EDN: https://elibrary.ru/wvgtzy
DOI: 10.21064/WinRS.2025.2.7
The article covers the life and work of the wife of one of the “liberal bureaucrats” A. M. Artsimovich. V. A. Artsimovich was called the head of the “red liberals” in a denunciation by opponents from among the Kaluga serf-owning nobles. The authors use letters from A. M. Artsimovich to her husband and excerpts from his letters to her, which are introduced into scientific circulation for the first time. Already in the first years of marriage, along
with the performance of the traditional duties of a housewife, wife, and mother, which were difficult with a large family and the absence of significant income, she energetically and enthusiastically managed the charitable and educational institutions that she headed. The actions of A. M. Artsimovich as a trustee of the Tobolsk Women’s School and the orphanage opened by it, as well as as the chairperson of the ladies’ department of the provincial prison committee, which provided assistance to exiled women and the wives of prisoners and exiles, differed noticeably from the formal performance of duties typical of governors’ wives. Already in these years she shared the views of her husband, V. A. Artsimovich, who belonged to the group of “liberal bureaucrats”. Later, as the wife of the Kaluga governor, A. M. Artsimovich, along with all her previous tasks, devoted more and more time and attention to social and even sociopolitical activities. She actively participated in the struggle of V. A. Artsimovich and the group of liberal-minded peace mediators he headed for the implementation of the peasant reform of 1861. A. M. Artsimovich not only conveyed the orders of her husband, who was often and for a long time in Saint Petersburg on business, which was a rare and even unique phenomenon. She discussed the situation in the province with his supporters who gathered at her home and communicated to her husband the proposals they had jointly developed. In one of his letters, her husband called her a “business woman”, and the Decembrist G. S. Batenkov, who was close to him, hinted that she was replacing the governor during his long stay in Saint Petersburg. Such active participation in social and political life and effective assistance to their husbands were also characteristic of the wives of other “liberal bureaucrats” — N. A. Milyutin, Prince V. A. Cherkassky.
The research was carried out within the framework of the state assignment, the project “The past in the manuscript sources of the 16th—20th centuries: preservation and development of traditions” (FWZM-2024—0006).