There are examples from feudal Russia of women in power who initiated major reforms. Princess Olga when she was ruler, carried out the first financial reforms in Russia, setting a fixed sum for tribute to be payed and a system for collecting it. Written accounts of the l2th-l4th centuries testify to the high educational level of women of the ruling class. They were knowledgeable not only in sacred literature, but also in mathematics and the philosophy of their time. A few princesses had substantial libraries.
Some authors think it came in following the Byzantine model of asceticism.
The Russian historian Shulgin writes that the seclusion of women came not from Byzantine influence but had to do with the overall general status of women in society. The historian Zhelobovsky considers important the fact that in the cities women took little part in the work of their husbands, whether he was a merchant or an artisan, and having lost her value as an active working family member, the woman lost her value in general. It was the Tatar yoke on Russia that strengthened norms of behavior humiliating for woman, sharply lowering her social status.