ИСТИНА

Since the late 19th century, the Russian civil society was campaigning to include the issue of women’s higher education on the agricultural agenda. However, for a female candidate to receive an agricultural degree, she would require special permission from the Ministry of Agriculture. This paper addresses the social, psychological, and bureaucratic obstacles for women’s higher agricultural education in the late 19th - early 20th century Russia. In particular, as the practice of agriculture in Russia was traditionally seen as a male career, this paper will explore unity and disunity between male and female agricultural discourses. The paper explores the crucial role of the Association for the Advancement of Women’s Agricultural Education (1899), which united both female activists and male professors, and already in 1904 launched the project of the non-governmental higher educational courses for women. I will examine motivations, higher educational experiences, and career development of the three female pioneers in agriculture: Josephine Kossko-Sudakevich, who became the first woman agronomist at the zemstvo’s service; Lidiya Breslavets, a famous Russian cytogeneticist; and Vera Velikanova, a graduate from the private Golitsyn Women’s Courses, and a plant breeder. My argument is that, despite the perception of Russian higher education as a state institution, in women’s education public initiatives proved to be no less important. I also argue that those women, who managed to receive higher education in agriculture, were rather successful in their careers. There was the 1917 revolution, however, that influenced the socio-economic aspects of women agronomists’ practices, but not scientific achievements.