Revolutionary Women in Russia, 1870-1917: A Study in Collective Biography

by Anna Hillyar

Most studies of the development of Marxism in Russia concentrate on male revolutionaries. It is only in the past twenty five years that scholars have begun to investigate the women who dedicated themselves to the cause of revolution. What then of the women who joined the revolutionary movement, and particularly the Bolshevik party, in their thousands? Revolutionary women in Russia is the first sustained analysis of female involvement in the revolutionary era of Russian history. By placing women centre stage, without exaggerating their involvement, this study enriches our understanding of women and revolutionary politics, and also provides a revealing insight in to this momentous period of Russian history. Revolutionary women in Russia is a powerful study of working women and Russian Marxism, which aims to engage readers with descriptions of 'real' revolutionary women. Based on a variety of sources that have not been previously translated into English, this book will appeal to all those with an interest in the Russian Revolution, twentieth-century history and gender studies.

Genres: History

256 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2000

Reviews

[Maja Solar · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this extraordinary history of revolutionary women in Russia from the 1860s onward, the author reconstructed the collective history of various women who in different ways contributed to the destruction of tsarist system. Based on the available database, the author told the stories about individual revolutionaries who were not only the part of female revolutionary elite but also the rank and file female agitators, women workers and peasants militants, and many other women who did play a significant part in carrying out the revolution