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child. She died in 1892 without
having been able to return home. A particularly distressing episode in the history of the exiled members of the People's Will occurred in 1889 and is known as the Kara Tragedy. One of the women who lived in that penal colony, N.Sigida, was subjected to such brutal physical 13 ibid., 195-6 49 punishment by the prison authorities, she died a few hours later. In protest three women prisoners, Kovalevskaia, Smirnitskaia and Kaliuzhnaia took their own life by poisoning. Two men followed their example. 'A Friend' but not 'a Comrade' By mid 1880s the People's Will had been all but obliterated. The new groups, which began emerging towards the end ofthat decade, were leaning towards Marxism and called themselves social democratic organisations. These organisations, while based on different theoretical foundations, were closer to the Narodniki of the 1870s in the methods they employed to reach the people. In the early 1880s besides Koval'skaia's Union, both Land and Liberty and Black Repartition conducted propaganda at large metal works, but also in working class districts such as Vyborg, Nevskii and Vasil'evskii Island, all districts of Petersburg. Where Koval'skaia had used mass meetings to reach workers, Land and Liberty and Black Repartition organised in small circles. Setting a pattern for the 1890s, the circles which were established in the early 1880s concentrated on basic literacy and numeracy skills, with talks on socialist theory, the history of the labour movement in the west, as well as the conditions of the working class at home. By the mid 1880s the urban working class had taken on an enhanced importance in the eyes of the revolutionary intelligentsia, partly through the influence of Marxist ideas, partly through the practical experience of propaganda and organisations in the factories. In 1883 Pavel Tochisskii, himself an intellectual who had become a skilled worker and who looked on the intelligentsia as temporary guests in the labour movement, established the Association of St. Petersburg Working Men. Tochisskii accepted help from students and intellectuals, but concentrated his efforts on building an organisation of workers for workers. Hence, his focus was the skilled male worker, whom he viewed as the 'natural' leader of his class. Perhaps, it was because bis focus was so narrow, in terms of class, gender and skill, that his organisation lasted for four years until 1888, a remarkable achievement in the circumstances. Yet despite the low esteem in which he seemed to hold students, some female students, including his sister Mariia Tochisskaia, joined his circle. In his book Zhenshchina v russkom osvoboditel 'nom dvizhenii, Tsederbaum describes Mariia as playing an active role in the Association of St. Petersburg Working Men. Tsederbaum also mentions a circle of 50 women from Laferm tobacco factory organised by her and her friends, Arkadakskaia and Danilova. Among factory workers attending the circle he names Anastasiia Andreeva, Volkova, Sofia Konstantinova and others. He makes no explanation who these others were. There is no further biographical data in the book on any of the women mentioned, except one comment about Danilova who is said to have fallen mentally ill while serving a prison sentence. However, volume V of DRDR has a reference to Anastasiia Andreeva, a woman worker engaged in the revolutionary movement of the period, according to which it was she who founded the circle for her fellow women workers in the tobacco factory at the end of the 1880s. It is possible then that Andreeva was an important member of the circle. Certainly, women from the factory were among the most active in the Petersburg strike movement of later years. The same volume has an entry for Liubov' Vasil'evna Arkadakskaia who was a member of Tochisskii's circle between 1885 and 1886. A search for information on other members, however, yielded no result. Tochisskii laid the foundation for the Brusnev organisation of 1889-92, which is discussed in the following chapter, while his activities also served to encourage workers, such as the lithographer Aleksei Karelin (future husband of Vera Karelina whose political activities began in the Brusnev circles) to establish their own self- education circles. Male workers drawn to study circles in the 1880s were atypical: literate, skilled, unmarried and teetotal. Most male peasant-workers were married, having left their wives and children in the village, whereas female peasant workers tended to be single (including widows) and marginal to the village economy. It was the men above all who maintained contact with their peasant roots. Since male and female workers in towns and cities lived separate lives -different jobs and accommodation - it was only by making special efforts that women workers could be reached. In view of the dangers of such activity, only when women were recruited to the factory labour force in large numbers would it be worth the extraordinary effort. Hence women were for the most part ignored by revolutionaries not just because they were women, but because the pervasive presence of police agents and the gendered division of labour meant skilled male workers were easier to contact than unskilled female workers. This also meant that the skilled male workers had limited access to and influence on the mass of unskilled, especially female, workers. The impression then is that the labour movement was overwhelmingly male. As the number of female workers increased, 51 however, and as they became central in key industries, most notably textile, the labour movement was forced to take women into account. When I started work on the thesis I was aiming to find as many women workers who had been engaged in the revolutionary movement as possible. The research into the 1870s was disappointing in this regard. This was of no particular surprise to me but nevertheless it was a disappointment. I was hoping to uncover more interesting and promising material for the late 1880s, the period when the increasing speed of industrialisation in Russia meant more peasants, including women, were drawn into cities. My efforts were rewarded only to a small degree. In addition to the information about the Laferm factory circle, Tsederbaum gives examples of a few wives of social democratic workers who were, or became revoliutsionerki. The first woman is Ekaterina Moiseenko, who was married to Petr Moissev. According to Tsederbaum, Ekaterina 'shared with [her husband] all the adversities' for many years. Peasant by birth, she followed her husband to the city where she began work in a textile factory. Married to a revolutionary she too was slowly converted to the revolutionary cause. Her political activities involved keeping a safe house and performing tasks for the organisation often with a risk to her own life. No details of the tasks are given but Ekaterina is known to have followed her husband into exile. In a similar way, another woman worker, S. Agapova, became a socialist. She too was married to a revolutionary worker whom she followed to Siberia. These women show that not every working man's wife was a drag on the labour movement. But an example that stands out is that of Anna Vol'nova. Married to a Kharkov metal worker, she was described by one of her husband's comrade-in-arms, somewhat condescendingly, as a young and simple meshchanochka (a diminutive form of meshchankd). She is said to have treated her husband's comrades 'as a loving sister and a friend'. She always had food for them in the house and was ready to put them up whenever required. We learn that her husband taught her literacy. She performed tasks for her husband's organisation, although she did not belong to it. Her activities may have begun as just another wifely duty, but Vol'nova's political consciousness was raised nevertheless, and she too became committed to the cause of revolution. In spite of the fact that they had a child she insisted that a printing press should be set up in their house. No fear of reprisal could change her mind. She is recorded as saying: 52 If I feel I can't stand [torture], I shall kill myself, don't worry... Don't try to change my mind: I won't leave... You think I do not understand anything. Do you think that if I go you won't be discovered? How can you cope without a woman? You can endure anything and I can't? I shall prove to you... I shall prove to you all., that I am not afraid of any torture...14 To prove her point Vol'nova burnt herself with cigarettes on her chest. The couple were eventually arrested and sent to the penal colony on Sakhalin Island where she . died. I found this extract a striking example of a patronising, not to say derogatory, attitude of a male worker to the efforts of a woman, the wife of his comrade-in-arms. After informing us that Anna performed various tasks for the organisation in a manner no different and at times better than the men, Pankratov, her husband's friend, tells us that she 'of course' did not belong to the organisation. We can only assume that he meant she did not pay any dues as on the basis of what he had told us Vol'nova most certainly deserved to be called at least an 'honourable' member ofthat group. Volume III of DRDR too has a reference to the Vol'novs. In 1883 I.Vol'nov and Pankratov set up an illegal printing house in Kharkov. Anna is described as helping the organisation. No dates of birth or death are available for her. The reference simply states that she died of tuberculosis on the island. Apart from Anna there is one other reference to a woman worker. The case of Anna Vol'nova helps to some extent to understand why so little written evidence is available. Viewed as downtrodden and ignorant, workers' wives were looked down upon by these 'superior' male workers who tended to shun marriage as a distraction from the revolution. In spite of her obvious close involvement in the organisation, Anna is depicted as an appendage to her husband incapable of independent action. She may be 'a sister' and 'a friend' but not 'a comrade'. As Tsederbaum wrote: Many such courageous women gave direct and indirect help to the revolutionary movement. Unfortunately history has not preserved their S. Tsederbaum, Zhenshchina v russkom revoliutsionnom dvizhenii, 152 53 names and these Anna Alekseevnas, wives and mothers of workers, inconspicuous and unknown left the scene, helping their husbands and sons and their comrades unnoticed.15 This attitude was to prevail for many years to come. Two volumes of the DRDR have references to the 1880s. Volume III was fully devoted to the information on revolutionaries ofthat decade. Volume V had data on social democrats, who were active between 1880 and 1904. Natal'ia Grigor'eva, a worker herself whose activity I shall examine more closely in the next chapter, features in it as running a circle for women workers in Narva. Materialy dlia biograficheskogo slovaria sotsial-demokratov (MBSSD) gives Grigor'eva the following characteristic: 'GRIGOR'EVA, Natal'ia Aleksandrovna (Aleksandrova, Sadovskaia), born in 1865, meshchanka, literate, seamstress. One of the first women- workers who devoted herself to the working class movement.'16 During my research I collected information on 220 individual women who were known to be engaged in revolutionary work in the 1870s and 1880s. One hundred and fifty of these women were entered into my final database, including the six women workers mentioned above. Though the only information I discovered for the latter was their names and professions (Grigor'eva being an exception with more details of her life given in the next chapter) I believe their inclusion into my final analysis of women's social origins is important. Without even this small number of workers the picture will not be complete. The chart on social origins (see below) visually demonstrates that by the end of the 1880s the composition of the female revolutionaries was more diverse than in the 1870s when women from the gentry and more privileged classes were an overwhelmingly dominant force in the movement. Representatives from all walks of life, including women workers, were entering the movement. At least in one case, N.Grigor'eva, we know that she continued to take part in carrying out propaganda among her co-workers. She and A. Andreeva are also examples of pioneering female workers who not only expressed interest in revolutionary theory but actively propagandised it by setting up the first circles directed at their fellow women workers. 15 ibid., 153 Nevskii, Materialy dlia biograficheskogo slovaria sotsial-demokratov, vstupivshikh v rossiiskoe rabochee dvizhenie za period ot 1880 do 1905, 200 54 Chart 1: Social Origins of Revoliutsionerki of the 1880s Unknown Merchants / Clergy Peasantry Workers Gentry Intelligentsia Meshchanstvo Sluzhashchie During my research I did not encounter any further evidence of such circles in the latter part of the 1880s. The prosopographical data on other women is generally full giving an overall picture of the type of female revolutionaries engaged in the radical movement between 1870 and 1889. The majority of them came from privileged backgrounds and had access to good education. Indeed it was through their association in colleges or institutes that many of them came to believe (if not desire) that there was a need to change the society they lived in. Most female revolutionaries were young and in their early twenties when they entered the movement. So was the only woman worker for whom I have the date of birth. Generally there was a strong family connection among these participants. The data contains many examples of siblings taking part in the work of one organisation. The family connection was also established through the marriages between female and male group members. The hazardous nature of their work which included subversive propaganda, underground printing and manufacturing explosives did not preclude women from having children, 55 though questions and doubts were raised in the minds of some over the rights and wrongs of such decisions. Special women-only groups did exist but invariably they joined forces with male groups (as a result of a mutual decision) to become more effective in their work. What women did in the organisation did not on the whole differ from male occupations. Both genders carried out propaganda, printed clandestine Download 88.01 Kb. Do'stlaringiz bilan baham: |
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