The events of the Russian revolutionary movement of the mid-nineteenth
century seem to come out of a Dostoevsky plot, while they were
themselves an inspiration to the great literature of the time. ---- The
historiography of social movements has often betrayed the role of female
revolutionaries, eluding their protagonism, or on the contrary
celebrated their presence to underline the aspects of conflict, open or
implicit, with the male revolutionary side. ---- Although both of these
perspectives are sometimes true, what is lost is the overall vision that
appears in the relationship, difficult or equal, depending on the
historical contexts analyzed, between revolutionaries and
revolutionaries. The attempt of this work of mine is therefore to
restore the depth of the anti-tsarist Russian revolutionary process - in
particular between 1860 and 1881 - by intertwining all the protagonists
who were stirring underground.
Historical research confirms the relevance and originality of this
experience, and my text, divided into three parts, offers a significant
insight into it, through two essays and the autobiographical stories of
the Russian anarchist Olimpia Kutuzova Cafiero.
The social background of that unitary process which takes the name of
Russian populism is that of o bshcina, the community and cooperative
tradition of the Russian peasant world which was a completely new
reality for the rest of nineteenth-century Europe. This social nucleus
was characterized by a rigid patriarchal structure which also exerted a
fascination on the political avant-gardes who saw in it the concrete and
possible substratum of a society of equals outside and against state
oppression.
It was at the center of the ideal debate between Marx, who had different
positions on it to the point of proposing its defense by the
revolutionary side, and Bakunin who immediately and with greater
critical sense underlined the negative and reactionary aspects of its
conservative and explicitly patriarchal.
The relationship with the Russian peasant world became the heart of the
reflections and practices of a new generation of young women and men,
committed to raising the people against the tsarist yoke.
In the feminist world, in particular, irreconcilable conflicts split and
worsened between the nihilists and the liberals: the latter, directed by
the triumvirate of Marja Vasil'evna Trubnikova, Nadezhda Vasil'evna
Stasova and Anna Pavlovna Filosofova, tried to reform the school system
, combating female illiteracy, through constant pressure on the tsar to
obtain access to higher education for the most educated women; on the
contrary, the young radicals with a nihilistic orientation, such as the
mathematician Sof'ja Vasil'evna Kovalevskaja and the future tsarist
Sof'ja Perovskaja, used girls' schools to propagate revolutionary ideas
among women, in an individual revolt that would involve the family and
marriage, defined as the source of "years of disappointing boredom and
domestic tyranny".
In both cases, thanks to the commitment of these feminist groups, dense
networks of self-help associations began to intertwine, albeit with
different purposes, such as schools, publishing initiatives,
professional clubs, self-managed printing houses, which were immediately
subject to very harsh state repression.
The open clash with the liberal reformists had at its center the
nihilistic rejection of the dimension of charity and charitable
philanthropism, "moving the reflection in depth within the private
sphere, in the family, within marriage, in sexual relations", and at a
later time, in social ones. «Who needs philanthropists and patronesses?»
the nihilists asked themselves sarcastically.
It is indisputable that the liberal project had no chance of making an
impact, due to its inability to address, even before resolving, the
dramatic living conditions of poor women, as he admitted in front of his
two daughters - now convinced revolutionaries - the Marja Trubnikova
herself, recognizing the futility of reformist pressure groups in an
autocratic and reactionary regime like the tsarist one.
Meanwhile, the radicalization of men and women, following the ferocious
persecution of the Russian state, accelerated the urgent demands for
social justice and liberation from tsarism, which will be the heart of
the nascent populism.
The best known, and among the most significant, event of the birth of
Russian populism is undoubtedly the "going to the people" of 1874, that
is, the summer in which students poured into the Russian countryside,
organizing a very active propaganda campaign among the peasants to raise
them against the tsar. That campaign, also known as the Crazy Summer,
became the first step of the Russian revolutionary movement, and had its
culmination with Vera Zasulich's assassination attempt on the hated
brutal governor of Petersburg, General Trepov, in 1878.
Vera Zasulich's gesture, far beyond her will, opened the conspiratorial,
clandestine and terrorist phase of the movement - its descent into the
underground - which would end with the assassination in March 1881 of
Tsar Alexander II, and with the noose for his attackers.
The attack, carried out using partisan guerrilla techniques, will be
organized and directed by women, who represented a third of the
leadership of the clandestine movement of the Narodanja Volja, to which
they also contributed from a theoretical point of view, on predominantly
anti-Jacobin positions , not denying in any way the need for an armed
struggle.
The story of the Russian nihilists and populists has undoubtedly had a
cosmopolitan and transnational character. The biography of Olimpia
Kutuzova, known as Lipa, is perhaps one of the most clarifying examples
of the link between the Russian and Italian revolutionary movements. She
belongs to the close circle of Bakunin's associates - a context in which
she will meet and become romantically linked to the young revolutionary
Carlo Cafiero - she Lipa will be among the protagonists of the "going to
the people" and of the actions of connection and support of the
anti-tsarist terrorist attacks.
His life - also reported by the unpublished publication, within my
research work, of two autobiographical stories, accompanied by
photographs and reproductions of the letters and some postcards - will
be divided between Russia and Italy, a country in which he daringly
returned in 1883, after an incredible escape from forced residence in
Ishim , in a last-ditch attempt to avoid Cafiero being sent to a mental
hospital.
In conclusion, it is possible, through the reconstruction of the
biographies of Russian revolutionaries of the second half of the
nineteenth century, to understand the international link of a complex
history that develops and unravels through the origins of Russian
radical feminism, the birth of the European revolutionary movement and
the development of socialism in Italy.
Martina Guerrini
Website references:
https://lnx.bfs.it/edizioni/index.php
https://martinaguerrini.wordpress.com/
http://alternativalibertaria.fdca.it/
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
century seem to come out of a Dostoevsky plot, while they were
themselves an inspiration to the great literature of the time. ---- The
historiography of social movements has often betrayed the role of female
revolutionaries, eluding their protagonism, or on the contrary
celebrated their presence to underline the aspects of conflict, open or
implicit, with the male revolutionary side. ---- Although both of these
perspectives are sometimes true, what is lost is the overall vision that
appears in the relationship, difficult or equal, depending on the
historical contexts analyzed, between revolutionaries and
revolutionaries. The attempt of this work of mine is therefore to
restore the depth of the anti-tsarist Russian revolutionary process - in
particular between 1860 and 1881 - by intertwining all the protagonists
who were stirring underground.
Historical research confirms the relevance and originality of this
experience, and my text, divided into three parts, offers a significant
insight into it, through two essays and the autobiographical stories of
the Russian anarchist Olimpia Kutuzova Cafiero.
The social background of that unitary process which takes the name of
Russian populism is that of o bshcina, the community and cooperative
tradition of the Russian peasant world which was a completely new
reality for the rest of nineteenth-century Europe. This social nucleus
was characterized by a rigid patriarchal structure which also exerted a
fascination on the political avant-gardes who saw in it the concrete and
possible substratum of a society of equals outside and against state
oppression.
It was at the center of the ideal debate between Marx, who had different
positions on it to the point of proposing its defense by the
revolutionary side, and Bakunin who immediately and with greater
critical sense underlined the negative and reactionary aspects of its
conservative and explicitly patriarchal.
The relationship with the Russian peasant world became the heart of the
reflections and practices of a new generation of young women and men,
committed to raising the people against the tsarist yoke.
In the feminist world, in particular, irreconcilable conflicts split and
worsened between the nihilists and the liberals: the latter, directed by
the triumvirate of Marja Vasil'evna Trubnikova, Nadezhda Vasil'evna
Stasova and Anna Pavlovna Filosofova, tried to reform the school system
, combating female illiteracy, through constant pressure on the tsar to
obtain access to higher education for the most educated women; on the
contrary, the young radicals with a nihilistic orientation, such as the
mathematician Sof'ja Vasil'evna Kovalevskaja and the future tsarist
Sof'ja Perovskaja, used girls' schools to propagate revolutionary ideas
among women, in an individual revolt that would involve the family and
marriage, defined as the source of "years of disappointing boredom and
domestic tyranny".
In both cases, thanks to the commitment of these feminist groups, dense
networks of self-help associations began to intertwine, albeit with
different purposes, such as schools, publishing initiatives,
professional clubs, self-managed printing houses, which were immediately
subject to very harsh state repression.
The open clash with the liberal reformists had at its center the
nihilistic rejection of the dimension of charity and charitable
philanthropism, "moving the reflection in depth within the private
sphere, in the family, within marriage, in sexual relations", and at a
later time, in social ones. «Who needs philanthropists and patronesses?»
the nihilists asked themselves sarcastically.
It is indisputable that the liberal project had no chance of making an
impact, due to its inability to address, even before resolving, the
dramatic living conditions of poor women, as he admitted in front of his
two daughters - now convinced revolutionaries - the Marja Trubnikova
herself, recognizing the futility of reformist pressure groups in an
autocratic and reactionary regime like the tsarist one.
Meanwhile, the radicalization of men and women, following the ferocious
persecution of the Russian state, accelerated the urgent demands for
social justice and liberation from tsarism, which will be the heart of
the nascent populism.
The best known, and among the most significant, event of the birth of
Russian populism is undoubtedly the "going to the people" of 1874, that
is, the summer in which students poured into the Russian countryside,
organizing a very active propaganda campaign among the peasants to raise
them against the tsar. That campaign, also known as the Crazy Summer,
became the first step of the Russian revolutionary movement, and had its
culmination with Vera Zasulich's assassination attempt on the hated
brutal governor of Petersburg, General Trepov, in 1878.
Vera Zasulich's gesture, far beyond her will, opened the conspiratorial,
clandestine and terrorist phase of the movement - its descent into the
underground - which would end with the assassination in March 1881 of
Tsar Alexander II, and with the noose for his attackers.
The attack, carried out using partisan guerrilla techniques, will be
organized and directed by women, who represented a third of the
leadership of the clandestine movement of the Narodanja Volja, to which
they also contributed from a theoretical point of view, on predominantly
anti-Jacobin positions , not denying in any way the need for an armed
struggle.
The story of the Russian nihilists and populists has undoubtedly had a
cosmopolitan and transnational character. The biography of Olimpia
Kutuzova, known as Lipa, is perhaps one of the most clarifying examples
of the link between the Russian and Italian revolutionary movements. She
belongs to the close circle of Bakunin's associates - a context in which
she will meet and become romantically linked to the young revolutionary
Carlo Cafiero - she Lipa will be among the protagonists of the "going to
the people" and of the actions of connection and support of the
anti-tsarist terrorist attacks.
His life - also reported by the unpublished publication, within my
research work, of two autobiographical stories, accompanied by
photographs and reproductions of the letters and some postcards - will
be divided between Russia and Italy, a country in which he daringly
returned in 1883, after an incredible escape from forced residence in
Ishim , in a last-ditch attempt to avoid Cafiero being sent to a mental
hospital.
In conclusion, it is possible, through the reconstruction of the
biographies of Russian revolutionaries of the second half of the
nineteenth century, to understand the international link of a complex
history that develops and unravels through the origins of Russian
radical feminism, the birth of the European revolutionary movement and
the development of socialism in Italy.
Martina Guerrini
Website references:
https://lnx.bfs.it/edizioni/index.php
https://martinaguerrini.wordpress.com/
http://alternativalibertaria.fdca.it/
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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