Forgotten voices: Women in periodical publishing of late Imperial Russia, 1860-1905

This dissertation challenges the traditional depiction of intellectual life in late nineteenth-century Russia as being dominated by an elite group of male writers and editors. It instead posits the merits and importance of understanding a much broader "second tier" of individuals who used their literary skills for economic and social gain. The dissertation examines a case study of this "second tier," namely, women periodical publishers and editors. Both women and the types of journals they produced fall outside the traditional "canon" of male editors and thick journals which have hitherto typified the Russian intellectual forum in scholarship. Yet the majority of periodicals were not thick journals, nor were all publishers and editors male. In fact, the dissertation establishes that eight percent of all publishers and editors in St. Petersburg and Moscow, 1860-1900, were women. Further, an analysis of these women's activities reveals highly complex and varied motivations. Their periodicals hold a wealth of information about changing ideas, tastes, and ethics in the rapidly-evolving society of late Imperial Russia. Therefore, one major goal of the dissertation is to alert other historians and scholars to the large number of periodicals available as sources for further inquiry into a wide variety of social and cultural topics. The central focus, and major conclusion, of the dissertation is that Russian educated society was quite complex and, unlike many Western countries, women played a highly integrated role in the intellectual and economic dealings of this society. Women worked on journals dealing with a variety of topics, not just those concerned with women's issues. Furthermore, their editing and publishing enterprises accommodated both male and female participants, relatives and non-relatives. Russian women used publishing to expand their intellectual and economic opportunities. While the dissertation acknowledges Russian women's second-class status in the publishing world, it also clearly asserts the need to reevaluate their integrated economic and intellectual dealings in late Imperial Russia as well as assess the significance of this phenomenon in the wider European context.