The Sex Question

In the writings of the 19th and early 20th century, the questions we associate with feminism were addressed under a variety of labels, one of the most economical of which was “the sex question,” which referred, in practice, to a wide range of question concerning sex, gender, sexuality, etc. The texts collected here cover a wide range of “women’s issues.” The current collection includes material previously contained in the following archives: La Frondeuse (Black and Red Feminist History), Anarchy and the Sex Question and A Beautiful Nihilist.

Saint Ravachol

A Female Nihilist (1902)

June 22, 2016 A Beautiful Nihilist
A FEMALE NIHILIST ——– Young Russian Woman With an Infernal Machine in Handkerchief LONDON. May 28. —A dispatch to the Central News from St. Petersburg, dated May 27, says: “Secret service agents arrested a young woman at Tsarkoeselo, the summer residence of the czar, yesterday, carrying an infernal machine concealed in a handkerchief. The identity of the woman has not been established.” “A Female Nihilist,” Los Angeles Herald 29 no. 240 (May 29, 1902): 1.
Saint Ravachol

A Nihilist Crime (1897)

June 22, 2016 A Beautiful Nihilist
A Nihilist Crime PARIS, Sept. 3—The body of a beautiful woman, naked and frightfully mutilated, with her skull smashed in, has been found in the river Seine. In the middle of the woman’s back were tattooed the words, “Long live Poland,” and “Death to traitors.” The remains are supposed to be those of a Nihilist who incurred the suspicion of fellow Nihilists. “A Nihilist Crime,” Los Angeles Herald 26 no. 339 (September 4, 1897): 1.
Saint Ravachol

A Young Nihilist Woman (Olga Gontcharenko, 1890)

June 22, 2016 A Beautiful Nihilist
A YOUNG NIHILIST WOMAN. She Kills a Government Officer and Then Commits Suicide. New York, February 3d.— A letter to the Tribune from St. Petersburg gives the following details of the recent murder of Colonel Solotouchine, Chief of the Secret Police Department of Moscow: Having received notification that a number of Nihilists were in the habit of holding meetings at the house of M. Audrieff, the Colonel determined to ascertain whether the information was correct. Accordingly, toward 8 o’clock in the evening, he concealed himself in the neighborhood and carefully scanned the faces of all who either entered or left […]
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A Female Nihilist (Olga Ivanovsky, 1891)

June 22, 2016 A Beautiful Nihilist
A Female Nihilist. Some farther particulars have been gleaned regarding the young girl who is being tried at the present time, with four other persons, at St. Petersburg for being concerned in revolutionary schemes. Her name is Olga Ivanovsky, and since leaving school she bas been studying medicine. According to the Galignani Messenger it has also been ascertained that one of her intimate friends was Sophie Gunsburg, who was tried among the first batch of prisoners and sentenced to death. Mlle. Ivanovaky’s arrest occurred under the following circumstances: About a month ago the police authorities received an anonymous communication which […]
Saint Ravachol

Revival of Nihilism (Mme. Frowdeinki, 1893)

June 22, 2016 A Beautiful Nihilist
REVIVAL OF NIHILISM. ——– STORY FROM ST. PETERSBURG IN RELATION THERETO. ——– The Wife of a General Elopes With a Nihilist, and is Afterward Captured and Killed by Her Husband. ——– Special to the Record-Union. New York, Jan. 22.—A Berlin cable says: The forerunner of his imperial Highness, the Czarewitch, arrived some twenty-four hours before the great event materialized, which sets all Berlin talking. The stories going the rounds with reference to the Czarewitch is that the Czar’s desire is to make a dicker with the Kaiser to fight Nihilism and Socialism. In connection with this the following story is […]
poetry

Sir Henry Parkes, “The Beauteous Terrorist” (Sophie Perovskaya, 1885)

June 22, 2016 A Beautiful Nihilist
“She was beautiful. It was not the beauty which dazzles at first sight, but that which fascinates the more, the more it is regarded. “A blonde, with a pair of blue eyes, serious and penetrating, under a broad and spacious forehead. A delicate little nose; a charming mouth, which showed, when she smiled, two rows of very fine white teeth. “It was, however, her countenance as a whole which was the attraction. There was something brisk, vivacious, and at the same time, ingenuous in her rounded face. She was girlhood personified. Notwithstanding her twenty-six years, she seemed scarcely eighteen. A […]
Saint Ravachol

Beautiful Nihilist Girl (Olga Gontcharenko, 1890)

June 22, 2016 A Beautiful Nihilist
BEAUTIFUL NIHILIST GIRL Implicated in the Plot Against the Czar’s Life, Shoots a Policeman and Then Herself. St. Petersburg, Jan 11.—In following up the plots of the Nihilists in Warsaw the secret police discovered evidence implicating in the conspiracy against the life of the Czar, Olga Goutsehaunko, a young and beautiful girl, connected with prominent Russian families. Yesterday the chief of police went to her house to arrest her, when the girl, suddenly drawing a revolver, shot him dead. She then turned the pistol upon herself and blew out her own brains. Manitoba Free Press (Winnipeg, Canada) 16 no. 164 […]
poetry

Hubert Church, “Vera Figner” (1908)

June 22, 2016 A Beautiful Nihilist
[Vera Figner, Russian Revolutionary; a woman of great charm and radiant beauty. She was condemned to imprisonment for life, and for twenty years was immured in the living rave of the Schlusselburg Fortress. When these lines were composed the writer thought that Vera Figner was still in prison. By a strange chance, on three days after the lines were written, he read that Vera Figner had been released.] I. Vera Figner, when the breezes blow, Do you awaken to the hostile morn? Or do you live so numbed you do not know, Like a toad in a granite tempest-worn? Vera […]
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Voltairine de Cleyre, “Some Nihilists I Have Met” (1893)

June 22, 2016 A Beautiful Nihilist
Some Nihilists I Have Met The word nihilist is so generally associated with darkness, secrecy, dynamite, assassination and blood, that had someone whispered five minutes before the encounter, “You are about to meet a Russian nihilist,” I should, no doubt, have hastily retreated to the shelter of law-abiding domiciles, far from the dirty, tortuous, downtown quarter, where, amidst a labyrinth of alleys and deceitful little streets that mockingly led against walls, and then turned back into one another, I found myself one snowy afternoon, picking my way somewhat disgustedly with no very clear idea concerning my exact whereabouts. One thing, […]