Burlutskaya Elena V.,
Doctor of Historical Sciences, Orenburg State Pedagogical University, Orenburg, Russia, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Women’s Happiness. On the Question of the Degree of Comfort of the Daily Life of the Townswomen from the Highest and Middle Circle in a Provincial Capital of the Second Half of the 19th Century
DOI: 10.31518/2618-9100-2019-3-13
The article is based on a wide range of published and archival sources and deals with the attitudes of women from upper and middle classes toward the conditions of their daily life in the urban community in the outlying Orenburg province in the second half of the 19th century. The article revals the combination of conditions that determined the circumstances and characteristics of the private life of noblewomen and merchantwomen of the highest guilds in the capital of the region with difficult geopolitical, climatic and socio-economic conditions on the basis of narratives, newspaper publications, and works of fiction. Statements of contemporaries about environmental conditions, safety of city life, specifics of living conditions, and quality of social services for women from noble and merchant communities of Orenburg allow us to estimate how comfortable the daily life of city women was. Using examples from the private life of Orenburg female aristocrats, the auther evaluates convenience of urban space for women, availability of fashionable and quality clothes for them, consistency between the actual state of urban society and women’s expectations and other elements of comfort are evaluated. The sources used in the study show a high level of discomfort in the daily life of the townswomen due to the sharply continental climate, low level of improvement of urban public services, and the peculiar composition of the Orenburg society. In Orenburg, women were not safe, bored, and it was either too hot or too cold. There were clouds of dust and many unpleasant odors on the city streets. Presence of Asian people, who came to Orenburg for trade, and multitude of camels, which were used by the Asians as a mean of transportation, gave a distinctive local color to the urban space. During the second half of the 19th century conditions of everyday urban life were improving, gradually becoming more comfortable.
Publishing: 30/06/2019
How to cite: Burlutskaya E.V. Women’s Happiness. On the Question of the Degree of Comfort of the Daily Life of the Townswomen from the Highest and Middle Circle in a Provincial Capital of the Second Half of the 19th Century // Historical Courier, 2019, # 3 (5). Article 13. [Available online:] http://istkurier.ru/data/2019/ISTKURIER-2019-3-13.pdf
Links: Issue 3 2019
Keywords: daily life; province; city; post-reform era; woman; noblewoman; woman from merchants; comfort