7 - Russian women writers: an overview. Post-revolutionary dispersion and adjustment

Summary

By the turn of the century and throughout the Silver Age, Russian women writers had moved into the ranks of the profession, becoming increasingly visible and recognized by their peers as well as their audience. Some women writers were very successful and earned considerable rewards, others not. But by and large, this movement pointed towards a progressive acceptance of women writers as meaningful participants in the creative process of Russian literature and their eventual full integration into the dominant canon. The events of the First World War, the Revolution and the Civil War brought about significant changes in this promising development. The revolution and the civil war split Russia in two, literally and figuratively: one lost the very name of Russia and became first the RSFSR and then the USSR; the other, defeated by Lenin's government, rejecting and escaping the newly created RSFSR, constituted itself into a Russia beyond the borders, Russia Abroad.’ An approximate periodization should provide some orientation in the further development of Russian women writing in the post-1917 period.

As is well known, in the early period of the division ‘both Russias’ continued to promote modernism in its various forms at least until well into the twenties.