The Cincinnati daily star. [volume] ([Cincinnati, Ohio]) 1875-1880, 1879-03-29
DIv0RCE IN RUSSIA.

Divorces are not allowed in Russia, but
marriage can be annulled for informal
ity, and SO divorces are pretty frequent.
1t is only question of money, like most
Russian things. In Lthuania and some
parts of Little Russia it is the custom of
the BRIDES nearest relative to give her q
slap on the face at the moment of leading
her to the priest, the object of this being to
establshin case of need, that the bride is
married under compulsion-which would
be enough to break the marriage. Even
Russians themselves assure strangers that
the slap is only reminder to the bride to
behave well in the future; bat the true
sense of it is that just stated, for otherwise
the reminder would presumably be given by
the bridegroom
In some parts of the empire the date of
the marriage is left blank on the certificate,
and this again furnishes ground for di-
vorce: In the Cherosonese the priest in
tentionally omits to register the ages of the
parties; but there is no real need for any of
these precautions the marriage laws are
so complex that two parties willing to pay
for the luxury of separation can easily
ferret out ukase whose prescriptions
were not scrupuously observed at their
nuptials.
1t is the clergy who declare marriage
null, and they viii eonnive at any trick for
this purpose. II is not by any means raro
for lady of tickle affections to get her new
lover to pay her husband sum of money
that he may consent to divorce; and this
has been done even in social circles where
regard for decencies might have been ex-
pected. ..
Annulled ladies, whether remarked or
not, are received into society; so are those
who have annulled marriages two or three
times and indeed Russian morals as to the
sanction of marriage are nothing if not
lax. Russians make. good husbands ac-
cording to their own ideas of good--that
is, they are indulgent, good, tempered, and
not jealous; but in the higher Glasses they
ere incorrgible dirts, and in the lower they
drink, and being drunk, settle all connubal
differences by blows. ...
1t is common sight in village to see o
mujic cutting his wife with might and
main; nor do her howls bring any of her
own sex to her assistance. 1t seems to be
admitted among all but the upper classes
that man has full right to beat his WIFE
and she gets no sympathy whether she
vociferates or hits back. In case of fragrant
infdelity, Russian may have his wife put
in prison for year, and if she is not Of
noble blood or of a priests family, he may
have her once foggad beside; but this pre-
rogative is more honored in the breach than
III the observance.
| Women have no coruterhold over their
husbands and herein appears the Oriental
view.still prevailing in the empire as to the
ascendancy of the strong sex. A husband
may appear as witness in. lawsuit
against his wife, but wife is not heard
against her husband; man may oblige his
wife to work for him, but wife cannot
sue her husband even for necessaries and
she has no redress against him if he deserts
her. Orientalism appears again in the
most total seclusion of Russian middle rank
women within their own homes.
You must have known Russian of the
trading class for some time before he thinks
it advisable to introduce his wife; and you
must have been his intimate friend for
years before he would take the liberty
of letting her sit down to table in your
presence. Russian women go out of doors
with their children, but seldom with their
husbands, and man is not expected to
take notice of another mans wife by bow
ing to her in the streets.
One of the sights which surprises a Rus
sian of the midland cities most when he
goes to St. Petersburgh, Moscow OF Odessa,
is to notice the proniscuous flow of both
sexes in the streets and in places of amuse-
ment AS to the spectacle of married
ladies sitting in the boxes of theatres with
their shoulders bare, this amazing license
takes his breath away.