The Kingdom of Women

This was truly a Russian paradox. In the land of the "Domostroy", where numerous folk sayings quite sincerely described the position of women: "A chicken is not a bird, a woman is not a person", "Who carries water? A woman! Who gets beaten? A woman! For what? For being a woman", — throughout the 18th century, five women-empresses and one Regent ruled the Russian state autocratically. All our crowned ladies were extraordinarily militant and managed to leave in inheritance to the 19th century and to the male emperors — a vast country with immense problems, which ultimately led the country to disaster…