It is the absolute régime that makes comrades of men and women struggling for emancipation. The oppression endured by both sexes is in fact the same.
The government has not always been an enemy of enlightenment, as it is to-day. The first steps of the woman’s rights movement were made through the influence of the rulers. Although polygamy did not exist in Russia, the country could not free itself from certain oriental influences. Hence the women of the property-owning class formerly lived in the harem (called terem). The women were shut off from the world; they had no education, often no rearing whatever; they were the victims of deadly ennui, ecstatic piety, lingering diseases, and drunkenness.
With a strong hand Peter the Great reformed the condition of Russian women. The terem was abolished; the Russian woman was permitted to see the world. In rough, uncivilized surroundings, in the midst of a brutal, sensuous people, woman’s release was not in all cases a gain for morality. It is impossible to become a woman of western Europe upon demand.
Catherine II saw that there must be a preparation for this emancipation. She created the Institute de demoiselles for girls of the upper classes. The instruction, borrowed from France, remained superficial enough; the women acquired a knowledge of French, a few accomplishments, polished manners, and an aristocratic bearing. For all that, it was then an achievement to educate young Russian women according to the standards of western Europe. The superficiality of the Institutka was recognized in the middle of the nineteenth century. Alexander II, the Tsarina, and her aunt, Helene Pavlovna, favored reforms. The emancipator of the serfs could also liberate women from their intellectual bondage.
Thus with the protection of the highest power, the first public lyceum for girls was established in 1857 in Russia. This was a day school for girls of all classes. What an innovation! To-day there are 350 of these lyceums, having over 10,000 women students. The curriculums resemble those of the German high schools for girls. None of these lyceums (except the humanistic lyceum for girls in Moscow), are equivalent to the German Gymnasiums or Realgymnasiums, nor even to the Oberrealschulen or Realschulen. This explains and justifies the refusal of the German universities to regard the leaving certificates of the Russian lyceums as equivalent to the Abiturienten certificate of the German schools. The compulsory studies in the girls’ lyceums are: Russian, French, religion, history, geography, geometry, algebra, a few natural sciences, dancing, and singing. The optional studies are German, English, Latin, music, and sewing. The lyceums of the large cities make foreign languages compulsory also; but these institutions are in the minority. In the natural sciences and in mathematics “much depends on the teacher.” A Russian woman wishing to study in the university must pass an entrance examination in Latin.
The first efforts to secure the higher education of women were made by a number of professors of the University of St. Petersburg in 1861. They opened courses for the instruction of adult women in the town hall. Simultaneously the Minister of War admitted a number of women to the St. Petersburg School of Medicine, this school being under his control.
However, the reaction began already in 1862. Instruction in the School of Medicine, as well as in the town hall, was discontinued. Then began the first exodus of Russian women students to Germany and Switzerland. But in St. Petersburg, in 1867, there was formed a society, under the presidency of Mrs. Conradi, to secure the reopening of the course for adult women. The society appealed to the first congress of Russian naturalists and physicians. This congress sent a petition, with the signatures of influential men, to the Minister of Public Instruction. In two years Mrs. Conradi was informed that the Minister would grant a two-year course for men and women in Russian literature and the natural sciences. The society accepted what was offered. It was little enough. Moreover, the society had to defray the cost of instruction; but it was denied the right to give examinations and confer degrees. All the teachers, however, taught without pay. In 1885 the society erected its own building in which to give its courses. The instruction was again discontinued in 1886. Once more the Russian women flocked to foreign countries. In 1889 the courses were again opened (Swiss influence on Russian youth was feared). The number of those enrolled in the courses was limited to 600 (of these only 3 per cent could be unorthodox, i.e. Jewish). These courses are still given in St. Petersburg. Recently the Council of Ministers empowered the Minister of Public Instruction to forbid women to attend university lectures; but those who have already been admitted, and find it impossible to attend other higher institutions of learning for girls, have been allowed to complete their course in the university. The present number of women hearers in Russian universities is 2130. A Russian woman doctor was admitted as a lecturer by the University of Moscow, but her appointment was not confirmed by the Minister of Public Instruction. She appealed thereupon to the Senate, declaring that the Russian laws nowhere prohibited women from acting as teachers in the universities; moreover, her medical degree gave her full power to do so. The decision of the Senate is still pending.
A recent law opens to women the calling of architect and of engineer. The work done on the Trans-Siberian Railroad by the woman engineer has given better satisfaction than any of the other work. A bill providing for the admission of women to the legal profession has been introduced but has not yet become law.
The Russian women medical students shared the vicissitudes of Russian university life for women. After 1862 they studied in Switzerland, where Miss Suslowa, in 1867, was the first woman to be given the doctor’s degree in Zurich. However, since the lack of doctors is very marked on the vast Russian plains, the government in 1872 opened special courses for women medical students in St. Petersburg. (In another institution courses were given for midwives and for women regimental surgeons.) The women completing the courses in St. Petersburg were not granted the doctor’s degree, however. The Russian women earned the doctor’s degree in the Russo-Turkish War (1877-1878); for ten years after this war women graduates of the St. Petersburg medical courses were granted degrees. Then these courses were closed in 1887. They were opened again in 1898. Under these difficult circumstances the Russian women secured their higher education.
In the elementary schools, for every 1000 women inhabitants there are only 13.1 women public school teachers. Of the 2,000,000 public school children, only 650,000 are girls. The number of illiterates in Russia varies from 70 to 80 per cent. The elementary school course in the country is only three years (it is five years in the cities).