Those who want to learn about the past of Zhytomyr can find many historical documents, memoirs and other materials, but attentive ones will notice one feature: women who worked, created or fought for independence along with men are rarely mentioned. Does this mean that there have been no outstanding women in history? Of course not! It’s just that for a long time history was written by men for men… Among the historical figures there were enough strong women who today can serve as an example for us of leadership or dedication. One of them is Nadiya Ovsyanikova
For us, gender equality and emancipation are a common phenomenon in our lives. But how long ago did the realization of the legal equality of the sexes come? Who gave us this understanding? All the rights that seem so natural to us today were not given to women at all… Those women who at the beginning of the 20-th century fought actively for their rights, were called «monsters», against them were made special movements which tried to show that the women’s movement is a «gathering place for bad wives and grieving mothers». They continued to demand suffrage for women, to picket at the gates of government buildings, to issue pamphlets, to write bills… They failed, protested, held public rallies, and won, realizing that the struggle must begin with education for girls and women.
From the 1860s, a centralized network of women’s secondary schools began to develop in tsarist Russia under the auspices of the Ministry of Education. The full course of study was provided in gymnasiums, more abbreviated – in progymnasiums. The official establishment of a new type of women’s non-state educational institutions lasted for 15 years. In those days, even high school was available only to girls from wealthy families – depending on the city tuition fees ranged from 25 to 50 rubles in a year. In addition, compared to men’s education, women had a lower level. After completing the course in women’s gymnasiums, education for girls was actually completed. How did women succeed in realizing the right to education at a time when the world seemed to be created exclusively by men and exclusively for men? Even then, there were many representatives of the women’s movement. Theorists and practitioners, tribunes and provocateurs with liberal or radical views of women’s organizations made their own contribution to making women free. Nadiya Vasylivna Ovsyanikova was one of the most prominent suffragettes of the Zhytomyr Region.
In the early twentieth century secondary education for women in Volyn was implemented in gymnasiums, theological and diocesan schools. Unlike the primary, it was an independent component of the general school system and developed on the basis of legislation developed specifically for the South-West region. Common to all secondary schools were the priority of bringing up over education; pro-imperial orientation of the educational process; strict control of extracurricular life of pupils and students. In addition, it served to ensure the realization of the narrowly utilitarian social purpose of women and was reinforced by underfunding and discrimination in the remuneration of women compared to other provinces, men’s schools and male teachers. The only way out was the development of private and public educational institutions. Nadiya Ovsyanikova joined the realization of this case, creating the Zhytomyr Women’s Gymnasium in 1901.
Nadiya Vasylivna was born into the family of Vasyl Vasyliovych Ovsyanikov, a lawyer, titular adviser, and justice of the peace of the Fifth District of Rivne County, who graduated from Kyiv University of St. Volodymyr with a diploma of a real student of legal sciences. After studying, he married and was appointed to serve in the Volyn province, first as a juror, and later as a magistrate. At that time, the Magistrate’s Court was not only a body of justice, but also a kind of school of legal education for residents. That’s why the Ovsyanikovs’ house was always full of visitors who turned to her father not only for legal advice, but also simply for advice in difficult life circumstances. Nadiya often watched her father’s work and worried about the problems of ordinary people. Here, in addition to a good home education, the girl gained practical legal skills and knowledge of the realities of life. After graduating from the women’s gymnasium of the Ministry of Education, Nadiya Ovsyanikova received the right to teach. It was during these years that Nadiya Vasylivna became acquainted with progressive youth and became actively involved in the activities of the Sokil organization. At first she personally participated in the implementation of various educational projects, and later after marriage she supported the society financially. The logical continuation of her public activity and participation in the women’s movement was the creation of the Zhytomyr Women’s Gymnasium, which was opened on September 1, 1903 and was located in a rented two-story building on Mala Berdychivska Street.
The gymnasium occupied a total area of 877 square meters, and its maintenance cost 25,823 rubles for a year. At the beginning, 300 students from different social strata studied at the institution. Tuition was paid: parents in the preparatory class paid 65 rubles a year, in the first-seventh grades – 90, in the eighth – 100. This move was forced because the maintenance of the educational institution cost a lot, and all the money earned went to pay rent, heating, electricity and provision of school supplies. The best teachers worked in the school, and the high school girls had special uniforms – burgundy dresses.
The patriarchy of society has left its mark on educational programs. Compulsory subjects were the Law of God, Russian language and literature, foreign languages – French, German, general history and geography, arithmetic, calligraphy, drawing, music, singing, dancing and needlework. That is, everything that was considered necessary for a good mother and housewife. At the initiative of Ovsyanikova, additional faculties were introduced. One of them was an optional course in law. The program at the gymnasium under Ovsyanikova’s leadership was much broader than at another women’s gymnasium, the Mariinsky Gymnasium, which was cared for by the Empress Maria Fedorivna Foundation. After seven years of study, the girls were able to complete the eighth – pedagogical class, after which they received a certificate of home teacher, which gave the right to teach in primary school. Excellent students were given the opportunity to enter women’s higher pedagogical courses. However, even an excellent certificate did not entitle girls to enter universities.
The governing body of the gymnasium was the pedagogical council, which was usually chaired by Nadiya Ovsyanikova herself. The rules of procedure and requirements for both teachers and students were quite strict. This shows that even a cursory glance at the women’s movement of the time makes it possible to understand how much it gave not only to women themselves, but to society as a whole. The struggle for gender equality contributed to the development of women’s education, the formation of which was often helped not by the state, but by the civic position of prominent people, figures and figures of literature and art, and the intelligentsia. It is during their active work that a large-scale transformation and improvement of the system of educational institutions takes place, and the development of educational traditions begins. Nadiya Ovsyanikova is a bright personality, an example of the embodiment of how women at the turn of the century found new ways for self-realization. Thanks to the activities of a prominent woman from Zhytomyr, women’s education has become an arena for the implementation of progressive ideas and has given opportunities for development to many women and girls.
From editor The story about Nadiya Ovsyanikova was prepared by Liliana Zhuravskaya, winner of the essay contest, student of the economic and legal department of the Zhytomyr Trade and Economic Vocational College of the Kyiv National University of Trade and Economics in the framework of the project «Women’s Portraits for Leadership» in matters of family, youth and sports of Zhytomyr city council.
