Nadeschda Wassiljewna Stassowa

Nadezhda Vasilievna Stasova (Russian: Надежда Васильевна Стасова; June 24 [O.S. June 12] 1822 – October 9 [O.S. September 27] 1895) was a Russian educator, activist, and feminist of the 19th century.

Stasova was born into a noble and wealthy family; Tsar Alexander I of Russia was her godfather, and she received extensive private tutoring as a child. After experiencing family tragedy and personal disappointment as a young woman, she dedicated herself to women's education and economic empowerment. Alongside Anna Filosofova and Maria Trubnikova, Stasova was one of the earliest leaders of the Russian women's movement. Together, the three friends and allies were referred to as the "triumvirate".

The triumvirate founded and led several organizations designed to promote women's cultural and economic independence, including a publishing cooperative. Subsequently, the triumvirate pushed government officials to allow higher education for women, although continuing opposition meant that their successes were sometimes limited or reversed. Stasova eventually became the lead organizer of the Bestuzhev Courses in 1878, but a decade later was forced to resign under political pressure. In her final years, she continued her support for the cause of women's rights in Russia. Stasova died in 1895.

Early life

Stasova was born at Tsarskoye Selo, an imperial retreat near Saint Petersburg, on June 24 [O.S. June 12] 1822. Her parents were members of the Russian nobility. Her father, Vasily Petrovich Stasov, was a prominent architect, while her mother, Mariia Abramovna Suchkova, was from a military family. Tsar Alexander I of Russia was Stasova's godfather. Stasova, a middle child, had at least five brothers (including Vladimir and Dmitry) and a sister, Sofya. One of her nieces, Elena, became a well-known revolutionary and Bolshevik official.

Stasova's mother died in 1831 of cholera, when Stasova was nine years old. As a girl, Stasova was privately tutored by professors hired by her family and studied foreign languages, music, art, and etiquette. As she grew older, she frequently borrowed her father's books and read much French literature, including the work of the feminist George Sand. In later years, she regarded the childhood tutoring she received as frivolous and wrote that her father and brothers did not feel women required serious education; Stasova recalled that they would tease and belittle her.

As a young woman in her twenties, Stasova was engaged to a military officer. Shortly before their wedding, her fiancé, under severe parental pressure, left her and married another woman. Stasova, desolate, vowed that she would never marry. She spent a number of years abroad caring for her sister Sofya, to whom she was very close. Sofya died of consumption in 1858, at which point Stasova returned to Russia. Stasova decided to direct her energies away from her own family and towards the "universal family" of the needy and dispossessed. Discussing the limited options available to women at the time, Stasova later wrote that Russian feminists desired "not the moonlight, but rather the sunlight."

Career

Through Maria Vasilievna Trubnikova's salon, Stasova became connected with a large group of wealthy women concerned with the economic and educational status of women in Russia. Trubnikova, a translator and activist more than a decade younger than Stasova, actively sought to educate fellow women on feminist issues, seeing her salon as way to connect and empower them. Stasova, Trubnikova, and fellow feminist Anna Pavlovna Filosofova became close friends and allies, and were referred to by their contemporaries as the "triumvirate". The three became leaders of the feminist movement in the Russian Empire, though they did not describe themselves as feminists. The historian Richard Stites describes the triumvirate as "the three major [feminist] figures", who drew on support from wider circles of dozens of women who "moved in and out" of various roles.

The later author Ariadna Vladimirovna Tyrkova-Williams wrote that "[The triumvirate's] members perfectly complemented one another. The plans and will came from Trubnikova. Stasova's part was the performance, the persistence in doing the job. Filosofosva embodied spirituality and ethics." In contrast with the contemporaneous Russian nihilist movement, the members of the triumvirate were not radical in public style or fashion and were not ostracized by other members of the upper class for their work.

The triumvirate, alongside a number of other women, began organizing the Society for Cheap Lodgings and Other Benefits for the Citizens of St. Petersburg in 1859. The group had two factions, the "German party" and the "Russian party", which differed on their preferred approach. The "Germans" favored a then-traditional method of philanthropy that involved close supervision of the poor. The "Russians" focused on self-help and direct aid, attempting to avoid patronization and to maintain the privacy of those aided. In early 1861, the incipient organization split in two, with the Stasova–Trubnikova–Filosofova triumvirate leading the "Russians". A charter for their society, now smaller, was approved by the Tsarist government in February 1861. The organization provided housing and work as seamstresses to its female clients (primarily widows and wives whose husbands had abandoned them). It also operated a day care center and a communal kitchen.

In 1860, meanwhile, Stasova and her sister-in-law, Polixena Stasova, opened and helped to lead a school aimed at teaching literacy, as part of the brief Sunday school movement in Russia. The school, which served blue-collar women, was closed by the Russian government in 1862 as part of their broader crackdown on Sunday schools. In response, Stasova began teaching classes at her home instead. Stasova, along with the philanthropist Maria Mikhailovna Dondukova-Korsakova, was also involved with a shelter at the Kalinkinskaya Hospital treating prostitutes affected by sexually transmitted infections.

In 1863, the triumvirate, along with the activist Anna Nikolayevna Engelhardt, founded the Russian Women's Publishing Cooperative (Russian: Женский издательский кооператив, Zhenskaia Isdatel'skaia Kooperativ). Employing dozens of women, the cooperative focused on writing and translation. It published a wide variety of books, including textbooks, scientific works, and children's stories, such as Darwin's On the Origin of Species and Hans Christian Andersen's Fairy Tales. Stasova's role focused on handling business with printers, binders, and suppliers. Although it was initially successful, the cooperative never received governmental approval, and suffered financial difficulties after Stasova and Trubnikova later went abroad and its bookselling partner went bankrupt. Nevertheless, under Filosofova's management, it lasted until 1879.