Russia Olga Semyonova Documented What

Russia

Olga Semyonova documented what village life was like in late Tsarist Russia at the turn of the 20th century. It was a very difficult time, especially for women who had to deal with a range of problems including spousal abuse, handling the household economy and dealing with childbirth issues. Although a century has gone by since then, in many respects the woman's lot in Russia is not much better. They may have different issues with which to content, but yet they face myriad daily concerns.

Semyonova wrote that husbands often began beating their wives on the wedding night, if the woman showed any indication of prior sexual behavior. "A young husband who finds out his bride has not been chaste sometimes beats her cruelly on his wedding night"(21). This was just the beginning of such instances to come. "The peasants consider it a man's duty to beat his wife if she, as they say, 'brings home' another man's baby..." which happened, for example, when the man was a soldier and away from home for a period of time. However, many of the men beat their wives every time they got drunk. Or, in some cases, they would fall asleep on top of the woman after intercourse and not move for hours. Their wives would just have to lie their and accept their fate, or be beat up again.

Ironically, since the women were responsible for the economic situation of the household, many times she would be more concerned about what was doing the hitting rather than what was being hit. "The woman grieves more over a broken fork than she does over her swollen side" (21).

Among a young wife's responsibility was producing a new generation (95). Until she had a surviving child, she was not considered a full member of the household. Women were expected to work throughout their entire pregnancy, only given two to five days after the baby was born. Their husbands usually demanded sex only a couple of weeks after delivery. The difficult deliveries, rapid return to sex and hard work in the fields soon after birth were very difficult on the women and often led to collapsed uterus (18) and other physical problems. This painful condition would be semi-cured by the midwife. Despite how difficult it was to have enough food, a woman became pregnant many times, in some cases up to the age of 50.

Since the women were also responsible for the family economics and making sure there was enough food for all, abortions and infanticide were not unusual. In order to promote abortion, the local landlord gave them a brew of "Cossack juniper" that accelerated labor (57). Illegitimate or sickly and/or deformed babies were often killed or smothered in bed. A woman would give birth alone and dump the baby in a river or somewhere in the bushes. The author related one story where a widow put the newborn in a trunk for safekeeping after it was born and then threw it in the pond when no one was around. Healthy children could help the family with chores and in the fields, so they had a much better chance of surviving. Women did not receive much in return for their "labors." The husband owned the house, grain, animals and tools (124).

The situation on Russia does not appear much better these days. A number of minimal legal protections for women either have failed to address the existing conditions or to supply adequate support. In the 1990s, growing financial pressures and greatly reduced government programs forced women out of the households into employment, despite the fact that most available positions for females were as substandard and more difficult to obtain. Such conditions have resulted in a rising divorce rate, fewer marriages and a declining birthrate as well as the general deterioration of the family. Women's equality groups and social organizations have also begun advancing the cause of women's rights in what remains a strongly traditional society.

Based on surveys by the Country Studies Series by Federal Research Division of the Library of Congress, sexual harassment and violence against women grew increasingly in the 1990s. Over 13,000 rapes were reported in 1994, which means that several times that number of unreported crimes most likely occurred. In 1993, an approximate 14,000 women were murdered by their husbands or lovers, about twenty times the figure in the United States and several times the figure in Russia five years earlier. More than 300,000 other types of crimes, including spousal abuse, were committed against women in 1994; in 1996 the State Duma (the lower house of the Federal Assembly, Russia's parliament) drafted a law against domestic violence.

Working women still have the "double burden" of raising a family and bringing home an income. This has also increased the divorce rate and lowered the marriage rate. In 1993 the divorce rate was 4.5 per 1,000 population, compared with 4.1 a decade previous, and the marriage rate dropped from 10.5 per 1,000 population in 1983 to 7.5 in 1993. In 1992 some 17.2% of births were to unwed women. According to 1994 government statistics, about 20% of families were run by a single parent -- the mother in 94% of cases.

According to an article in Public Interest (2005), in 2001 the divorce rates continued to fall. Russia recorded three divorces for every four new marriages -- a breakup ratio even higher than that in Scandinavia. In 1990, under Russia's then-prevailing nuptiality patterns, marriage was almost universal -- and the odds of eventually divorcing were about 40%. By 1995, the odds of getting married had decreased to 75% -- while the odds of eventual divorce had risen to 50%. In just five years, a Russian woman's odds of establishing a lasting marriage declined from about three in five to three in eight. Since then, the odds of having a lasting marriage in Russia seem to have declined even more.