WOMEN IN RUSSIAN CULTURE AND SOCIETY, 1700-1825; ED. BY WENDY ROSSLYN

"Women in Russian Culture and Society, 1700-1825 examines women in Russian history in three themed sections. It opens with a section on women and the arts which examines the active role of female artists in cultural production: noblewomen writing fiction, lower-class women in the theatre, journals for women, and women's travel writing. The second section on women's history reveals the procedures used by lower-class women to circumvent the ban on divorce by the Orthodox Church, the early effect of Westernisation on the dress of women at court, and the commercial activities of merchant widows who took over their husbands' businesses. The final section is devoted to femininity and the Church, and covers the religious argument in defence of female rulership, the experience of women in religious houses, and the missionary activity of British women in the Russian Empire."--BOOK JACKET.