Women and Urban Culture

The Fading of the Ancien Régime Mentality

“…Over time, a number of other groups of women also gained full control of their property. 21 However, Russian marriage law in practice undermined the property rights of wives, and, thus, dowries maintained their importance in other propertied classes than the high aristocracy. 22 In Finland, as in Sweden, women had a right to inherit land, and, in urban districts, daughters and sons inherited equally.…”

“…95 Therefore, in late-imperial St Petersburg, aristocratic high society stuck to the past and continued to live as if it had nothing to worry about. 96 In 1908 in St Petersburg, the extravagance of the dresses and jewels of aristocratic ladies and the conspicuous aristocratic lifestyle shocked Elsa Brändström, the grown-up daughter of the Swedish ambassador. 97 Nonetheless, in St Petersburg, there were also Russian noble ladies who turned conventions such as fashion and salons into feminist tools.…”

Between Social Reformism and Conservatism: Soviet women under the Finnish occupation regime, 1941–1944

“…Moreover, these roles were exploited by the wartime Soviet propaganda, when women not only replaced men at the home front, as in all other belligerent states, but were also widely involved directly in combat activities. 31 Since women were not subject to compulsory conscription, the mechanisms of pre-war propaganda were put to active use to secure their voluntary enrolment into military service. Mayme Sevander, a Finnish-American immigrant who came to Soviet Karelia in 1934, refused an offer from the military intelligence to infiltrate into Finland as a spy due to poor knowledge of the Finnish language.…”

Motherhood and Survival in the Stalinist Gulag

“…By 1937, the number of women in higher education had grown to 43 percent. 5 But the goal of Bolshevik feminists such as Alexandra Kollontai for emancipating women from the kitchen and nursery went unfulfi lled. 6 Beginning in the 1930s, the Stalinist state instituted pro-natalist policies that reasserted maternity as a sacred duty of Soviet women, rewarded women who bore more than six children, imposed taxes on those between the ages of twenty and forty-fi ve who were childless, and criminalized abortion.…”