Three Sisters: The Family

Introduction: The following information is designed to inform the Three Sisters cast about Russia during the life of Chekhov (1860-1904). This section deals with social life and customs. Direct comments about the content to Lori Ricigliano, library liaison to the University of Puget Sound's Theatre department.

updated 10/17/00

Divorce

Grounds for divorce included:

adultery
loss of civil rights by one of the spouses
death of a spouse
absence of a spouse from the family without contact for at least five years
entry of either spouse into church orders
incapacity of either spouse for conjugal relations

For Lutherans there were additional grounds upon which a divorce could be obtained: insanity of one of the spouses, infectious disease, or a dissolute life on the part of one of the spouses. For Catholics divorce was considered indissoluable on principle. For male Muslims there were no obstacles to divorce, but for Muslim women divorce was impossible. [vol. 2, p. 277]

"Illegal" divorce, divorce without the sanction of the church or secular authorities, persisted throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In time, the number of such divorces increased both in the cities and in the countryside. [vol. 1, p. 162]

source: A Social History of Imperial Russia 1700-1917.

Adultery

In the late nineteenth century, as in the 1600s, sex, marriage, and the family were not considered private issues. Instead they were considered part of the social or public domain, even for families in the nobility or intelligentsia. Adultery and various other acts were treated as criminal offenses or examples of deviant behavior right up to 1917. In other words, these acts were treated as criminal offenses or examples as social crimes rather than as personal matters. [vol. 1, p. 175]

source: A Social History of Imperial Russia 1700-1917

Family Socialization

Relationships within the family and the behavioral stereotypes reinforced by Russian parents left a deep imprint on the process of personality formulation among their young children. Beginning in early childhood, children steadily acquired language, faith, behavior, mind-set, social standards, and a system of values from their parents. Once absorbed, these behavioral attributes rarely changed, generally remaining with individuals throughout their lives. The deep experience of family life and its system of interpersonal relations molded individuals and framed their approach to social, economic, and political relations outside as well as inside the family. [vol. 1, p. 177]

source: A Social History of Imperial Russia 1700-1917

A Personal Recollection by Prince Kropotkin (born in 1842) describing domestic life in a Russian noble's family, and of serfdom in the old days

We were a family of eight, occasionally of ten or twelve - but fifty servants at Moscow and half as many more in the country were considered not one too many. Four coachmen to attend a dozen horses, three cooks for the masters and two more for the servants, a dozen men to wait upon us at dinner time (one man, plate in hand, standing behind each person seated at the table), and girls innumerable in the maidservants' room, - how could any one do with less than this? Besides, the ambition of every landed proprietor was that everything required for his household should be made at home, by his own men.

Saint's Day

Russians celebrated the feast-day of their patron saint with festivities resembling a birthday party. The person who celebrates Saint's Day invites relatives and friends for dinner, singing and dancing.

source: Three Sisters

The character Irina is named for Saint Irene, martyr of Thessalonica, burnt at the stake under Diocletian. St. Irene's day is celebrated on the 5th of May. [p. 284]

source: The Book of Saints

Newspapers

Two hundred and four newspapers were published in 1840, and 1,055 in 1913, with a total circulation of 3.3 million or 21 newspapers per thousand of population. [vol. 1, p. 177]

source: A Social History of Imperial Russia 1700-1917

Feminism

The women's liberation movement in Russia : feminism, nihilism, and bolshevism, 1860-1930 by Richard Stites / HQ1662 .S735

Russia's women : accommodation, resistance, transformation / HQ1662 .R88 1991

N. V. Gogol (1809-1852)

Russian novelist, playwright and short-essay writer. Gogol is recognized as one of the richest writers in Russian literature from the point of view of the imaginativeness and stylistic richness of his work. Gogol's choice of everyday life as the basis of much of his work had a profound effect on the future of Russian literature, although the degree and the purposes of his realism, as interpreted by Belinsky and later radical critics, are doubtful. Whether he intended or not, Gogol's work was held up as a model for later Russian writers, who turned their attention to a sympathetic observation and realistic description of the lower levels of Russian society. [p. 408-409]

source: Benet's Reader's Encyclopedia

Mikhail Lermontov (1814-1841)

Russian poet and novelist. In his work and life he was the outstanding example of the influence of Byronic romanticism on Russian literature. Lermontov's psychological analysis of the hero and realistic treatment of secondary characters also anticipate the work of the great 19th-century Russian realists. [p. 593]

source: Benet's Reader's Encyclopedia

Collection of Poems by Lermontov

Alexander Pushkin

Collection of Poems by Pushkin

Education

A preschool system was introduced in Russia at the very end of the nineteenth century, and by 1917, the empire could count only roughly two hundred kindergartens, with a total enrollment of only 5,400 children. In 1840, only 5 out of every thousand persons were enrolled in primary or secondary education. In 1890, this number had risen to 21; and in 1914, to 59 per thousand. Totals for university students showed corresponding rates of 0.1, 0.1, and 0.8 per thousand.

source: A Social History of Imperial Russia, 1700-1917

Religion

The religiosity of all Russians at the beginning of the eighteenth century and of people in all undeveloped areas until the beginning of the twentieth century featured the following elements: a poor understanding of the fundamentals of Christian belief; a substitution of a strict observance of rites and rituals for faith; the pervasiveness of superstition and prejudice (veneration of icons. pilgrimages to holy shrines, fasting, and so on); a lack of proper reverence at church during the service and the administration of sacraments; and a pragmatic form of piety (an expectation of practical results from the observance of rites, such as a plentiful harvest, health, and success).

source: A Social History of Imperial Russia, 1700-1917