The Presidential Library collections disclose the history of the "women's issue" in Russia

On the eve of March 8, the Presidential Library proposes to turn over the electronic pages of publications that examine how the idea of ​​the social role of women and their rights changed in Russia.

In rare books from the Presidential Library collections, this sphere is considered not only by the law, but also interpreted by philosophers based on Christian values. So, for example, in V. Rozanov's book “The Family Question in Russia” (1903), which is directly relevant to women's rights, it is said: "The family is a phenomenon; the first to God church on earth. <...> respect for the family ... should be, of course, not legal, but moral and expressed in the general willingness to help, advise, in all kinds of it to serve ... ". The scientist insists that when drafting laws, "the very existence of the family, as a moral and authoritative force, as a respected force" should be taken into account.  

About the long-term, therestrial retreat of a Russian woman who constrained her will, ability, development, which took away her all human rights, except for the only one - procreation", the researcher M. Dietrich writes in her work "Russian Woman of Grand Princely Time" (1904).

In an electronic copy of the book by N. Blumazumov "The Rights and Significance of Women in Their Historical Appearance" (1880) it is said that women were respected and accepted on an equal basis only by religion: "... Christianity removed the stamp of estrangement and humiliation from women and acquired full the right to respect and good sympathy, witnessing and sanctifying the all-roundness of her human dignity and moral strength, which not only do not yield to male, but in other cases and relationships, life can even surpass them".

Apparently, the same views followed the first emperor of Russia, Peter I, who, carrying out global reforms in the country, pushed the women's half of Russia to progress. In addition to decrees and orders in this sphere, the successful second marriage of Peter Alekseevich undoubtedly affected her. "Marriage of Peter with Catherine was important in the public sense", V. Ikonnikov notes in the historical essay "Russian Woman on the eve of Peter the Great's Reform and After It" (1874) - she was alien to the customs of the Russian theater and therefore could not help her own example to further development of women's freedom. She was a kind hostess and in the absence of Peter more than once was the manager of court ceremonies. <...> Peter the Great conditioned the appearance of a woman in public places and at home meetings with a new dress; the ladies soon reconciled themselves to the foreign dress; the pleasures brought to the woman by going out into the light, were worth sacrificing an ancient dress. <...> Curiosity and sociability in a woman were excited".  

The achievements of Peter the Great in involving women in public life are noted by V. Mikhnevich in the book "The Russian Woman of the XVIII Century: Historical Studies" (1896): "With the easy hand of the apologists historians of the St. Petersburg Transformation Period, a steady opinion about the successes of women's independence went on around the world; marked its growth in social, legal and intellectual-cultural relations. This is undoubtedly true".

The years of active involvement of women in Russian public life are represented by the rare lifetime publications of Clara Zetkin: “The Economic Situation of a Woman” (1897) and “The Russian Woman in the Struggle for Freedom” (1900), which are kept in the Presidential Library. In 1910, at the Second International Socialist Women's Conference held in Copenhagen, it was Zetkin who proposed the establishment of the International Women's Day.

A number of editions of the beginning of the last century, for example, "The Rights of a Working Woman under Soviet Laws" (1925), tells us about the attitude toward women in the first years of Soviet power: "There are no formalities for marriage, it's very simple and easy. It's just as easy and simple to get a divorce. For you cannot really believe that people, once married, a century should live together. Under the Soviet law, the divorce is made without any difficulties, even if one of the spouses wants it - anyway, the wife or the husband. They receive an extract from the sub-department where they registered, and the end is over, the marriage is terminated", - the 1925 law states.

Being a unique electronic repository of materials on the history of Russian statehood, of which the so-called women's issue has become a part, the Presidential Library provides an opportunity to study it comprehensively. Various interpretations of this problem indicate that it does not lose relevance in our days.