Barbara T. Norton is Professor of History at Widener University.

Jehanne M Gheith is Associate Professor of Slavic and Women’s Studies at Duke University.

An Improper Profession

WOMEN, GENDER, AND JOURNALISM IN LATE IMPERIAL RUSSIA

Duke University Press

Copyright © 2001 Duke University Press
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-8223-2556-7

Contents

Abbreviations………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..xiList of Terms………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..xiiiNote on Dates, Transliteration, and Archival Citations……………………………………………………………………………………………………………1Introduction JEHANNE M GHEITH………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….26″A Larger Portion of the Public”: Female Readers, Fiction, and the Periodical Press in the Reign of Nicholas I MIRANDA BEAVEN REMNEK……………………………………..53Redefining the Perceptible: The Journalism(s) of Evgeniia Tur and Avdot’ia Panaeva JEHANNE M GHEITH…………………………………………………………………..74The Development of a Fashion Press in Late Imperial Russia: Moda: Zhurnal dlia svetskikh liudei CHRISTINE RUANE………………………………………………………..93″Provid[ing] Amusement for the Ladies”: The Rise of the Russian Women’s Magazine in the 1880s CAROLYN R. MARKS…………………………………………………………120Anna Volkova: From Merchant Wife to Feminist Journalist ADELE LINDENMEYR…………………………………………………………………………………………..140Meeting the Challenge: Russian Women Reporters and the Balkan Crises of the Late 1870s MARY F. ZIRIN………………………………………………………………….167Writing for Their Rights: Four Feminist Journalists: Mariia Chekhova, Liubov’ Gurevich, Mariia Pokrovskaia, and Ariadna Tyrkova ROCHELLE GOLDBERG RUTHCHILD…………………196Mariia Pokrovskaia and Zhenskii vestnik: Feminist Separatism in Theory and Practice LINDA EDMONDSON…………………………………………………………………..222Journalism as a Means of Empowerment: The Early Career of Ekaterina Kuskova BARBARA T. NORTON………………………………………………………………………..249Sources for the Study of Russian Women Journalists: A Bibliographic Essay JUNE PACHUTA FARRIS………………………………………………………………………..281Appendix: Checklist of Women Journalists in Imperial Russia……………………………………………………………………………………………………….311List of Contributors………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….313

Chapter One

“A Larger Portion of the Public” Female Readers, Fiction, and the Periodical Press in the Reign of Nicholas I

MIRANDA BEAVEN REMNEK

The involvement of women in Russian journalism-as readers as well as producers of periodicals-did not occur suddenly after the Great Reforms of Alexander II. During the reign of Nicholas I (1825-1855), many cultural initiatives laid the groundwork for developments later in the century. By then, as the following essays by Christine Ruane and Carolyn Marks show, women’s magazines sought to attract readers in various ways. One was by providing fiction, which under Nicholas I (as this essay seeks to demonstrate) brought increasing numbers of women to the reading of periodicals. Yet the extent of cultural diffusion in Nicholaevan Russia-and the role of women-continue to be underrepresented; a recent summary of the period from 1689 through the 1860s concluded that “literature and journals very much reflected an exclusive, largely noble, and generally male preserve in which the vast majority of Russians did not in any way participate.” An earlier study by Donald Fanger articulated the same notion: “Through the 1820s and early 1830s, readers of current literature with any pretensions to seriousness were largely concentrated in the capitals…. More often than not they knew each other socially, since both the production and consumption of literature … tended to be very much a class affair.”

Even so, Fanger went on to note, “in 1827 … this situation was drawing to a close.” In other words, the reading public was expanding from a single, male, largely noble (that is, aristocratic) audience; as suggested by a chorus of observations in the memoirs and journals of the period, it now included a series of increasingly “middle-class” publics differentiated according to class and sex. Indeed, historians have affirmed that the number of subscribers commanded by journals rose from an average of 600 to 1,200 per title in the 1820s to figures like 7,000 for Senkovskii’s popular Biblioteka dlia chteniia (Library for Reading) by 1837. It thus seems probable that reading audiences were expanding in the early reign of Nicholas I. But there needs to be further inquiry into the dimensions of the individual publics. Female readers, in England and elsewhere, have often been considered a factor in the expansion of reading audiences. And because the rise of novel reading is also seen as a contributing factor, I intend to focus on Russian women largely in terms of their interest in fiction-often obtained (in extract or in serialized form) from the periodical press.

As used here, the phrase “periodical press” denotes both journals and almanacs. Fiction was found more often in journals, but almanacs carried it (albeit in extract, given their pocket-size dimensions). Thus much of the evidence here will refer to almanacs as well as journals. Moreover, because fiction often appeared in periodicals, references in memoirs to novel reading are sometimes tantamount to references to journal reading and will occasionally be discussed without direct mention of periodicals. An emphasis on this aspect of women’s novel reading will reveal a body of previously neglected female readers during the Nicholaevan era; hence my title “A Larger Portion of the Public.” A variation of this phrase occurs in a well-known essay on reading in Russia published in 1802 by Nikolai Karamzin. My motive in adapting the phrase is to emphasize that even before the 1830s there appears to have been a larger public than we are often led to think. I also want to suggest, by linking the concept of female readers with readers of novels, that women may have constituted a larger portion of that public.

Students of the history of readership in general will be aware of the difficulties presented by the paucity of primary data. The study of intellectual reading habits is least problematic: intellectuals tend to leave a host of memoirs and the like. But the middle levels of society leave fewer records. There are other sources of data, such as journal and newspaper subscriptions, library circulation records, and censorship lists, but these are often scarce for periods such as the early nineteenth century. The difficulty becomes greater when the study involves women, for their traditional lack of visibility also applies to their reading. The problem is intensified when the study concerns a patriarchal society such as early-nineteenth-century Russia, in which women were not expected to follow intellectual pursuits. However, some memoirs exist, including one or two by obscure women in straitened circumstances. I also refer to belletristic literature, for although the use of literature as historical source material is considered risky by some, scholars such as A. V. Blium have advocated the judicious inclusion of this kind of evidence.

My final resource is a group of twenty-two subscription lists (almost 12,000 subscriptions) discovered in a variety of Russian imprints covering the period from 1825 to 1846, and, in particular, a cluster of five within this group that were taken from almanacs. The information in the lists is rich, often including full name, sex, title, profession, class, rank, and/or geographic provenance. The value of these data for readership history is clear; instead of a faceless group of 7,000 subscribers (associated with the record-breaking journal Biblioteka dlia chteniia), the individuals in these lists emerge as distinct readers, often with clearly marked roles in Russian society. Although the lists record subscribers, not readers, to estimate readership one need only point to a statement made in 1848 by Prince P. Viazemskii: “Sometimes a journal here has 4,000 to 5,000 subscribers, consequently up to 100,000 readers.”

Most of the lists were found in separately published editions, but five represent issues of almanacs published from 1825 to 1842. The information they provide about women is important to the study of women readers. Although the yearly almanacs-with an average edition size of 1,200 copies-could not match the circulation figures of monthly journals (by which almanacs were supplanted in the late 1830s), they were more vital than journals in the early reign of Nicholas I. Besides the fact that their popularity paralleled a vogue for almanacs throughout Europe, there was a practical reason for their currency in Russia. Because the censorship apparatus regarded periodical literature as dangerous owing to its wide appeal and frequency of publication, publishers turned to the serial almanac, which allowed more time for the resolution of censorship difficulties. Thus almanacs constituted a crucial element of the periodical literature available to readers in the second quarter of the century.

Fiction and the Periodical Press

In the early years of Nicholas I’s reign, poetry, not prose fiction, constituted the major vehicle of Russian literature, and almanacs, not journals, largely conveyed this genre to the educated Russian public. Almanacs themselves were hardly numerous until the appearance of titles such as Poliarnaia zvezda (Polar Star) in 1823, Mnemozina in 1824, and Severnye tsvety (Northern Flowers) in 1825, and poetry was also published in separate editions.

Before this, Russians had been well supplied with fiction in the form of foreign novels, often published in translation, separately and in journals. During the reign of Alexander I, popular novelists had included August Lafontaine, August von Kotzebue, Stphanie-Flicit de Genlis, and Ann Radcliffe. Their popularity continued well into the 1820s, although the years 1827-1829 are better known as marking the summit of Sir Walter Scott’s popularity in Russia. The picture changes with the 1830s. In Matvei Ol’khin’s bookstore catalog of 1846 (with coverage from 1831), translations of Scott have fallen to three entries and Radcliffe to only one, whereas Paul de Kock tops the list with thirty-six entries, followed by Eugne Sue, Alexandre Dumas, Honor de Balzac, George Sand, and James Fenimore Cooper.

As mentioned, novels were also published in journals, in extract or installments. In the late 1820s, three journals in particular published Western novels: Nikolai Grech’s Syn otechestva (Son of the Fatherland), Nikolai Polevoi’s Moskovskii telegraf (Moscow Telegraph), and Shalikov’s Damskii zhurnal (Ladies’ Journal). Syn otechestva and Moskovskii telegraf published Samuel Richardson, Scott, Victor Hugo, and Balzac, and lesser lights such as Lafontaine, Radcliffe, and Genlis. Damskii zhurnal was largely filled with tales by French women writers, some little known but others, like Genlis, of widespread popularity. Of the three, Syn otechestva survived longest into the 1830s and was joined by others that included novels among their offerings. Senkovskii’s Biblioteka dlia chteniia, established in 1834, was successful but controversial, not least because of Senkovskii’s habit of rewriting the endings of novels (for example, Balzac’s Pre Goriot). Mikhail Pogodin’s Moskovskii nabliudatel’ (Moscow Observer) published George Sand’s Simon in 1836, and Andrei Kraevskii’s Otechestvennye zapiski (Notes of the Fatherland), founded in 1839, published translations of Sand on a regular basis.

With the publication of Pushkin’s Evgenii Onegin (Eugene Onegin) beginning in 1825, Mikhail Lermontov’s Geroi nashego vremeni (Hero of Our Time) in 1840, and Nikolai Gogol’s Mertvye dushi (Dead Souls) in 1842, the period witnessed three first-rate works of Russian literature. Like foreign novels, the new Russian fiction often appeared in extract in journals and almanacs. Prior to its full edition of 1833, Onegin was included in extract in the almanac Severnye tsvety in 1827 and Nevskii al’manakh (Neva Almanac) in 1829, as well as in the journal Moskovskii vestnik (Moscow Messenger) in 1827 and 1828. Lermontov’s Geroi also appeared in Otechestvennye Zapiski. No one would dispute the significance of these novels, but their prestige has reinforced the view that the reading public was a small, discriminating coterie of like-minded men. And the tendency in literary studies to focus on canonized novels has obscured the fact that many other works were also widely read. Yet a full consideration of the contemporary public cannot ignore the cultural significance of such works or their readers.

The domestic novels of authors such as Faddei Bulgarin, Mikhail Zagoskin, and Ivan Lazhechnikov emerged in the late 1820s. Bulgarin’s Ivan Vyzhigin was featured in 1825-1827 in his own journal, Severnyi arkhiv (Northern Archive), before its best-selling edition of 1829, and extracts from his second novel, Dmitrii Samozvanets, appeared in Nevskii al’manakh (also in 1829). Zagoskin’s second major work, Roslavlev (1831), was published in extract in N. I. Nadezhdin’s journal Teleskop (Telescope), and his short novel Vecher na Khopre (Evening on the Hopyor) was included in the journal Biblioteka dlia chteniia in 1834. Lazhechnikov’s Poslednii Novik (The Last Novik) was issued serially in 1831, 1832, and 1833, and a chapter also appeared in the almanac Sirotka (Orphan) in 1831. His second major success, Ledianoi dom (Ice Palace), was featured in the almanac Dennitsa (Daybreak) in 1834 and was also serialized in Teleskop in 1834 and 1835, before its appearance in a separate edition. Thus, like journals, almanacs served as repositories for contemporary fiction. And some almanac editors, like some journal editors, catered specifically to the female audience: while P. N. Shalikov’s Damskii zhurnal was appearing in Moscow from 1823 to 1833, S. N. Glinka issued a similar publication from 1826 to 1829 entitled Moskovskii al’manakh dlia prekrasnogo pola (Moscow Almanac for the Fair Sex).

However, novel reading in general was widespread and increasing in the early years of Nicholas I’s reign. Analysis of the subscription list for Bulgarin’s best-seller Ivan Vyzhigin reveals that of 410 subscribers, those solely identifiable as aristocrats or landowners account for only 14. A larger number (179) identify themselves as military officers or civil servants; 73 others are noblemen whose service sphere is unspecified. In addition, 11 subscribers can be identified as professionals, and 44 as merchants. The number of subscriptions does not, of course, define the novel’s audience. (The first edition of 1829, a total of 4,000 copies, apparently sold out in three weeks, and two more editions in 1830 brought the total to 7,000 copies sold.) But the presence of 44 merchants (including, it is true, 16 booksellers) may already surprise those who have considered the reading public a small, homogeneous group.

If we then examine the subscribers according to their position in the Table of Ranks, and add the military, civil, and other nobles in the average-to-lower ranks (nine through fourteen) to the 44 merchants, the total is 123. If this figure is added to those whose status is similar or unspecified, and therefore probably low, the result is a group of middle-rank readers approaching 206 of 410 subscribers. Since the list of subscribers to Ivan Vyzhigin appeared in the 1820s before the impact of such novels had truly been felt, this figure, though imprecise, already suggests an expanding audience. In the case of Petr Ivanovich Vyzhigin (1831), the number of merchant subscribers increased to 16.9 percent (versus 10.7 percent for Ivan Vyzhigin), or 121 of 716 subscribers.

Female Readers

According to male memoirs, women read novels assiduously. Konstantin Batiushkov remembers the works of Mme. de Genlis as one of the “catechisms for young ladies.” Pushkin in 1830 laments ironically: “Our ladies … do not read [the critics] … instead they read that coarse Walter Scott.” Belinskii in 1836 portrays the reception of the journal Biblioteka dlia chteniia by the family of a provincial landowner and presents the daughter as drawn to the fiction of Zagoskin and Konstantin Masal’skii. The male view in belles lettres is equally suggestive. In a scene set in St. Petersburg in 1827, a visiting landowner complains to a bookseller: “My purse is empty! If it weren’t for my daughter … I wouldn’t buy your novel for anything.” In Bulgarin’s Ivan Vyzhigin, images range from the country gentlewoman Mrs. Gologordovskii and her “affable” daughters reading romances, to the name day feast of a provincial lawyer’s wife, who displays French journals, to the fifteen-year-old Grunia, who sits reading “La Nouvelle Hloise.” Thus we already have evidence of a female audience for novels, and indeed that male observers identified women with novels.

Evidence from women-often as condescending as the male portraits-makes it equally clear that novel reading was widespread. An Englishwoman in Russia in the late 1840s notes that well-born ladies were spending their leisure reading “silly French romances,” and she adds, “the amusements of the country ladies in winter are very few-driving in sledges, practicing piano, and reading French novels.” The memoirs of Russian women are also sometimes dismissive of novels. Praskov’ia Tatlina, from a Moscow clerical family, first read fiction at about the age of ten, in 1818. She delights in Christian Heinrich Spiess and Radcliffe, but not the moralizing tales of Mme. de Genlis. Two years later she reads Voltaire, whose tone is so disturbing to her traditional upbringing that she is tempted to throw the book on the fire.

This is exactly what another woman reader does. Nadezhda Sokhanskaia, an intense young gentlewoman from the Ukrainian steppe, is so frustrated by her reading material in the early 1840s that she begins to burn a trunk full of “brigand novels” (razboinichie romany). Her earlier reading had included journals such as Vestnik Evropy (European Herald)-begun by Karamzin in 1802-and writers such as Pushkin and Zhukovskii. Later she read a story by Gogol, published in 1834 in the almanac Novosel’e (Housewarming), as well as authors such as Radcliffe, Bulgarin, and Zagoskin, whom she read, at age eight, around 1831. Her further reading included Polevoi, Lazhechnikov, Marlinskii, Masal’skii, and even Franois August Rene Chateaubriand.

(Continues…)

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