the
cause
that she committed suicide.
Of the
two
organisations
that
emerged
after the
split
in Land and
Liberty,
People's
Will attracted
more new
recruits and
through
its terrorist
acts
it also
gained
more
notoriety.
The aim
was
to
target
the tsar, in the
hope
that his death would
serve
as a
catalyst
for social revolution.
A
smaller
organisation
within
People's
Will,
formed
to
direct the
terror
campaign,
was
named the Executive Committee. Ten
members
out
of
a
total of 29
were women:
S.Perovskaia,
M.Oshanina,
V.Figner,
A.Korba,
AJakimova,
T.Lebedeva,
S.Ivanova,
OXiubatovich,
N.Olovennikova and
E.Sergeeva.
For my fourth table I selected
15
women
who
were
active and influential
during
the
first
half of the 1880s
though
as
the data shows the
majority
had entered

42
the
movement
during
the
preceding
decade. In
most
cases,
however,
the
early eighties
were
more
definitive for the
revolutionary development.
Those
names
marked with
*
appeared
in
one
of the
previous
tables.
TABLE 4: Female Revolutionaries
of
the 1880s
NAME DATES
Bulanova-Trubnikova
OK
(1859-1943)
Figner-Filippova
VN
(1852-1942)
?Gel'mian G
(1852-1882)
Iakimova-Dikovskaia
AV
(1856-1942)
*Ivanova-Boreisho SA
(1856-1927)
Ivanovskaia-
Voloshenko PS
(1853-1935)
*Koval'skaia-
Solntseva EN
(1851-1943)
Korba-Pribyleva
AP
(1849-1939)
*Lebedeva-Frolova TI
(1850-1887)
*Liubatovich-
Morozova OS
(1853-1917)
Moreinis-Muratova
FA
(1859-1937)
Olovennikova
EN.
(1857-1932)
*Perovskaia
S
(1853-1883)
Volkenstein-
Aleksandrova
LA
(1857-1906)
Zasulich
VI
(1849-1919)
ORIGIN
Gentry
Gentry
Merchant
Father-village
priest
Gentry
Father-village
priest
Meshchanka
Intelligentka
nd
Father-factory
owner
Wealthy
merchants
Gentry
Gentry
Gentry
Gentry
EDUCATION
PROFESSION
Secondary
school
Studied medicine
in Zurich
nd
Teacher
Seamstress
Type-setter
teacher
Alarchin Courses
Alarchin Courses
nd
Studied medicine
in Zurich
Cobbler
Midwifery
course
The Alarchin
Courses
Teacher
Midwifery
course
Feldsher
course
MARITAL
STATUS
Married
Three children
Married
Married
Had
a
child
Married
Had
two
children
Married
married
Married
Married
Married
Married
Had
a
child
Married
Had children
Single
Single
Married
Had children
Single
POLITICAL
AFFILIATION
Black
Repartition
People's
Will EC
People's
Will
People's
Will EC
SR
People's
Will EC
People's
Will
SR
Black
Repartition
SR maximalist
Chaikovka
People's
Will EC
Chaikovka
People's