"Women's Question" in Russia at the Beginning of the XX-th Century: Political and Legal Aspects

The political and legal status of a woman and her place in society are a problem that has not lost its relevance at the present stage of development of society and the state. Today, the study of a woman's position and her involvement in political life is one of the most important and significant problems, since in the formation of a democratic state, human and civil rights are proclaimed "the highest value", and the state considers it a priority duty to observe and protect these rights and freedoms. The paper investigates the political and legal aspects of the "women's question", including the struggle of women for education and upbringing reform, the agrarian question and the position of the peasant woman, as well as issues related to the struggle of women for political equality. The chronological framework of the study includes the period from the beginning of the 20th century to the holding of the First All-Russian Women's Congress in St. Petersburg in 1908. The choice of the time period under consideration is due to the fact that the "women's issue" was given intense attention in the period from 1860 to 1870. By the turn of the century, it became difficult to add more to this problem. However, thanks to this special attention, there have been shifts in issues of women's education, the idea of equal rights for men and women has been adopted in the circles of the intelligentsia. The level of women's self-awareness reached heights, women's magazines began to appear, which dealt with the coverage of the most pressing women's issues. In addition, it was in 1906 that the issue of women's struggle for political equality was most acute, since it was in this chronological period that the State Duma of the first convocation began its activities, of which women could not become members there. The main goal of this graduate qualification work is to reconstruct the process of women's struggle for equality in pre-revolutionary Russia, to reveal the main political and legal aspects of this activity and to assess its significance for modern and legal political thought. The work consists of an introduction, four chapters, a conclusion and a list of sources. The first chapter is devoted to the origins of the formation of the women's movement, it examines in detail the position of women in society and her social and legal status, and also gives a detailed description of the reasons and prerequisites for the emergence of the women's movement in Russia. The second chapter reveals the actors of the women's movement, namely its leaders and the women's organizations themselves: their forms, tasks and directions of activity, and also reveals the role of the women's periodicals in the struggle for equality. The third chapter is devoted to the analysis of the social aspects of the "women's question". It examines in detail the struggle of women for education and upbringing reform, as well as examines the problems of female labor and the position of the peasant woman in the countryside. And finally, the fourth chapter reveals the political aspects of the "women's question", namely the struggle of women for political equality, the attitude of political parties to women's equality and the activities of the Women's Progressive Party.