Module 02: Should Women Vote? The Politics of Suffrage

Evidence 8: "Concerning the Question of National Representation in Russia Without Distinction of Sex" From PZhK, 1906

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Introduction

The cartoon below appeared during the 1905 Revolution in Russia and invokes the examples of two predecessors in the women's movement: Olympe de Gouges, whose "Declaration of Rights of Woman and Citizen" appeared during the French Revolution and whose alleged monarchist sympathies brought about her execution; and Sofia Perovskaia, the Russian radical executed in 1881 for her role in the assassination of Tsar Alexander II.

Question to Consider

  • What continuity does the author of the cartoon claim between the positions taken by the two women mentioned above and the current demands made by Russian women's organizations?

Document

Woman pointing to gallows that contain a hanging woman covered in white sheet.

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Top caption:
Concerning the Question of National Representation in Russia Without Distinction of Sex

Gallows caption:
(above) Hanged for Political Convictions.
(below) The Political Trial of 1881. The Execution of Sofya Perovskaya.

Bottom caption:
"If woman is eligible to mount the scaffold, she is worthy of entering parliament" (from Olympe de Gouge, 1792).

Source:
"Concerning the Question of National Representation in Russia Without Distinction of Sex," PZhK (1906).

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