Equality and Revolution: Women’s Rights in the Russian Empire, 1905–1917

Chapter 4

4 The Fight for Equal Rights in the Russian Dumas and Finland The son of a female slave cannot be a citizen. —Trudovik Duma representative S. M. Ryzhkov,  Our victory is in all cases great, and the more so as the proposal has been adopted almost without opposition. The gratitude which we women feel is mingled with the knowledge that we are much less worthy of this great success than the women of England and America who have struggled so long and so faithfully, with much more energy and perseverance than we. —Finnish suffragist Alexandra Gripenberg,  T   Russian parliament, the “Duma of popular hopes,” opened on April , . Kadet leader Paul Miliukov called it the “first day of Russian political freedom!”₁ As the newly elected deputies headed toward the capital, they were met at each station by crowds, handed handwritten instructions, and urged to “give us land and liberty!”² Although almost invisible in most accounts of this Duma, the popular notion of liberty often included women. Initially, feminist activists were far from united about the Duma and its potential usefulness. While they saw political rights as the key to the attainment of equality for women in all spheres of the nation’s life, they differed on the means to achieve those rights. The Social Democrats and Socialist Revolutionaries boycotted the elections. The Women’s Union, reflecting a strong socialist presence, had at its Second Delegate Congress approved a resolution of support for the boycott. But sentiment for this position did not last long. Union chapters were guaranteed autonomy; a minority of chapters disregarded the resolution from the beginning. Members of these 72 chapters argued that the pre-electoral agitation could be used for political education and the unification of the masses.³ By the time the Union’s Third Delegate Congress convened on May , , elections had been held, the Duma had met for almost a month, and Union members were working with Trudovik and Kadet representatives. The lifting of the boycott was merely a belated reflection of reality. Still, members from the Pskov chapter voted against removing the ban.⁴ The changes in the Union’s position reflected not only the shifting political conditions but developments within the organization. By May many members sympathetic to the socialists had become disillusioned, left the Union, or felt the sting of widening government repression. Those who remained either favored a legal, parliamentary approach or saw it as the best strategy for the moment.₅ Once the election results were tallied, women’s rights supporters had good reason for optimism about the new legislature. Delegates from prosuffrage left and center parties predominated. If they combined forces, the Kadets and the populist Trudoviks had a clear majority. At the Kadet’s Third Congress, held five days before the opening of the Duma to discuss tactics, the first point on the list of proposals to be brought before the new legislative body was “the realization through legislative norms of . . . the equality of all citizens—without distinction of nationality, religion, class and sex—and freedom; the introduction of universal , equal, direct and secret voting, without distinction of sex, in both national and local elections.” This was to be accomplished, according to the second point of the tactical program, even if such a strategy led to “an open break with the government.”₆ Influencing the Duma required some shift in focus. In the political struggles during  and early , women’s rights supporters were able to participate directly in many of the debates, as was the case with Anna Miliukova and Ariadna Tyrkova during the Kadet congresses, with Maria Chekhova and Olga Kaidanova in the Teachers Union, and with women in the Social Democratic and Socialist Revolutionary parties. In the Duma women had to rely on other tactics, however, as they were barred from voting or holding office. With the Union vote officially lifting the organization’s boycott, debate now centered on the question of tactics. How could the Union best influence the men of the Duma? Some advanced the idea of designating a press correspondent for Soiuz zhenshchin (Union of women), the proposed Union journal. Union member E. P. Gromnitskaia suggested choosing three members of the organization to be de facto Duma representatives, attending all sessions of the new parliament.⁷ 73 THE FIGHT FOR EQUAL RIGHTS IN THE RUSSIAN DUMAS AND FINLAND Others advocated for recruiting two Duma deputies to join...