The absolute
regime regards all striving for an education as revolutionary. The
educational institutions for women are wholly in the hands of the
government. These institutions are tolerated; but a mere frown from above
puts an end to their existence.

It is the absolute regime that makes comrades of men and women struggling
for emancipation. The oppression endured by both sexes is in fact the
same.

The government has not always been an enemy of enlightenment, as it is
to-day. The first steps of the woman's rights movement were made through
the influence of the rulers. Although polygamy did not exist in Russia,
the country could not free itself from certain oriental influences. Hence
the women of the property-owning class formerly lived in the harem (called
_terem_). The women were shut off from the world; they had no education,
often no rearing whatever; they were the victims of deadly ennui, ecstatic
piety, lingering diseases, and drunkenness.

With a strong hand Peter the Great reformed the condition of Russian
women. The _terem_ was abolished; the Russian woman was permitted to see
the world. In rough, uncivilized surroundings, in the midst of a brutal,
sensuous people, woman's release was not in all cases a gain for morality.
It is impossible to become a woman of western Europe upon demand.

Catherine II saw that there must be a preparation for this emancipation.
She created the _Institute de demoiselles_ for girls of the upper classes.
The instruction, borrowed from France, remained superficial enough; the
women acquired a knowledge of French, a few _accomplishments_, polished
manners, and an aristocratic bearing. For all that, it was then an
achievement to educate young Russian women according to the standards of
western Europe. The superficiality of the _Institutka_ was recognized in
the middle of the nineteenth century. Alexander II, the Tsarina, and her
aunt, Helene Pavlovna, favored reforms. The emancipator of the serfs could
also liberate women from their intellectual bondage.

Thus with the protection of the highest power, the first public lyceum for
girls was established in 1857 in Russia. This was a day school for girls
of _all_ classes. What an innovation! To-day there are 350 of these
lyceums, having over 10,000 women students. The curriculums resemble those
of the German high schools for girls. None of these lyceums (except the
humanistic lyceum for girls in Moscow), are equivalent to the German