Image of the century

Elena Temicheva

Three zeroes going round and round the curved neck of two are hypnotizing us like a pendulum. They make us, sometimes against our will, immerse into memories and however reluctant we are to do it, strike some sort of balance, synthesize the past in collective ideas and visual images. This is the magic of the figure "2000". Let us also subject ourselves to this magic and try to think over the historical fate of women. Let us toss up to the sky, throw up to eternity a willful coin of history that will turn now heads, then tails. We will try to sum up the features of a Russian woman in the "images of the century" – let’s call them so – the features that could make her rise, outstand among her countrymen, keep her name remembered centuries later and make her glory reach the third millenium.

Let us turn the drum of history. The tenth century. Skipping the images of Russian wives sung in the songs of Russian epics, let us turn to the real personages of history. In order to be spoken about in Ancient Russia a woman had to be a righteous person "dressed in white" and serve faithfully to God, her husband and her people. One of the images of that time, "beneficial" for the present and future glory, was the "image of holiness". Its first embodiment was Princess Olga who received baptism among the first in Russia and influenced her grandson Vladimir known as the baptist of Russia. However, life and actions of Olga who ruled with her heavy hand over nobody less than valiant Svyatoslav, were far from holiness.

Her reign (lasting from 945 to 964) began with a cruel and witty revenge to a tribe of drevlyans guilty in her husband’s death. Ignorant of Olga’s temperament, the drevlyans sent quite a peaceful embassy to her offering their prince Mal instead of the late Igor. Without wasting time on negotiations, Olga ordered to bury the defiant drevlyans alive. The second embassy was burned alive. But the heart of the princess was still burning with revenge. She laid a tribute on drevlyans - three pigeons and three sparrows from each household. On receiving the birds she ordered to tie pieces of cotton waste soaked in sulfur to their legs and kindle them into flame. The innocent birds came back to their homes, and soon the capital of drevlyans Iskorosten was up in flames like Olga’s enraged soul. Five thousand men died in that fire. The masterful hand of Olga spread over Russia. The Ancient Russian "Iron Lady" regulated tribute collection from the lands belonging to Russia, held a monetary reform. Her diplomatic talents could be envied by anybody: the negotiations in Tsargrad affirmed her authority not only in Russia, but also in the Byzantine Empire.

The well-deserved fame of a righteous princess caught up with Olga only after her death; at first she was honored by laymen as a prudent ruler, which was going to become typical for the image of a woman of the 16-17th centuries. But Olga’s commitment to Christianity that outwent her time overbalanced everything else. It was as a saint that Olga (baptized Elena) has been remembered over the centuries; she designated the way which a Russian woman was to follow for her name to stay put in annals. That way stayed the same for long, and there are many examples of that in later history.

The eleventh century. Anna, remembered in the historical records as Anna of Novgorod, was a daughter of a Swedish king Olav and the wife of Great Prince Yaroslav the Wise. She was the first to show an example to great princes and princesses to admit to the veil. This tradition was adopted from Greek governors and had its Russian history started with Anna of Novgorod. It was extremely popular among Russian monarchs up to the 17th century. The veil aimed at establishing personal authority and expansion of the authority of the Church.

The fourteenth century. Anna Dmitrievna, the righteous princess, was the spouse of Great Prince Mikhail Yaroslavich of Tver. The Golden Horde warriors killed Anna’s husband and three sons – Dmitry, Constantine and Alexander. Mourning Anna admitted to the veil in the Sofia nunnery in Tver. All her life sister Anna strictly observed the fasts, helped the poor and the diseased. She was canonized after her death, and the princess stayed put in history under the name of Anna of Kashin, nobody less than the suitress before God for all people. That is how faith and holiness were valued in Russia. They were also highly praised in later times, but then many more ways to stay put in history were found.

Let us abandon Holy Russia, leave its righteous wives weeping in their sorrows, Pecheneg towns burning and monasteries being put up. Further, further on to worldly fame and secular women, to the royal throne and palatial chambers. Unfortunately, the image of a "common woman" does not show up yet. But distinguished birth alone is not enough for your deeds to be remembered and your face recognized on portraits by your descendants.

Under the conditions of the centralized state a woman could advance by assuming the reins of government, in other words by becoming the same Olga, not in her holy embodiment but as the ruler of the state. The first robin belonging to the "image of dominative dames" which took the first place in the scale of fame up to the 19th century was Elena Glinskaya.

In 1533, after the death of her husband who left the crown to his son (who was to become Ivan the Terrible) Elena Glinskaya was to govern the state together with the Boyar Council because her son was too young to become a Tsar. However, it was before long that she became a solitary governor of Russia.

During the five years of her regency with young Ivan under her rule Elena Vasilievna had a great success in politics: won the war with a Lithuanian king Sigizmund who had carelessly assumed that the state governed by a woman could not offer substantial resistance – and paid a high price for it. Due to intricate intrigues in international diplomacy she shaped the course at peaceful (diplomatic) enslaving of Kasan and Crimean khanates. This course of action was later followed in a military way by her son. Thanks to her long-sighted designs, there was an agreement reached with Sweden. Under Elena’s reign the walls of Kitai-Gorod were founded in Moscow. Being 30 years old she was full of ambitious ideas, but her career ended with a sudden death. It is said that she was poisoned. The fact of having power did not mean a woman would be able to use it. To do that she had to possess strong personality.

Switching to the eighteenth century. The Supreme Secret Council decided to promote Anna Ioannovna to the throne, as she seemed the most safe and resigned claimant. Anna was offered conditions which deprived her of practically all the rights at her high post. She agreed to them and came to Moscow to take the throne.

But the council members miscalculated about her. Anna Ioannovna was far from being resigned. Only three days later she tore the written conditions for everybody at court to see and repressed the members of the Secret Council. Ivan Dolgoruky was executed, his father and sisters were exiled, other noble families suffered too. After establishing herself on the throne, Anna Ioannovna entrusted the country to her German favorites. Biron’s ill deeds and Ushakov’s Secret Chancellery villainies were on her conscience.

Elizaveta and both Catherines are good examples of tsaritzas. But speaking of "dominative dames" we mean not only the empresses, but favorites at court, waiting-ladies who were close to their mistresses, skillful intriguants, wives of distinguished husbands – they all possessed serious power and ascended the very top of glory. But their glory was not long-lasting, it usually ended with their lives.

In the beginning of the 19th century patriotism took the first place among the desirable qualities of a Russian woman due to the well-known historical events. Women organized patriotic societies and circles, the bravest of them were raring to go to war as sisters of mercy. The most daring souls even pretended they were men to be accepted to the regular army as soldiers. The latter, known as "cavalry-women" (Nadezhda Durova, Elena Choba) are remembered as rare exceptions, while benefactors who contributed money to the wounded and their families are mostly forgotten, in spite of their being very famous social figures at that time.

But the image of "Decembrists" got its well-established position among the "images of the century" and lasted until our time. These women included both actual Decembrists: Trubetskaya, Volkonskaya and others whose deeds caused the contemporaries’ admiration and went on ravishing their descendants, and women who were "comrades-in-arms" to their husbands’. They shared the views and ideas of their spouses while also sharing their fate – following them to the exile and suffering all hardships together. The "wives" include the names of Elena Bonner (Sakharov’s wife) and Nadezhda Mandelstamm. The poet O. Mandelstamm and Academician A. Sakharov are a kind of Decembrists too – but living in the different century.

With active industrial, scientific, economical and political development of the society at the turn of the century the era of "the first" came. The fist woman reaching the Pole (M. Pronchischeva), the first woman-ambassador (A. Kollontai), the first woman-pilot (L. Zvereva), the first woman – tractor driver (P. Angelina), the fist woman-cosmonaut (V. Tereshkova) and others. Women were given rights and, therefore, a wide variety of social roles which they were not slow to take advantage of. Women began to shine in politics and science. With equal ease their names fit in encyclopedias and lists of political suspects.

Let us stop tossing up our coin and recall the images that led women to fame at all times. It certainly is the "image of beauties" and "image of art". As for the first of the two, there were no considerable changes here over the course of history: a beautiful woman won her fame among the contemporaries, and then this fame (as a historical fact or a legend – that had no actual difference) survived century after century, not fading but ever-increasing. It often was a spiritual or a literary kind of beauty, sung by poets and artists. Anna Kern, Natalya Goncharova, Lyubov Mendeleyeva – these women-muses could be also referred to the "image of beauties".

The second image could be characterized by gradual progressive advance. This advance, however, did not lack its sharp rises (middle 19th century, the Silver Age). The more remote the time, the harder it was for a woman to leave her trace in art. In the 18th century fame coming to women of literary profession was a very rare occasion (the example could be Anna Petrovna Bunina who was also called "Russian Sapphoe (?)", "Tenth Muse", "Northern Corinna"). In the late 19th – early 20th century there appeared a whole pleiad of female writers and poets. The same was true about artists, singers, actresses and other women who devoted themselves to art. One should not forget sportswomen whose position was established only in the 20th century.

In general, the 20th century was very favorable to all types of images we have named. Perhaps singularity, up to absurdity, becomes the main criterion in our age of subjectivism. The fame of scientists, artists, politicians is cloned with frightening speed in the society of information. It is not so prestigious any longer. Try and become famous of something unusual, the mentioned holiness, for example. So far the "image of singularity" is an ideal that is hard to reach. But who knows, maybe a thousand years later somebody will "draw" this image and assume it to be the Image of the Century, meaning the 21st century already.