Scope and Contents
The Poliksena Nesterovna Shishkina-Iavein digital collection is comprised of materials that document the life of Poliksena Shishkina-Iavein, Russian physician, feminist activist, and president of the Russian League for Women’s Equal Rights. The bulk of the collection (1901-1917) consists of photographs of Shishkina-Iavein, her family and associates, and League meetings and activities, as well as a set of postcards published by the League, featuring prominent women in politics, science, and the arts. Other items in the collection include newspaper articles documenting Shishkina-Iavein's public speeches and meetings with international women's organizations, a petition from the League to the Provisional Government, a pamphlet listing delegates to the Budapest Congress of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance, a placard of the League’s office, posters advertising public debates organized by the League, a card of thanks from Shishkina-Iavein’s medical course students, and an announcement to visitors from Shishkina-Iavein and her husband.
Dates
- Creation: 1890-2009
- Creation: Majority of material found within 1901-1917
Extent
145 digital imagesBiographical / Historical
Poliksena Nesterovna Shishkina (1875-1947) was born in Nikolaev, Ukraine. She studied at the St. Petersburg Women’s Medical Institute and graduated in 1904. While there, she met and married Georgi Iulievich Iavein in 1900. They had two children: a daughter, Alla, and a son, Igor. In 1910, Shishkina-Iavein became the president of the League for Women’s Equal Rights, making universal women’s suffrage the goal of the organization. In addition to heading the League, Shishkina-Iavein promoted women’s equal rights through speeches, teaching medical courses, writing for the feminist magazine Jus Suffragii, visiting Swedish women’s organizations, and receiving delegations from other countries. In 1917, electoral rights were extended to the women of Russia. During the Russian civil war Shishkina-Iavein and her family fled to Estonia, where her husband died. It is unknown when Shishkina-Iavein returned to Russia, but she survived the World War II siege of Leningrad. She died in 1947.
Custodial History
Digitized in St. Petersburg, Russia, by permission of Nonna Igorevna Roshchina, Shishkina-Iavein's granddaughter.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Digitized in St. Petersburg, Russia, by permission of Nonna Igorievna Roshchina, 2011.
Bibliography
Ruthchild, Rochelle Goldberg. Equality and Revolution. Pittsburgh, Pa.: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2010.
“Shishkina-Iavein, Poliksena” in Rappaport, Helen, Encyclopedia of Women Social Reformers. Santa Barbara, Calif. : ABC-CLIO, 2001. Pages 648-650.
Stites, Richard. The Women’s Liberation Movement in Russia: Feminism, Nihilism, and Bolshevism, 1860-1930. Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, 1991.
Yukina, Irina. “Shishkina-Iavein, Poliksena Nesterovna (1875-1947),” in A Biographical Dictionary of Women's Movements and Feminisms: Central, Eastern, and South Eastern Europe, 19th and 20th Centuries, ed. by Francisca de Haan, Krassimira Daskalova and Anna Loutfi. Budapest; New York : Central European University Press, 2006. Pages 511-513.
Processing Information
Processed by: Hugh Truslow and Vania Tomaski, 2013. Additional processing by Svetlana Rukhelman, 2015.
Index
- Title
- Shishkina-Iavein, Poliksena Nesterovna (1875-1947). Poliksena N. Shishkina-Iavein Digital Collection, 1890-2009 (inclusive), 1901-1917 (bulk) : Guide
- Author
- Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies Collection
- Language of description
- und
- EAD ID
- fun00004
Repository Details
Part of the H.C. Fung Library, Harvard Library, Harvard University Repository
CGIS Knafel Building, 1737 Cambridge St
Harvard University
Cambridge MA 02138 USA
(617) 496-0485
truslow@fas.harvard.edu