THE JOURNAL OF REGIONAL HISTORY V.10 No.2
Old Believer Merchant Women: Women’s Social Activism in Kazan Governorate in the Mid‑19th – Early 20th Century
DOI:
Full text:
Women have always occupied a significant place in Old Belief, especially compared to the rest of the Orthodox society. At the same time, their activities did not extend beyond their confessional group, which, in the case of Old Belief, was associated with the private sphere as a whole. However, under the influence of industrial trends in Russian society in the middle and second half of the 19th century and the spread of feminist ideas, the wives of Old Believer merchants entered the extra‑confessional (public) space. This article analyses the forms and directions of social activity of Old Believer merchants’ wives in the socio‑economic life of Kazan Governorate in the second half of the 19th – early 20th centuries. Initially, merchants’ wives acted as their husbands’ assistants in entrepreneurship and charity. Available sources show that over time they became equal and independent actors. Although participation in private and organized charity was more common than entrepreneurship, women belonging to the Old Believer merchant community of Kazan and Kazan Governorate were represented almost equally in each of these spheres. Old Believer merchant women were engaged not only in the trade of various goods (haberdashery, flour, groceries, iron, copper, and ironware) but also in the production and processing of raw materials (confectionery and flour production, oil refining, and petroleum processing), and they were ship-owners. In the field of charity, Old Believer women initially worked within already existing or newly established societies in Kazan and Kazan Governorate, becoming trustees, as well as honorary and ordinary members of various organizations. Such work allowed them to apply the experience previously gained within their confessional community. The opportunity for Old Believers to create their own charitable societies appeared in the early 20th century. In Kazan Governorate, it was women who first took advantage of that, establishing both purely Old Believer organizations for women and non‑denominational ones for representatives of all estates and gender groups. The article concludes that whether willingly or not, like representatives of other estates in Kazan Governorate, the wives of Old Believer merchants became widely involved in women’s social activity in the second half of the 19th – early 20th centuries.
Arendt, H. Vita Activia, ili O deyatel'noi zhizni [The human condition], translated by V.V. Bibikhin. St Petersburg: Aleteya, 2000. (In Russian).
Bikmullina, N.E. “Poduruevy – Krasnikovy. Kupecheskie familii Kazanskoi i Simbirskoi gubernii” [Poduruevs – Krasnikovs. Merchant surnames of Kazan and Simbirsk governorates]. Chistopol State Historical, Architectural, and Literary Museum-Reserve. Accessed March 23, 2024. (In Russian)
Devyatykh, L.I. Iz istorii kazanskogo kupechestva: tysyacheletiyu Kazani posvyashchaetsya... [From the history of Kazan merchants: Dedicated to the millennium of Kazan…]. Kazan: Titul-Kazan', 2005. EDN: QPANEB (In Russian)
Fedotova, A.Yu. “Women’s Social Activism: Terminology and Methodology for the Study of the Women’s Movement in Russia in the Second Half of the 19th – Early 20th Century.” Historia Provinciae – the Journal of Regional History, vol. 8, no. 1 (2024): 177–208. , EDN: WKKCOQ
Gavrilova, Yu.P. “Mariya Podurueva. Dukhovnyi podvig vospriemnichestva” [Maria Podurueva. Spiritual feat of godparenthood]. Chistopol-Inform. Accessed March 23, 2024. (In Russian)
Habermas J. The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere. An Inquiry into a Category of Bourgeois Society. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1989.
Joffe, M, and A. Lindenmeyr. “Docheri, zheny i partnery moskovskoi delovoi elity” [Daughters, wives, and partners: Women of the Moscow merchant elite]. In Kupecheskaya Moskva. Obrazy ushedshei rossiiskoi burzhuazii [Merchant Moscow: Images of Russia’s vanished bourgeoisie], edited by J. West, and Yu. Petrov, 147–65. Moscow: Rossiiskaya politicheskaya entsiklopediya (ROSSPEN), 2007. (In Russian)
Kartasheva. E.I. “Blagotvoritel'naya deyatel'nost' kuptsov-staroobryadtsev i staroobryadcheskikh obshchin Kazani v kontse XIX – nachale XX vv.” [Charitable work of Old Believer merchants and Old Believer communities of Kazan in the late 19th – Early 20th centuries]. Iz istorii i kul'tury narodov Srednego Povolzh'ya, vol. 12, no. 1 (2022): 9–27. EDN: CHVTKB (In Russian)
Kartasheva, E.I. “Blagotvoritel'nost' kuptsov-staroobryadtsev i staroobryadcheskikh obshchin Kazani v kontse XIX – nachale XX vekov” [Charity of Old Believer merchants and Old Believer communities of Kazan in the late 19th – early 20th centuries]. In Sud'ba staroobryadchestva v XX – nachale XXI vv.: istoriya i sovremennost': sbornik nauchnykh trudov [The fate of the Old Belief in the 20th – early 21st centuries: History and modernity: Collected scientific papers], edited by S.V. Taranets, 172–217. Iss. 4, 2010. (In Russian)
Kartasheva, E.I. “Staroobryadchestvo v Kazani: vekhi istorii” [Old Belief in Kazan: Milestones in history]. In Problemy izucheniya istorii Russkoi pravoslavnoi tserkvi i sovremennaya deyatel'nost' muzeev [Problems of studying the history of the Russian Orthodox Church and contemporary museum activities], edited by L.I. Skripkina, and I.L. Kyzlasova, 99–113. Moscow: Gosudarstvennyi Istoricheskii muzei, 2005. (In Russian)
Kerov, V.V. “Konfessional'nye faktory osobogo statusa zhenshchiny v staroobryadchestve” [Confessional factors of the special status of woman in Old Belief]. Vestnik
Tverskogo gosudarstvennogo universitieta. Seriya: Istoriya, no. 3 (2023): 34–46. , EDN: CGIPWJ (In Russian)
Kerov, V.V. “Mariya Morozova i drugie: gendernyi aspekt staroobryadcheskogo predprinimatel'stva” [Maria Morozova and others: The gender aspect of Old Believer entrepreneurship]. Ural'skii istoricheskii vestnik, no. 4 (49) (2015): 60–69. EDN: UYJSNZ (In Russian)
Kerov, V.V. “Mesto zhenshchiny v staroobryadcheskom soobshchestve i predprinimatel'stve” [The place of woman in the Old Believer community and entrepreneurship]. In Zhenshchina v staroobryadchestve: materialy mezhdunarodnoi nauchno-prakticheskoi konferentsii, posvyashchennoi 300-letiyu osnovaniya Leksinskoi staroobryadcheskoi obiteli [Woman in Old Belief: Proceedings of the international scientific and practical conference dedicated to the 300th anniversary of the Leksa old believer convent], compiled by A.M. Pashkov, A.V. Pigin, and I.N. Ruzhinskaya, 14–23. Petrozavodsk: Izdatel'stvo PetrGU, 2006. (In Russian)
Khir'yanova L.V. “Traditsionnye osnovy sem'i kak glavnyi faktor formirovaniya identichnosti staroobryadchestva v ehpokhu modernizatsii” [Traditional foundations of family as the main factor in the formation of the Old Belief identity in the era of modernization]. Analitika kul'turologii,
no. 1 (13) (2009): 173–78. EDN: QZBGPV (In Russian)
Kupriyanova, I.V. “Staroobryadcheskaya sem'ya: religiozno-kul'turnaya dominanta” [The Old Believer family: Religious and cultural dominant]. Mir nauki, kul'tury, obrazovaniya, no. 4 (41) (2013): 326–30. EDN: REFWFL (In Russian)
Latypov, I.R. “Blagotvoritel'nost' kuptsov-staroobryadtsev Kazanskoi gubernii v XIX – nachale XX veka” [Charity of the Old Believer merchants of Kazan Governorate in the 19th – early 20th century]. Samarskoe staroverie. Accessed October 20, 2024, (In Russian)
Latypov, I.R. “Razvitie staroobryadcheskih obshchin Kazanskoi gubernii XIX – nachala XX vekov” [Development of the Old Believer communities in Kazan Governorate in the 19th – early 20th centuries]. PhD diss., Marjani Institute of History of Tatarstan Academy of Sciences, 2011. (In Russian)
Maslova, I.V. “Kul'tura semeinykh tradicii uezdnogo kupechestva Vyatskoi gubernii v XIX – nachale XX veka” [Culture of uyezd merchants’ family traditions in Vyatka Governorate in the 19th – early 20th century]. Vestnik Voronezhskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. Seriya: Istoriya. Politologiya. Sotsiologiya, no. 1 (2011): 121–26. EDN: MNRSXC (In Russian)
Ob"ekty kul'turnogo naslediya Respubliki Tatarstan [Cultural heritage sites of the Republic of Tatarstan], in 2 vols. Vol. 2, Administrativnye raiony: illyustrirovannyi katalog [Administrative districts: An illustrated catalog], edited by A.M. Tarunov. Moscow: NIITsentr, 2021. (In Russian)
Smilyanskaya, E.B. “Zhenskoe sluzhenie v staroobryadcheskoi obshchine kontsa XX v. (iz nablyudeniya polevogo arkheografa)” [Women’s ministry in the Old Believer community of the late 20th century (observations of a field archaeographer)]. In Odissei: chelovek v istorii [Odyssey: Man in history], 2013, Zhenshchina v religioznoi obshchine: Zapad / Vostok [Woman in a religious community: West / East], edited by A.O. Chubaryan, 90–114. Moscow: Nauka, 2014. EDN: UJGVAN (In Russian)
Sverdlova, L.M. Kupechestvo Kazani: dela i lyudi [Merchants of Kazan: Deeds and people]. Kazan: Matbugat iorty, 1998. (In Russian)
Tanaseva, R. “Zhizn' dana na dobrye dela – kupets Shamov” [Life is given for good deeds – Merchant Shamov]. Kazanskie istorii, no. 2–3 (2004). Accessed October 20, 2024. (In Russian)
Tikas, Ch.O. “O stepeni samostoyatel'nosti zhenshchiny v staroobryadcheskom obshchestve (po materialam Novgorodskoi gubernii XIX v.)” [On the degree of woman’s independence in the Old Believer community (based on the materials from Novgorod Governorate of the 19th century)]. Vestnik Sankt-Peterburgskogo universiteta. Istoriya, iss. 2 (2011): 60–65. EDN: NTUCOB (In Russian)
Tikas, Ch.O. “Otnoshenie k zhenshchinam vne i vnutri staroobryadcheskogo soobshchestva (po materialam Russkogo Severa vtoroi poloviny XIX v.)” [Attitudes toward women outside and inside the Old Believer community (based on the materials from the Russian North of the second half of the 19th century)]. Trudy Gosudarstvennogo muzeya istorii religii, no. 11 (2011): 85–90. EDN: ORJNIZ (In Russian)
Tikas, Ch.O. “Zhenshchina v bespopovskom staroobryadcheskom soobshchestve vo vtoroi polovine XIX – nachale XX vv. (po materialam Sankt-Peterburgskoi, Novgorodskoi, Vologodskoi i Oloneckoi gubernij)” [Woman in the Priestless Old Believer community in the second half of the 19th – early 20th centuries (based on the materials of St Petersburg, Novgorod, Vologda, and Olonets governorates)]. PhD thesis, Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera) of the RAS, 2011. EDN: ZOJIGH (In Russian)
Ul'yanova, G. Kupchikhi, dvoryanki, magnatki: Zhenshchiny-predprinimatel'nitsy v Rossii XIX veka [Merchant women, noblewomen, magnates: Female entrepreneurs in Russia in the 19th century]. Moscow: Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie, 2021. (In Russian)
Yukina, I.I. “‘Novye zhenshchiny’: motivy uchastiya v zhenskom dvizhenii” [‘New Women’: Motives for participation in the women’s movement]. In Rossiiskie zhenshchiny i evropeiskaya kul'tura: Materialy V konferentsii, posvyashchennoi teorii i istorii zhenskogo dvizheniya [Russian women and European culture: Proceedings of the 5th conference on the theory and history of the women’s movement], compiled by G.A. Tishkin, 118–26. St Petersburg: Sankt-Peterburgskoe filosofskoe obshchestvo, 2001. (In Russian)
Yukina, I.I. Russkii feminizm kak vyzov sovremennosti [Russian feminism as a challenge to modernity]. St Petersburg: Aleteiya, 2007. EDN: QPGUWZ (In Russian)
Bikmullina, N.E. “Poduruevy – Krasnikovy. Kupecheskie familii Kazanskoi i Simbirskoi gubernii” [Poduruevs – Krasnikovs. Merchant surnames of Kazan and Simbirsk governorates]. Chistopol State Historical, Architectural, and Literary Museum-Reserve. Accessed March 23, 2024. (In Russian)
Devyatykh, L.I. Iz istorii kazanskogo kupechestva: tysyacheletiyu Kazani posvyashchaetsya... [From the history of Kazan merchants: Dedicated to the millennium of Kazan…]. Kazan: Titul-Kazan', 2005. EDN: QPANEB (In Russian)
Fedotova, A.Yu. “Women’s Social Activism: Terminology and Methodology for the Study of the Women’s Movement in Russia in the Second Half of the 19th – Early 20th Century.” Historia Provinciae – the Journal of Regional History, vol. 8, no. 1 (2024): 177–208. , EDN: WKKCOQ
Gavrilova, Yu.P. “Mariya Podurueva. Dukhovnyi podvig vospriemnichestva” [Maria Podurueva. Spiritual feat of godparenthood]. Chistopol-Inform. Accessed March 23, 2024. (In Russian)
Habermas J. The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere. An Inquiry into a Category of Bourgeois Society. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1989.
Joffe, M, and A. Lindenmeyr. “Docheri, zheny i partnery moskovskoi delovoi elity” [Daughters, wives, and partners: Women of the Moscow merchant elite]. In Kupecheskaya Moskva. Obrazy ushedshei rossiiskoi burzhuazii [Merchant Moscow: Images of Russia’s vanished bourgeoisie], edited by J. West, and Yu. Petrov, 147–65. Moscow: Rossiiskaya politicheskaya entsiklopediya (ROSSPEN), 2007. (In Russian)
Kartasheva. E.I. “Blagotvoritel'naya deyatel'nost' kuptsov-staroobryadtsev i staroobryadcheskikh obshchin Kazani v kontse XIX – nachale XX vv.” [Charitable work of Old Believer merchants and Old Believer communities of Kazan in the late 19th – Early 20th centuries]. Iz istorii i kul'tury narodov Srednego Povolzh'ya, vol. 12, no. 1 (2022): 9–27. EDN: CHVTKB (In Russian)
Kartasheva, E.I. “Blagotvoritel'nost' kuptsov-staroobryadtsev i staroobryadcheskikh obshchin Kazani v kontse XIX – nachale XX vekov” [Charity of Old Believer merchants and Old Believer communities of Kazan in the late 19th – early 20th centuries]. In Sud'ba staroobryadchestva v XX – nachale XXI vv.: istoriya i sovremennost': sbornik nauchnykh trudov [The fate of the Old Belief in the 20th – early 21st centuries: History and modernity: Collected scientific papers], edited by S.V. Taranets, 172–217. Iss. 4, 2010. (In Russian)
Kartasheva, E.I. “Staroobryadchestvo v Kazani: vekhi istorii” [Old Belief in Kazan: Milestones in history]. In Problemy izucheniya istorii Russkoi pravoslavnoi tserkvi i sovremennaya deyatel'nost' muzeev [Problems of studying the history of the Russian Orthodox Church and contemporary museum activities], edited by L.I. Skripkina, and I.L. Kyzlasova, 99–113. Moscow: Gosudarstvennyi Istoricheskii muzei, 2005. (In Russian)
Kerov, V.V. “Konfessional'nye faktory osobogo statusa zhenshchiny v staroobryadchestve” [Confessional factors of the special status of woman in Old Belief]. Vestnik
Tverskogo gosudarstvennogo universitieta. Seriya: Istoriya, no. 3 (2023): 34–46. , EDN: CGIPWJ (In Russian)
Kerov, V.V. “Mariya Morozova i drugie: gendernyi aspekt staroobryadcheskogo predprinimatel'stva” [Maria Morozova and others: The gender aspect of Old Believer entrepreneurship]. Ural'skii istoricheskii vestnik, no. 4 (49) (2015): 60–69. EDN: UYJSNZ (In Russian)
Kerov, V.V. “Mesto zhenshchiny v staroobryadcheskom soobshchestve i predprinimatel'stve” [The place of woman in the Old Believer community and entrepreneurship]. In Zhenshchina v staroobryadchestve: materialy mezhdunarodnoi nauchno-prakticheskoi konferentsii, posvyashchennoi 300-letiyu osnovaniya Leksinskoi staroobryadcheskoi obiteli [Woman in Old Belief: Proceedings of the international scientific and practical conference dedicated to the 300th anniversary of the Leksa old believer convent], compiled by A.M. Pashkov, A.V. Pigin, and I.N. Ruzhinskaya, 14–23. Petrozavodsk: Izdatel'stvo PetrGU, 2006. (In Russian)
Khir'yanova L.V. “Traditsionnye osnovy sem'i kak glavnyi faktor formirovaniya identichnosti staroobryadchestva v ehpokhu modernizatsii” [Traditional foundations of family as the main factor in the formation of the Old Belief identity in the era of modernization]. Analitika kul'turologii,
no. 1 (13) (2009): 173–78. EDN: QZBGPV (In Russian)
Kupriyanova, I.V. “Staroobryadcheskaya sem'ya: religiozno-kul'turnaya dominanta” [The Old Believer family: Religious and cultural dominant]. Mir nauki, kul'tury, obrazovaniya, no. 4 (41) (2013): 326–30. EDN: REFWFL (In Russian)
Latypov, I.R. “Blagotvoritel'nost' kuptsov-staroobryadtsev Kazanskoi gubernii v XIX – nachale XX veka” [Charity of the Old Believer merchants of Kazan Governorate in the 19th – early 20th century]. Samarskoe staroverie. Accessed October 20, 2024, (In Russian)
Latypov, I.R. “Razvitie staroobryadcheskih obshchin Kazanskoi gubernii XIX – nachala XX vekov” [Development of the Old Believer communities in Kazan Governorate in the 19th – early 20th centuries]. PhD diss., Marjani Institute of History of Tatarstan Academy of Sciences, 2011. (In Russian)
Maslova, I.V. “Kul'tura semeinykh tradicii uezdnogo kupechestva Vyatskoi gubernii v XIX – nachale XX veka” [Culture of uyezd merchants’ family traditions in Vyatka Governorate in the 19th – early 20th century]. Vestnik Voronezhskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. Seriya: Istoriya. Politologiya. Sotsiologiya, no. 1 (2011): 121–26. EDN: MNRSXC (In Russian)
Ob"ekty kul'turnogo naslediya Respubliki Tatarstan [Cultural heritage sites of the Republic of Tatarstan], in 2 vols. Vol. 2, Administrativnye raiony: illyustrirovannyi katalog [Administrative districts: An illustrated catalog], edited by A.M. Tarunov. Moscow: NIITsentr, 2021. (In Russian)
Smilyanskaya, E.B. “Zhenskoe sluzhenie v staroobryadcheskoi obshchine kontsa XX v. (iz nablyudeniya polevogo arkheografa)” [Women’s ministry in the Old Believer community of the late 20th century (observations of a field archaeographer)]. In Odissei: chelovek v istorii [Odyssey: Man in history], 2013, Zhenshchina v religioznoi obshchine: Zapad / Vostok [Woman in a religious community: West / East], edited by A.O. Chubaryan, 90–114. Moscow: Nauka, 2014. EDN: UJGVAN (In Russian)
Sverdlova, L.M. Kupechestvo Kazani: dela i lyudi [Merchants of Kazan: Deeds and people]. Kazan: Matbugat iorty, 1998. (In Russian)
Tanaseva, R. “Zhizn' dana na dobrye dela – kupets Shamov” [Life is given for good deeds – Merchant Shamov]. Kazanskie istorii, no. 2–3 (2004). Accessed October 20, 2024. (In Russian)
Tikas, Ch.O. “O stepeni samostoyatel'nosti zhenshchiny v staroobryadcheskom obshchestve (po materialam Novgorodskoi gubernii XIX v.)” [On the degree of woman’s independence in the Old Believer community (based on the materials from Novgorod Governorate of the 19th century)]. Vestnik Sankt-Peterburgskogo universiteta. Istoriya, iss. 2 (2011): 60–65. EDN: NTUCOB (In Russian)
Tikas, Ch.O. “Otnoshenie k zhenshchinam vne i vnutri staroobryadcheskogo soobshchestva (po materialam Russkogo Severa vtoroi poloviny XIX v.)” [Attitudes toward women outside and inside the Old Believer community (based on the materials from the Russian North of the second half of the 19th century)]. Trudy Gosudarstvennogo muzeya istorii religii, no. 11 (2011): 85–90. EDN: ORJNIZ (In Russian)
Tikas, Ch.O. “Zhenshchina v bespopovskom staroobryadcheskom soobshchestve vo vtoroi polovine XIX – nachale XX vv. (po materialam Sankt-Peterburgskoi, Novgorodskoi, Vologodskoi i Oloneckoi gubernij)” [Woman in the Priestless Old Believer community in the second half of the 19th – early 20th centuries (based on the materials of St Petersburg, Novgorod, Vologda, and Olonets governorates)]. PhD thesis, Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkamera) of the RAS, 2011. EDN: ZOJIGH (In Russian)
Ul'yanova, G. Kupchikhi, dvoryanki, magnatki: Zhenshchiny-predprinimatel'nitsy v Rossii XIX veka [Merchant women, noblewomen, magnates: Female entrepreneurs in Russia in the 19th century]. Moscow: Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie, 2021. (In Russian)
Yukina, I.I. “‘Novye zhenshchiny’: motivy uchastiya v zhenskom dvizhenii” [‘New Women’: Motives for participation in the women’s movement]. In Rossiiskie zhenshchiny i evropeiskaya kul'tura: Materialy V konferentsii, posvyashchennoi teorii i istorii zhenskogo dvizheniya [Russian women and European culture: Proceedings of the 5th conference on the theory and history of the women’s movement], compiled by G.A. Tishkin, 118–26. St Petersburg: Sankt-Peterburgskoe filosofskoe obshchestvo, 2001. (In Russian)
Yukina, I.I. Russkii feminizm kak vyzov sovremennosti [Russian feminism as a challenge to modernity]. St Petersburg: Aleteiya, 2007. EDN: QPGUWZ (In Russian)
Keywords:
Kazan Governorate, second half of the 19th – early 20th century, Old Believer merchants, Old Believer women, merchants’ wives, women’s social activism, women’s business, merchants, women’s charity, “new women,” women’s movement, women’s history
For citation:
Fedotova, A.Yu. “Old Believer Merchant Women: Women’s Social Activity in Kazan Governorate in the Mid‑19th – Early 20th Century.” Historia Provinciae – the Journal of Regional History, vol. 10, no. 2 (2026): 434–70, https://doi.org/10.23859/2587-8344-2026-10-2-2; EDN: YRXWAM
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
ISSN 2587-8344 (Online)