The Woman Question in Russian Children’s Literature

Abstract

Surprising as it might seem, in Russia, the history of children’s books written by women began with an empress: Catherine the Great was the first woman we know of to pen Russian-language literature for children. The tsaritsa was moved by maternal (or rather grandmotherly) concern for the moral education of her grandsons, for whom she wrote two fairy stories: “The Tale of Tsarevich Khlor” [Skazka o tsareviche Khlore] (1781) and “The Tale of Tsarevich Fevei” [Skazka o tsareviche Fevee] (1783). They abound in sage counsel on moral duty, reason, honesty, truth, and other elevated topics (Hellman, 2013: p. 9). It was a matter of mere decades before Russia had woman writers for whom children’s literature was a calling and profession. Were their tales, stories, and poems any different from those that men were writing for children? And what were their thoughts about the kind of literature that should be written for children, and, in particular, for girls? This issue of Russian Studies in Literature opens with an article by Marina Kostiukhina, an associate professor in the children’s literature department of the Herzen State Pedagogical University. Kostiukhina takes us to the first glimmers of feminism in Russian children’s literature. The “heroine” of this story is the writer Aleksandra Ishimova, one of Russia’s first and most successful female publishers of children’s literature. Examining her career and writings, Kostiukhina explores the question: Would we be justified in calling Ishimova Russia’s first feminist and, if so, what particular goals was she pursuing? Ishimova’s views, which were utterly traditional yet innovative in their orientation toward female community and practical advice, stood in