ABSTRACT
It was as if I had been struck on the head. I had never heard of anything so dreadful in my life, nor could I have imagined such outrageous treatment of women. It seemed to me that the insult was directed against all women, and me personally - me especially, since I felt the weight of humiliation as I was powerless to stop other women from being degraded. l
The Russian women's movement has one characteristic feature in which it differs from the similar movements elsewhere - it holds to the idea of progress. In other countries, however, women sometimes strive for their own rights alone, for their own well-being, and in their eagerness to secure them they leave themselves open to the manipulations of church and conservatism. Russian women don't separate their cause from the great cause of human progress. No retrogressive element in our society can count on the aid of one woman battling for equality.2
