„Our proclamation [...] backfired“. The struggle for women’s suffrage in the light of the correspondence of Eliza Orzeszkowa, Konstancja Skirmuntt and Emma Jeleńska-Dmochowska

Abstract

In her article, Katarzyna Kościewicz analyses the behind-the-scenes creation of the
proclamation To the Voters and Electors of Our Lands and Cities. Three prominent
women – Eliza Orzeszkowa, Konstancja Skirmuntt and Emma Jeleńska-Dmochowska – who were active in the cultural and social life of the second half of the 19th century and the first decades of the 20th century in the territories of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania, were particularly involved in working on it. The purpose of the proclamation was to demand women’s suffrage before the upcoming first elections to the State Duma in the Russian Empire in 1906. An analysis of their correspondence shows how complex was the struggle for women’s suffrage undertaken by them in 1906 in the territory of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The dispute over the national or supranational nature of the action, which was outlined between the proclamation’s creators, took on an even more complicated shape in the public forum, revealing differences regarding the evaluation of emancipation measures among both men and women. The researcher concludes that social consensus in this regard could not yet be spoken of at the time.