lectures were forbidden ; even the Sunday schools were closed all over Russia. Tchernyshevsky-a brilliant philosopher and political economist, whose martyrdom is not quite unknown in this countrywas transported to the mines in Siberia; as also Mikhailoff, his collaborator in the Contemporary review—a gifted writer and another champion of women's rights. The secret police had free entrance to the Universities, and the entire atmosphere in the University became such that several of the best professors-Kostomaroff and Stasulevitch being among them-left the University never to return to it. Even the programme of education in the girls' gymnasia was found too extensive and was curtailed-in the Natural Sciences. Educated women became la bête noire of the Government. In the Press all discussions about women's rights and women's education were pitilessly stopped by the censorship. Our women, however, did not silently bend before these prosecutions; they simply, and without much noise, went abroad to study in the German and Swiss Universities, which about that time opened their doors to ladies. A woman, as a rule, can live upon very little, and a Russian lady student knows in perfection the art of reducing her needs to a very low minimum. And yet, it will be a puzzle for many, how could Russian girls manage to go through a five or six years' course at a Swiss University, working hard, and having no more than twenty roubles-that is, very little over 21.-a month? Hundreds of girls were, however, so poor that they would have had to earn their living while studying, and as that was impossible abroad, they continued to go to St. Petersburg or to Moscow, in the hope of still getting there some education. And they met a hearty support from the University professors and from that same phalanx of ladies whom I have already mentioned, who continued to persevere in their aims, notwithstanding the rapidly growing reaction in the ruling spheres. A great impetus was given to the whole question by a quite personal step, taken by one of these ladies-Madame Conrady. She seized the opportunity of the first Congress of Russian Naturalists and Doctors at St. Petersburg, in 1867, to address to that gathering a memorandum upon the necessity of higher education for women. The memorandum was read at a public meeting of the Congress by Professor Famintsyn, and excited great enthusiasm both among men of science and the public. The Congress, which itself was held in suspicion by the Government, could certainly take no practical steps; it only undertook to transmit the memorandum, with its full approval, to the Ministry of Public Instruction. No reply came for a full year. Then a new memorandum, covered this time by 400 signatures, was addressed to the Dean of St. Petersburg University, Professor Kessler. The women asked the old Dean to take their cause in his hand. All they wanted was the permission to open regular University courses for ladies in the halls and laboratories of the University, in the evenings or at any such hours when they would not interfere with the work of the students. They undertook to cover all expenses themselves. The Dean's reply was very sympathetic: he would, however, summon a committee of the professors, and see with them what could be done. A final reply would then be given. The whole city [Miss Stasoff wrote]3 anxiously awaited that reply. ... More and more people grouped round us; the provinces were joining the movement. We were all on the move, seeing lots of new people and making acquaintances with the professors. At last the reply came. The Dean and the professors were very willing to help us, but they could decide nothing without an authorization from the Minister of Public Instruction, and with him we had to lodge a petition. This reply made the ladies very timid. It is not easy in Russia to enter into direct communication with a Minister; still less with the then Minister of Public Instruction, Count Th. Th. Tolstoi. After much discussion and running about, after interviews with the Director of the Medical Academy and many other persons, it was decided to convoke a meeting of the principal professors of both the 'University and the Medical Academy. But I had better give Miss Stasoff's account of this meeting as she related it in her memoirs. They wanted It was a wonderful gathering [she wrote]. To think only that we, a circle of women, should have called together the Councils of the University and of two Academies the Academy of Science and the Medical Academy. All Russian scientists of renown and about fifty women were present. After the election of a chairman, Professor Syechenoff plainly asked: 'What do you wish to organise?' Madame Troubnikoff explained their wishes in the same plain way. to bring the education of women to the same level as that of men. deléeff spoke. I place the whole question on its practical ground,' he said, 'and I raise, to begin with, the question of money. From what you have just said it appears that you want to have a full women's University. This is a splendid idea, which long since ought to have been promoted, and you all who took that initiative deserve the greatest respect. I think that we all, whom you have honoured with your invitation to be your collaborators, must thank you, and I, for my account, deeply thank you for that.' He stood up and bowed to us. All followed his example. But, then, what money have you for that?' he continued... and he enumerated the chief expenses. We answered that 'we have nothing, except the 51. which each of the 400 signatories of the memorandum are willing to pay.' Mendeléeff and all others smiled. "You begin an enterprise which will cost millions, and you have only 6,000 roubles a year,' he said. But the other professors remarked that a small beginning could also be made. . . . When the ladies asked how much the professor's fees may come to, Syechenoff proposed to settle the question by secret ballot. And what was the result? All had written: For the first year, no payment at all. We were awfully confused. ... ... ... Finally it was decided that all income must be spent in renting a house, arranging laboratories, and so on. If there remains any In many parts of this article I follow the admirable Reminiscences about my Sister, which were published last year by V. Stasoff in the monthly issues of the Nedelya. In these 'Reminiscences,' V. Stasoff utilised his sister's memoirs, as well as reminiscences about her, written by several of her friends and collaborators. thing, it will be paid to the professors, who will divide it in equal parts among themselves. In reality, when the higher courses were opened later on, and the professors could be paid, most of them returned their fees to the courses, often adding subscriptions of their own.4 Notwithstanding the warm sympathy which the scheme found with the St. Petersburg professors, it took almost two years to obtain from the Ministry of Public Instruction the permission to make a start. In the meantime, the ladies organised a number of drawing-room lectures, in various parts of the town, for those girls who were not quite ready to begin University studies. Besides, in 1868, they opened 'Pedagogical Courses,' with the idea of preparing teachers for girls' schools and of giving pedagogical instruction to future mothers, and these courses were soon attended by from 200 to 300 women, anxious to obtain a sort of intermediate education between the gymnasium and the expected University. The whole was organised and supported entirely by the women themselves. 6 At last, in December 1869, the reply came. The permission was given to open-not at all a women's University, but, Lectures for Persons of Both Sexes,' in history, Russian literature, physics, inorganic and organic chemistry, botany, zoology and geology, anatomy of man and physiology. The programme of these courses had to be the same as in the University, but the full course in each subject had to be completed in two years. That meant even less than a half University. Nor could the lectures be delivered in the University, where the students might have had access to the laboratories. censorship, which must be considered shameful even for Russia, was applied to those courses-the professors being placed under the obligation of sending detailed syllabuses of their lectures to the Third Section (State Secret Police); very often they had to wait months before the approval would come. And finally, the students received no degrees and no rights whatever. A This reply brought with it much consternation and disappointment; but, after a hot discussion at a general meeting, the ladies decided to accept the mutilated gift, such as it was. New difficulties, however, arose. The women being too poor to have their own house yet, the Minister of War-Milutin-offered the halls and the • It must not be imagined that a Russian professor is a well-remunerated person. This is how Miss Stasoff described the life of one of these-the most enthusiastic promoter of the women's University. True his wife was always a great aid to him. I remember them since 1864, when they lived in a tiny apartment on the Vassili Ostrov. They had already three children. He was out when I came, and I found his wife on the sofa nursing her baby; two other girls, Katya and Sonya, three and two years old, were playing at her side. She corrected the proofs of her husband's new work; and on the sofa, by her side, stood a full basket of stockings and linen which she had to mend. They kept only one servant-a plain peasant woman.'V. Stasoff's Remembrances of my Sister. But University laboratories of the Military Medical Academy. professors who are under the Ministry of Public Instruction could not lecture in a building which belonged to another Ministry without a special permission. This difficulty, however, was soon settled. The Minister of Public Instruction, Count Th. Tolstoi, did not want to appear before the ladies less liberal than Milutin, and went so far as to lend part of a building which was at his personal disposal. At last, on the 20th of January, 1870, the first of the 'Lectures for Persons of both Sexes' took place. The lectures had to be delivered in the evenings; and in order to do some laboratory work the students had to seek refuge in various laboratories, which could be had only on Sundays when they were not wanted for their own students (the chemical laboratory of the Artillery Department was of that number). And yet women flocked to these lectures; in the first year their number already was 740. Count Tolstoi himself attended the physiology lectures of Professor Ovsiannikoff, from the very beginning, saying to one of the lady organisers: 'I feel a gap in my education; I don't know physiology and anatomy '—which did not prevent him from persecuting Natural Sciences in the boys' and the girls' gymnasia. access. Knowing how poor most of the girls were, the yearly fee was reduced to 108., and yet many had to be freed from the payment of even that modest sum. The Government contributed only 100%. a year. A society was consequently organised by the lady initiators to support the courses, but it was not allowed to raise public subscriptions through the Press. All the business part of the courses was conducted by a committee of ladies, and a better organisation of these matters could not be desired, although the number of students steadily increased, so as to reach 1,027 in 1889. These courses became a purely women's institution when they were removed, in 1874, to the lecture rooms of a girls' gymnasium whereto men had no Those who wanted to get a complete University education or a professional training surely could not be satisfied with these 'lectures,' and many women went to Germany, and especially to Zürich, where they could study and work at the University and at the admirable polytechnic school without any restrictions. Over a hundred Russian women (108) were at Zürich in 1872; and how they studied may be seen from the most eulogistic memoir issued by the Zürich professors in defence of the admission of women to the Universities. The Russian Government received many a warning from different sides about that emigration of Russian women abroad. The memoir addressed to Alexander the Second by the old Prince of Oldenburg urged the necessity of opening at once full Universities for women in every University town. If Russian girls go to Heidelberg and to Zürich,' he wrote, 'they are moved by the desire of studying this or that branch of science under the guidance of experienced professors, either to use that knowledge later on as a profession, or merely for the sake of thorough scientific education itself.' His conclusion was that half-measures would not stop the emigration. In 1872 the Government grew, however, alarmed by the reports which it received from Zürich. The ladies there, it was said, came in contact with P. Lavroff, M. Bakunin, and other emigrants; they became Socialists and Revolutionists, and joined the International Labour movement. Whereupon the Government issued its famous circular ordering all lady students to return home within a year, and adding that those who should continue to stay at Zurich would not be allowed to pass any examination in Russia. But while uttering these menaces, the Government was bound to make at the same time some concessions, and it promised to organise University instruction for women in Russia itself. It did not entirely deceive the women by that promise. In St. Petersburg, at least, the previously founded lectures underwent a transformation, and were reopened in 1878 under the name of 'High Courses for Women!' They were divided into three faculties-philological, physico-mathematical and mathematical-and placed under the directorship of the well-known historian, Professor BestuzheffRumin. It would be needless to enumerate here all the petty difficulties which were put in the way of this new institution. Suffice it to say, that no statutes were ever made for it, and we thus had in Russia the unheard-of fact of a public institution which lived for eight years without any legal basis. What was given could thus be taken back at any moment, and so it happened, indeed, a few years later. The institution prospered, and at one time it had more than a thousand students. The professors were highly satisfied with the students' work, and on several occasions such men of science as Mendeléeff, the physiologist Syechenoff, the botanist Békétoff, and many others, expressed their satisfaction in letters and public speeches. Public sympathy supported the courses, and the Society for their maintenance grew every year, so that it was enabled, in 1885, to purchase a house of its own at the cost of 200,000 roubles (20,000l.). Quite a set of remarkable women came out of these High Courses-remarkable for the scientific work they have accomplished as well as for the high aspiration of working for the good of the country which inspired them. IV This was at St. Petersburg; but the same difficulties had to be overcome, and the same successes were realised, in other University towns. In the year 1863, before the reaction set in, the Ministry had VOL. XLIII-No. 251 K |