Women's Bulletin - (Zhenskiy vestnik / Women's Bulletin), Issue No. 1 ,September 1866

St Petersburg: Printing house of Ryumin, 1866. First Edition, First Issue. Hardcover. Good. “The Woman Question”: Very First Issue of One of the First Socio-Political Journals about and by Women

(Zhenskiy vestnik), No. 1 September. (St Petersburg): Printing house of Ryumin, 1866.
1 Blank leaf + Front wrapper + 2 leaves = (announcement) + TP + 1 leaf = (contents of book 1) + [I] - iv = (women’s business) + [1] - 190 + [1] - 89 = (Modern Review) + 2 leaves + TP ( / / = RUTH. A novel. Mistress [Elizabeth] Gaskell) + [3] - 64 + TP ( / / = Vera Unvin / A novel) + [3] - 64 + rear wrapper + 1 blank leaf. Octavo.
First Edition, First Issue.

The inaugural first issue of Women’s Herald, one of the first socio-political magazines for women in Russia. The appearance of such a magazine catapulted the public political discussions in Russian intellectual circles about “The Woman Question”: notions and possibilities of women's emancipation and education. (Zhenskiy vestnik / Women’s Herald) had as its stated objective: to help “improve the social conditions for women in Russia.” It ran for less than two years, September 1866 to 1868.

“Discussions about family life and the role of women came under the heading of ‘the woman question.’ Women’s responses contributed to making it one of the burning issues of the day. There emerged three approaches to the woman question. One sought to liberalize the family and the relations between the sexes and to expand women’s prerogatives in the public sphere within politically acceptable limits. Another, which contemporaries called ‘nihilism,’ advocated more radical measures, contending that women should liberate themselves from ‘family despotism’ and that the patriarchal family should be radically altered, even, in the opinion of some, abolished altogether. The third also involved a radical stance, but concentrated on social and political change rather than personal change, wishing to postpone until the socialist future the resolution of many issues, the woman question included."

Chernyshevsky’s novel, What Is To Be Done?, was instrumental in helping find solutions to the new challenges young progressive women faced as they stepped increasingly away from the narrow traditional roles within family. Vera Pavlovna, the protagonist, seeks freedom and independence. “This book represents the first attempt by a Russian to combine utopian socialism and feminism… Chernyshevskii’s [sic] feminist message is powerful…By placing women’s oppression at the heart of his novel, and by linking its solution so firmly to socialism, Chernyshevskii increased men’s sensitivity to the woman question.” (Zhenskiy vestnik) continued to push the social questions that were at the very center of Chernyshevsky’s work, questions Dostoevsky was equally concerned about, albeit arriving at something far from socialism as the panacea.

Selective contents: V.A. Sleptsov, “Women's Business”; P.N. Tkachev, “The Impact of Economic Progress on the Position of Women in the Family”; G.I. Uspensky, “Doctors and Patients: Essays on Provincial Mores”; N.A. Blagoveshchensky, “Decrepitude and weakness.” Misanthrope letters. Criticism and bibliography, etc.

CONDITION: Good or better in contemporary half leather with marbled boards. A good amount of wear and scuffing to boards with bumping to edges and corners. Leather spine well worn. Contemporary label affixed to upper inner corner of front board with manuscript writing in ink. Lightly shaken, but holding firm. All original, no repairs done. A rare example—the very first issue—of a scarce women’s journal.


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