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Show HEI'S QUESTION GSJ RUSSIA Madame Tyrkova, in ArJ. ' vanced Address, Applauded by "Intelligentsia." Special Cable to The Tribune. , ST. PETERSBURG. April 21. Interest in the women's question is rapidly growing grow-ing in Russia, and during the winter a j large number of meetings have been held In St. Petersburg with the object of advocating ad-vocating the claims of women to a greater great-er share In the conduct of public affairs. af-fairs. The claim to the voto Is frequent v discussed, dis-cussed, but since Russian conditions are especially unfavorable to the extension of the rranchise to women, tho political Issue Is usually treated merely as a pluifio In the general question of the enlargement en-largement of tho nrea of women's work for social betterment. At a largely attended meeting Madame A. Tyrkova, a well-known novelist and one of the leaders of tho women's movement, move-ment, slated briefly tho alms and Ideals of Russian women In the present state of their conflict. Madame Tyrkova pointed out that for many years Russian women had been in a privileged position as compared with their western sisters. In matters of property they had enjoyed considerable Independence, and higher education had been secured for women In Russia long before It Had been acquired In most of the countries of western Europe. In the strugglci for political reform women fought side by side with men. on absolutely abso-lutely equal terms. But the very privilege privi-lege enjoyed by Russian women had given them n false sense of security. They were disinclined to regard the women's question as especially Interesting Interest-ing to them. They forgot that they were the heirs of a world-wide and age-long tradition of inferiority, which was vividly vivid-ly Illustrated In the customs of savage tribes In relation to women. But with the relaxation of political oppression the women's question had forced Itself to the front In Russia. |