Marriage phenomenon in the view of a young Verkhneudinsk townswoman in the early 20th century

By the beginning of the 20th century, women in the Russian Empire represented a part of the population that was barely «heard» in the public sphere. For the absolute majority of women, marriage and childbirth seemed to be the only life strategy, an instrument of women's self-realization and material wealth. Despite the intensification of the processes of social and female emancipation since the second half of the 19th century, the society remained quite conservative with regard to the family status of women. The article analyzes the perceptions of Ekaterina Sergeyeva’s (Tanskaya) marriage, who was a girl who lived in a provincial gentry family. For her the desire to marry was a form of both improving her financial situation and to a greater extent getting rid of family tutelage. In addition, Ekaterina envisioned marriage as a means of moving to the central part of the country. In choosing between marriage and education Ekaterina with no regret favored the former, which indicates the unconditional dominance of patriarchal notions of "women's purpose" in the towns of Transbaikalia in the early 20th century.