Over 400 Women Signed the Petition for Opening the University': What the Single Signature Can Tell About the Women’s Movement

• In Event: Networks, Collaborations, and Identities: Women’s Agency in Late Imperial Russia and the Soviet Union

Abstract

In 1867, activists of the women’s movement launched a campaign to establish a university for women—a pivotal initiative that, despite frequent references in memoirs, has remained largely unexamined. In this research, I reconstruct the intricate network of these activists, drawing on newly uncovered archival sources. I explore the connections between St. Petersburg, the imperial capital, and what I term the "double peripheries"—Zugdidi, Smolensk, Kerch’, and Ekaterinoslav’—examining how the arguments and strategies employed by activists in the capital diverged from those in the regional peripheries. This study investigates two key dimensions: first, how women navigated negotiations with the central bureaucratic apparatus, and second, how they framed the necessity of collective action based on the specific needs and contexts of different regions

Author

• Masha Bratischeva, Scuola Normale Superiore (Italy)