New-York tribune., 1885-02-01
A RUSSIAN WOMAN.
THE EMANCIpATED TYPE.

mains of perhaps one of the greatest women OK
our time, Barbara Nikitiue. nee Gendre, daugh-
ter of General Gendre of the Russian artillery, and
wife of Colonel Nkitino of tho Russian Guard
Madame Nikitine was forty-fou when she died
Her life was singularly happy and her hap
plness entirely won by the renunciaton OF
wealth. of brilliant position, courtly society, a
handsome, dashng husband (who was out OF
sympathy with her ideas and by study, long
continued search after truth, and the exercise OF
her best feelings She found in the free exercise OF
her gifts so much enjoyment that there was not
perhaps in Europe more envable woman. Her
enthusiasm and intellect lifted her above all that
was vulgar in these far money went-cramped
circumstances in which she elected to live. Madame
Nikitine was not for violence as a means of emaDc-
| patton; bnt she used to say that when she con-
sidered how the world was governed and how riches
were distributed it was inevitable. She studied in
museums and libraries, in the garrets of the poor,
in first, second and third class carriages, and was
no pedaht or phra~use although fine phrases often
| dropped from her pen. One of them was that
societies should be founded equity and ceinented
| with brotherly love.
| What was her educationf General Gendre, her
father was military engineer poet and botanist,
| but MuscOvite in his theory of government, ana
| revered the Car. Ho brought up his daughter IN
| his ideas. She emancipated herself when young
| as far back 1851 At the Kew Institute Tor
| noble young ladies she had professor who used
to give her for her French sflectops from
| Alexander Herzen's writings. They taught ber to
revolt mentally against the system she had been
accustomed to revere and awOke in her burning
| love for truth and justice. When she left school
she refused to conform to the practices OF the Greek
| Church, IN which she saw an instrument OF mental
and moral oppression. she also refused to go to
| ham and
person of high station she would have been the
object of adulation aud perhaps of envy What she
wanted was to study seriously and to reflect.
| Books were refused her, but she sold the gold
| medal she won at her final examination at the In
/ tituts to buy some tlat she wanted and then her
jewels and the silver vessels that she had received
| from her godfather and godmOther. The medal
| was bought back by General Gendre, but she
| kept her books One of them was Louis Blanc 8
History of Ten Years" There were ignorant
serfs, children her fathers estate, whom she
taught to read and write and for whom she drew up
little catechism explaining to them the duties ana
the beauties of probty, sobriety, fraternity justice
| and personal dignity. This part of hor life was
remembered by her with delight. 1t was closed
by an oaer of marriage made by colonel of
Alexander li.'s Guard, who man of vast
fortune and had two children by "a first wife. He
1 inspired hor with no sympathy but her family
persuaded her that it would he madness to reject so
good q settlement The idea that the orphans
might fall into worse hands than hers decided her.
80 she taken to St. Petersburg to shine at court
| Colonel Lavroii remembers the sensation which
her beauty made. She had q sylph-like figure, a
wide high forehead that reflected the light; eyes
that expressed an earnest ardent and yet icnsive
soul and senslbty showed itself IN all her Inca
mcnts. she had complexion of rare delicacy
Il Hnalx lntl
that one might fancy both BRAN and body thought
As the Grand Duke Constantine proclaimed heI
peerless and the Car himself was attracted by
her. society made her its idol. But the frivolity Of
| the court and of the fashionable world oppressed
her To an unspeakable degree. She had no time Il
| re 4d to think, to botanize or to teach All he
DAYS aud nights were taken up in whifl OF vapi'
excitement. She despsed the trivial beings aronn'
her. They used to to her like animals of prey
battcning OH a living beng. Their luxury wa
criminal IL was the fruit of injustice and so were
| her grand surroundings The human moths anc
butterflies around her had no moral sense ano
fancied themselves part OF heavenly system OF
| which the Car was the central sum-
| An attack of Inflammation of the lungs changed
| tbe course of her existence She went Ia Palermo
| TO cheat n rigorous winter There she fell III with
| Renan, d. Latourneau. some German Socialists
| and some Russians whose moral experiences re-
scmbled her own. The expansion OF her faculties
| IN this genial society and the bliss II caused
prompted her TO take great resolution. 1t was to
1--WE her husband every facility To free himself
| from the matrimonial bond. and TO live ont her
own lite as she chose and where she chose To
| s,ay with hun in 81. Petersburg would DC either
| ruin TO his prospects OF morai deatn 10 hcr. In
| tL. latter case what could she do Tor the children
| hcvond selecting good teachers for them Colonel
Nikitlne came to Palermo to see her ana sac There
| told him of her decision. there Is no lover she
| soiJ !. hidden in tho cupboard. Ii had one /
| shonld not hide him. Neither am tired OF yoi.
Yon have been better to me than could nave ex-
pected. seeing how lew tastes We nse ~ IN ~ cJlo nnOt
| ,uI u.yer can What ~ the use OF dragging on
| IngetLer At first you Will regret the divorce aud
| then Won will console yourself. shall always he
n, distance n preceptress 10 the girls, II you and
| they have no objection. Along with them should.
| they being nearly grown up, stand IN their way
nni.s. I ,omplcley sacrificed my tastes. Is It not,
| ,,,' ,r;and n bargain |" The colonel yielded.
| Wadams Nikitme did not ask him for provision.
Her tastes were simpl and she ! I'd enough OF her
| own tu keep her above material want IN IarIs,
| which ,he heard from Turgenef was at once the
| dearest capital in Europe and the one III which
person Who liked arts letters ihteectual %
| ;name If his time were his own she chose che
uni.t Rue dAssas IN the midst or artists anh pro,
| frs,ors and became the centre OF an emahcipatcu
" - ,nossble to conceive anything more refined
| or ethereal than this strongnlnoed laay. ole
| m,,nrnss.d ~ ono who met her after a long absence
| Nth the idea that sho was too good ior TINS world
| Usr conversation was bright and interesting but
| aha wanted animal sirlts hruoI ann eh'husi"S'n
gave color to the cheek and light to the eye aud
iJ not carry her on to boredom. She called herself
| u au nnstivi,t and was all poetry; scientist, aud
was the very embodiment Of art Of every kind
without however. grain Of feminine art,nne's
| .,n,"ctsi with the French press She admired an
article by ane some paintings she hda rsSS sSe ma, IN
Italy and in talking Of him to common .rsna N whs ths
Tu1s aes Beanx Arts She spilled to the ecturer
for admission He was her humble and devoted
90, Sor aJ,rission to his lecture-r0Om No woman
could be recsived there. His reason was that he
often in explaining tho principles OF art gave
| anatomical demOnstrations Is thst ali! cIieu