Has Russia always been a “male” power? Where are the origins of Russian feminism? Why is the 13th century called the “gallant age”? The historian and writer Edward Radzinsky talks about this on February XNUMX at the author’s evening in the lecture hall “Direct Speech”. And he shared some of his thoughts on the relationship between woman and power in this essay written specifically for Psychologies.
In the XVIII century, which was called “gallant”, Russia really turned out to be the most gallant country. Only in our country the ladies ruled autocratically for almost a century. Sometimes these ladies deliberately humiliated men – and these were truly feminist merciless attacks. This was the last century when love ruled politics in Russia! In a way, it was natural. In the XVIII century, foreigners noted how women in Russia are more interesting and, most importantly, more sensual than men. The only country where a woman tried to kill the loving Casanova for treason was our homeland!
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- Do you love to play with fire?
But later everything changed. Capitalism has come to the world, and money began to rule politics, and women around the world began to fight for their rights. In Russia, ladies wrestlers also appeared, but the women themselves treated this struggle with derision. “I can believe in Christ or Buddha and be a minister of the interior, but I will never be a minister, I know the limit of my strength,” wrote one poetess.
The Bolsheviks, as you know, proclaimed the equality of women. All Clara Zetkins triumphed… However, as a result of this equality, women mysteriously disappeared from power. On the Mausoleum, as a rule, there was a male brotherhood, and the Bolshevik elite always had problems with the ladies of the heart. Stalin’s wife committed suicide, his beloved secretary Poskrebyshev – sat. I was sitting with President Kalinin. Molotov – sat. Even the legendary Marshal Budyonny’s wife spent years in prison. But under Khrushchev, during the great “Rehabilitation”, the ruined ladies returned to their husbands. And on the Mausoleum, admiring the power, stood Ekaterina Furtseva. She was obsequiously called Catherine the Great, but this is in vain – she was just a decoration.
Read more:
- “Women who have everything and want nothing”
As for our time, we are still a super-male power. Our deputy bravely dragged a lady deputy by the hair – and it was even somehow courageous. In our country, a girl was sentenced to a term for insulting a male president. But in another country, King Louis XIV, when he was insulted by a woman, broke his cane and threw it out the window, explaining: “A woman can only be hit with a flower …”. But this does not concern us. A woman in power traditionally remains with us all the same scenery.
We still honor the slogan: “A woman is a warrior’s rest.”
Read more:
- Strong women, strong men
Author’s evening by Edvard Radzinsky “Secret Russia”
“From Catherine I to Catherine II, the Great Russian Paradox extends: the kingdom of women empresses in a country of traditional women’s lack of rights! But this autocratic female realm harmoniously combined with the XNUMXth century, rightly called “gallant”. This was the last century when love ruled politics… And the then crowned politicians did not cowardly hide their love interests – they were proud of them. The nymph Empress Elizabeth, the masculine Anna Ioannovna, the weak-willed Anna Leopoldovna and the brilliant Catherine the Great – all of them left fiery love stories. The stories are sometimes tragic both for them and for the people. But it was in this female realm of love that a tragic, desperate attempt was made to break the autocracy in Russia.
February 13, Saturday, at 19.00
Moscow, Concert Hall. Tchaikovsky, Triumphalnaya Square, 4/31.
Tickets to lecture “Direct speech”.