Feminist Publications and Publishers Inst. Petersburg, 1899-1917 (original) (raw)

2006, The Soviet and Post-Soviet Review

Editing and publishing periodicals by women was not unusual in Russia. Between 1860 and 1905, over two hundred thirty women received government approval for such activity.' As the numbers of literate women grew, so did publications addressing their interests, but for the most part these focused on traditionally accepted subjects, such as fashion, food, charity, and childrearing.2 Several more "serious" journals for women attempted to move beyond socially prescribed realms, but they proved short-lived, financially precarious, and unable to attract subscribers. Thick journals, appealing to both men and women of the progressive intelligentsia, did publish articles by and about women. Indeed in the 1890s, with Liubov' Gurevich at its helm, Severnyi vestnik (Northern H:erald), filled with women's writing, was dubbed "Zhenskii vestnik" (Women's Herald).3 But it was not until the turn of the twentieth century, spurred by social and political upheavals in Russian society and the rise of the international women's movement, that a longer-lasting and more visible feminist press emerged. By this I mean publications promoting full equality for women and projecting their vision of the emancipated woman. Feminist publishing was nowhere easy, even in countries without censorship. The U.S. suffragist leaders Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton's The Revolution survived two and a half years under a constant cloud of debt and a struggle for advertisers, subscribers and backers 4 French feminist physician Madeleine Pelletier's La Suffragiste (The Suffragist) remained in print from