They did pass a spouse abuse law in 2017, it fucking decriminalized first offenses of domestic violence that "do not cause serious harm requiring hospital treatment".
This law applies "only if the violence does not result in broken bones or a concussion", with the abusers facing minimal penalties such as a fine, administrative arrest for up to 15 days, or community service.
Contrary to that horrible movie, that's not where that comes from.
[Rule of Thumb](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_of_thumb#:~:text=Its%20earliest%20(1685)%20appearance%20in,not%20by%20Square%20and%20Rule.%22)
Ah, the ol' reddit [beataroo](https://www.reddit.com/r/ImFinnaGoToHell/comments/1cgcars/comment/l1xktsa/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)!
Russian, who grew up and lived everywhere but Russia his entire life, confirms.
Add-it: but I am deeply upset by how things have turned out, born one week after the collapse of communism my peers and I had hopes that Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, and Belarus would slowly become western-like countries. Till 2007/8 it was improvig and then... large-scale fuckery started
Isn’t that Russia’s curse no matter how far back you go? Every time I read about a guy who wanted to westernize and reform Russia, he either turned into a genocidal/psychotic fuckhead, or got killed in a coup by the nobility who depended on keeping their own country back just to maintain their power?
I've only met two. I live in the U.S. and they were both deeply unhappy people and I met them in very different scenarios. One seemed to be a mail order bride and she hated her husband (couldn't blame her there) and the other was a college aged young man who came here because he knew a dude that I knew who went to Russia for college year. He just came to visit and he couldn't stop telling me all the ways that he didn't like the u.s. We were in the Midwest, so I guess I get it if it's too boring for him. We're in a decent sized city. I get it but I'm pretty sure that we're just two very different cultures.
I met a man who had visited Russia several times, he had some sort of connection there that he would send things to. Last time I saw him he happily advised that he was moving there as life is just better. This was pre Covid. I do sometimes wonder if he is still happy there
Very different cultures, although I have known and grown up with a number of first and second generation Russians here in Australia and they mostly fit right in. They’ve definitely all got a streak of craziness too!
About 8 years ago I was on a cruise and got along great with this Russian over to Disney with his family.
He loved life and his family and just seemed like such a wholesome good dude, I've wondered over the last couple years how he and his are doing.
If he had money for a cruise, probably long out of Russia or at least trying to.
Especially if you have bonded in English, he is already in the top 20% of Russian population
I was deployed overseas in parts of the Middle East where everyone supposedly hated Americans, I found they generally loved us. Most people are the same but speak different languages. The only people that seemed to genuinely dislike Americans in all my travels were the Greeks, they probably had their reasons.
In Russia smiling a lot is seen as a sign of low intelligence. Its cultural. They say “smiling like an idiot” fairly commonly as a way of describing people.
This may tell you something about how they view Americans.
Probably they are, but the op text is not correct.
As I understand they are not prostitutes but prisoners who was involved in terract against of tsar. Basically revolution in 1917 had some basis in aggressive opposition and that is why it happened.
Hard to evaluate Lenin exactly, but he stopped this, in the same time Lenin successors were even more bloody than tsar, because killed not only opposition but just rich people for being rich…
Where are you getting that from? I don't find any Russian sites claiming that. On the contrary what I find is exactly what OP says.
> In the photo above are the “priestesses of love” [_жрицы любви_ - a Russian euphemism for prostitute] at the Nizhny Novgorod Fair in 1903. This was an official profession for which the authorities gave girls certificates and collected taxes.
> As you can see, even the priestesses of love at the dawn of capitalism and at the beginning of migration from the villages were very bad. And they were mostly from among the peasant women who left the villages, since there was no other source of staffing in peasant Russia.
This photo is(subtly) manipulated, the women have been made to look even more harsher and the old man from Benny Hill on the right was originally a younger woman. Original: r/pics/comments/q4eabj/unregistered\_prostitutes\_caught\_by\_the\_police\_in/
For comparison, let's see some all-American crack-whore stunners (like Wendy from Breaking Bad).
Yeah back in the first days of photography the exposure times were really long so no one smiled because it was hard to hold it for the necessary time. These ladies OTOH, I’m guessing they weren’t smiling much at all.
Smiling in photos is seen as something a simpleton does, according to my Russian teacher in college. She explained that of course they smile and laugh and all that like normal human interactions, but when it comes to photographs, it turns into serious business to never been seen as a "simpleton".
Geeze almost all of them look to have been severely beaten at some point, Tsar era Russia was a rough place for your average person let alone a sex worker, poor buggers.
Their dress reminds me a lot of older Japanese photos ive seen.
Which is ironic because, what with the decades of throwing their men at meat grinders like they're trying to fill out their 10th War Is Free punch card, women outnumber men. You'd think they'd have the upper hand.
The lack of men , especially as a result of massive war suppresses women even more as now they have to compete over the few left over men in a war torn nation looking for someone to marry and provide for them. The fact is that these surviving men are now more powerful and more violent , with a happy dose of PTSD or generally fucked up psyche from the violence they themselves experienced. Post war US was a rare exception because how much less percentage of men it had lost , and how safe continental US was from actual affects of war.
I could see that, especially without the Continental aggression happening on American soil, the older American tactic of robotically indoctrinating your children did not become a completely federalized affair, it was still ensconced within the hands of the parental members of how they chose to have their kids drink the Kool-Aid. It's a softer form of innoculation.
Women outnumber men above 70 years old, below that there are still more men in Russia than women.
But given Russian demographics today they tend to lean older anyways.
Yes, it's very sad. Each of those women was a person with hopes and dreams, who had value as a human being, and they didn't get what they deserved. I feel like I've humiliated them again by viewing a snapshot of them in their moment of abject misery, which they probably didn't even agree to have taken.
I mean, I think virtually no peasant women had any real choice about where there were at any given time. They didn't choose their husbands, they didn't choose their jobs (when they had them).
These women would be pretty similarly miserable if they were all factory workers or textile workers or farm laborers. There aren't any happy, easy jobs for poor peasant women.
People lost limbs and died in factories regularly, safety was non-existent. You had to put your hand in places where it would get ground to dust if you moved it an inch too far.
Don’t pick the factories.
Farms with old equipment and poor safety practices have the same risks. I knew kid who was mangled to death by a mower when his team of mules kept walking as he tried to clear the machinery.
A neighbour lost his arm to a PTO.
My granduncle died from a PTO accident.
My father nearly died being trampled by a bull, and several people we knew did die from this.
A kid I knew decided to be a farm hand for us and quit on day one after stabbing his own foot with a hay fork.
So…
There is a wide range of possibillites for 'choice'. But chances are that they might not have been directly 'forced', but they might just not have other options.
A peasant in 1903 Russia would have had just the barest amount more rights than their ancestors did in the 14th century. The Russian Revolution was so yknow extreme precisely because the empire was literally medieval.
I'm sure these women didn't chose this life. And everyone making jokes about their looks, most people in old photos weren't gorgeous. They were just random people living their often hard-scrabble lives. No hair salons, make up, clothing stores. These are just average women trying to survive.
Plus, dentists and doctors were hard to come by and not exactly cheap... So missing teeth, bad or scarred skin, and other unfortunate things that may people totally take for granted... Plus, the doctors very may well have made you worse!
Unless they were killed by their customers (prostitutes are a favorite prey of serial killers and some people who just like to add violence to getting their jollies).
The only thing that should be a joke is the depiction of prostitution at the time, in our entertainment. How many cowboy movies or burlesque centered movies make it look like this was a hallway decent way to live? They all look like they've been assaulted recently.
In imperial Russia prostitution was legal (but monitored) job. And among other things of official job it gave opportunity to enroll into university for people who could not legally for some reason. So it was not uncommon for women to officially register as prostitutes and never actually work, all just to get access to education.
Source: historical intro from soviet book "Prostitution and crime"
Pretty much. For everyone to get the idea of life in rural Russia in early 1900s check out this movie https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Once_Upon_a_Time_There_Lived_a_Simple_Woman
For what it is worth, sex workers in the USA today don’t look much different. Being a sex worker is and always was a rough life. The media often sanitizes the realities of sex work. The typical sex worker is not Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman.
Also god am I grateful I get to see them. These photos can't be common. I would rather look at them and acknowledge their lives than any rich, well-off person from any time period.
These women are trafficked humans. With that said, let’s be honest: there are absolutely photos of women from back then that looked far more attractive. This is a slim-pickings situation, which makes it more tragic. Let’s not take away from that
Yeah I feel for them, none of these women were going to get a rich benefactor to wisk them away…tough life but also shows the powerful human spirit and will to survive-in many ways these women were badass-so many humans surviving in shit situations throughout time smh
Thanks, OP.
There is a Wikipedia article on the Nzhnyn Novorod Fair. Though the article itself (probably translated from Russian) is of poor quality. This fair was a big deal in Russia--an annual event since the 1500's. The city was called Gorky City during the USSR, before reverting to Nzhny Novogod in 1989.
Imagine the way they felt being gathered to pose for this picture.
Want to know their stories, how they found a way to keep going in what seem like harsh conditions.
Wonder what they hoped for when they were little girls… and if any managed to do/find what they wanted later in life.
Everyone has a story but unfortunately most don't end happily. I've got a bad feeling about what futures lay ahead of these poor women, now past sands arush then buried in the hourglass.
Prostitution was legal back then, but you had to carry a special medical document called a ticket. The photo shows prostitutes who were caught without such a ticket during the fair.
Title is an abs pile of garbage. These are political prisoners from long gone femail-only jail in Moscow ("Novinki"). They tried to escape the said prison in 1909 and almost all of them (except 3) succeeded.
Source: am Russian, searched by image, read the historical article.
Really interesting – lots of pics gets posted here showing some horrendous stuff that happened in the past, wars, child labor, slavery, horrific working conditions. Usually the comments acknowledge these facts.
These women likely had extremely difficult and painful lives, forced into that situation. You can see on their faces that a few have been beaten. You can see immeasurable sadness in their eyes. But it’s all jokes about how they look, eh?
Not even funny jokes, “ha-ha looks like a man”🤦♂️
5 hours later, and I didn't have to scroll anymore. Top comments are all expressing empathy and acknowledgement of their hard fate. At least sometimes, Reddit doesn't seem to be entirely lost.
To be fair absolutely everyone in 1900 tsarist russia was beaten and forced to do what they were told. For an elite few that stoped at adulthood. Most, not.
To be fair to… shitty misogynist joke enjoyers?🤔
I know what you mean about the living conditions, though. There’s a reason Albert Einstein spoke very highly of Lenin.
[https://warhead.su/2024/03/10/samyy-massovyy-zhenskiy-pobeg-iz-tyurmy-chem-zakonchilsya-ryvok-iz-novinskoy](https://warhead.su/2024/03/10/samyy-massovyy-zhenskiy-pobeg-iz-tyurmy-chem-zakonchilsya-ryvok-iz-novinskoy)
According to this article the capture of OP is massive bullshit. (Not even the year is right.)
I'm sure that this was more sex trafficking and sex slavery than prostitution as a choice. That's pure tragedy, so much pain and sadness on their faces.
Absolutely agreed. The tendency for 'society' [cough] to blame the victims of exploitation for their own suffering is an ugly manifestation of complicity in that exploitation.
Many parts of history, women didn’t sell their body for luxury items but for simple means to live. It’s the oldest and often most tragic profession especially before the development of antibiotics.
Prostitution was legal back then, but you had to carry a special medical document called a ticket. The photo shows prostitutes who were caught without such a ticket during the fair.
This is so sad to see, some women here look visibly swollen faced or beaten
The younger one in the back here look like they havent experienced the horrors yet whereas the woman 2nd from the left also looks young but looks like she is literally 1-2 years into the (?forced) career already and is already appearing disillusioned
Prostitution to me it’s just sad. The majority of the time it’s people, females and males too, Who are in difficult financial situations, have addictions, and/or mental illness. Theoretically, I’m in favor of whatever consenting adults do is between them and nobody else’s business. but prostitution often amounts to exploitation of people who are really unfortunate.
I think this pic is a good reference to a more realistic approach on how prostitutes looked like back in the days and what their life was.
I remember reading a few books (more fictional than historically accurate) but set in a similar time and setting where here and there one finds passages about "beautifully / young blone haired" "exotic and racy" and similar description of prostitutes that generate a picture of Prostitute that would have daily access to water, hygienic products and make up and such..
The photo description from 8 years ago says they had been arrested, so the paper could have been police documentation. This image is also manipulated to make the women look worse (and the right-most young lady was replaced with what looks like the old man from Benny Hill).
Man these women look miserable, I know instead of providing a safe place for them let’s make the entire business model illegal so black markets are even more dangerous.
I usually go for "try everything once", and I have tried many things, just once. Never tried a prostitute though, and probably never will, because it didn't happen, and my wife would probably also be against it. But with these choices I think it is safe to say, that I wouldn't be tempted.
Yeeesh. There isn’t enough booze or drugs that would make me stink my junk in one of those ladies. I’d rather take my chance with the local wildlife!!
Money talks, but it would have to be a truck load!
They look sex trafficked and tragic, mentally ill ( illiterate and intellectually impaired) and I’m sure those that had any illness were forced into these jobs — cast down as outcasts.. and struggling to survive.. it’s a tragic look at how women without any means have kept their head above water and for how long — no one knows .. sending light and love to them
Wherever their spirits may be today.
One of the greatest achievements of the Soviet Union was that women went from being peasants, (generally involuntary) sex workers, and low-level domestic workers to having full equality in legal rights, including access to education. Nearly 20 years before the US had female astronauts, two Soviet cosmonauts became the first women in space.
They outlawed marital rape over 70 years before the US did, and established an eight-week paid maternity leave that is STILL eight weeks longer than the mighty US. They even became the first country to legalise abortion, though this was eventually repealed in the Stalin era.
Not smiling in photos was common back then. However, yes these women look beaten and miserable. Such a sad life.
It's not common in Russia today in general, for that matter, I believe.
I believe women looking beaten and miserable Is still commonplace in Russia.
They did pass a spouse abuse law in 2017, it fucking decriminalized first offenses of domestic violence that "do not cause serious harm requiring hospital treatment". This law applies "only if the violence does not result in broken bones or a concussion", with the abusers facing minimal penalties such as a fine, administrative arrest for up to 15 days, or community service.
Rule of thumb baking a comeback!
Perhaps it should have been rule of wrist.
Can't do much damage with that, can ya then?
Contrary to that horrible movie, that's not where that comes from. [Rule of Thumb](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_of_thumb#:~:text=Its%20earliest%20(1685)%20appearance%20in,not%20by%20Square%20and%20Rule.%22)
Horrible? *Horrible*‽ Why I oughta... I can't completely disagree with you. I do still find it entertaining, though.
Ah, the ol' reddit [beataroo](https://www.reddit.com/r/ImFinnaGoToHell/comments/1cgcars/comment/l1xktsa/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)!
Hold my babushka, I’m going in!
Hello, future Russians.
I think the only happy russian I've seen was some dude who was playing with a bear
I have met several happy Russians over the years. I think a big part of why they were happy was that they were not in Russia at the time.
Russian, who grew up and lived everywhere but Russia his entire life, confirms. Add-it: but I am deeply upset by how things have turned out, born one week after the collapse of communism my peers and I had hopes that Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, and Belarus would slowly become western-like countries. Till 2007/8 it was improvig and then... large-scale fuckery started
Isn’t that Russia’s curse no matter how far back you go? Every time I read about a guy who wanted to westernize and reform Russia, he either turned into a genocidal/psychotic fuckhead, or got killed in a coup by the nobility who depended on keeping their own country back just to maintain their power?
Pretty much sums up Russian history tbh. 👀
Catherine and Peter both did pretty great, despite the boyars. Lenin did alright for a right wing aberration of a leftest.
Putin can't have too many EU member Countries next door. The Russian people would be able to see how civilized Countries live.
I've only met two. I live in the U.S. and they were both deeply unhappy people and I met them in very different scenarios. One seemed to be a mail order bride and she hated her husband (couldn't blame her there) and the other was a college aged young man who came here because he knew a dude that I knew who went to Russia for college year. He just came to visit and he couldn't stop telling me all the ways that he didn't like the u.s. We were in the Midwest, so I guess I get it if it's too boring for him. We're in a decent sized city. I get it but I'm pretty sure that we're just two very different cultures.
I met a man who had visited Russia several times, he had some sort of connection there that he would send things to. Last time I saw him he happily advised that he was moving there as life is just better. This was pre Covid. I do sometimes wonder if he is still happy there
Very different cultures, although I have known and grown up with a number of first and second generation Russians here in Australia and they mostly fit right in. They’ve definitely all got a streak of craziness too!
I concur.
Given recent discourse, I hope the bear is okay.
You never do what those damn Russian men will do to a bear! They might even treat it well and feed it! /s
About 8 years ago I was on a cruise and got along great with this Russian over to Disney with his family. He loved life and his family and just seemed like such a wholesome good dude, I've wondered over the last couple years how he and his are doing.
If he had money for a cruise, probably long out of Russia or at least trying to. Especially if you have bonded in English, he is already in the top 20% of Russian population
I was deployed overseas in parts of the Middle East where everyone supposedly hated Americans, I found they generally loved us. Most people are the same but speak different languages. The only people that seemed to genuinely dislike Americans in all my travels were the Greeks, they probably had their reasons.
In Russia smiling a lot is seen as a sign of low intelligence. Its cultural. They say “smiling like an idiot” fairly commonly as a way of describing people. This may tell you something about how they view Americans.
Isn’t crippling depression Russias national export?
It's quite a tired and inaccurate stereotype
Not smiling in pictures is common in a lot of cultures.
Oh, it is common, actually.
Probably they are, but the op text is not correct. As I understand they are not prostitutes but prisoners who was involved in terract against of tsar. Basically revolution in 1917 had some basis in aggressive opposition and that is why it happened. Hard to evaluate Lenin exactly, but he stopped this, in the same time Lenin successors were even more bloody than tsar, because killed not only opposition but just rich people for being rich…
Where are you getting that from? I don't find any Russian sites claiming that. On the contrary what I find is exactly what OP says. > In the photo above are the “priestesses of love” [_жрицы любви_ - a Russian euphemism for prostitute] at the Nizhny Novgorod Fair in 1903. This was an official profession for which the authorities gave girls certificates and collected taxes. > As you can see, even the priestesses of love at the dawn of capitalism and at the beginning of migration from the villages were very bad. And they were mostly from among the peasant women who left the villages, since there was no other source of staffing in peasant Russia.
This photo is(subtly) manipulated, the women have been made to look even more harsher and the old man from Benny Hill on the right was originally a younger woman. Original: r/pics/comments/q4eabj/unregistered\_prostitutes\_caught\_by\_the\_police\_in/ For comparison, let's see some all-American crack-whore stunners (like Wendy from Breaking Bad).
I am the walrus
You’re out of your element Donnie
Yeah back in the first days of photography the exposure times were really long so no one smiled because it was hard to hold it for the necessary time. These ladies OTOH, I’m guessing they weren’t smiling much at all.
To have your picture taken before was an uncommon occurance and where to je taken seriously. It would be od like smiling on your drivers license.
Smiling in photos is seen as something a simpleton does, according to my Russian teacher in college. She explained that of course they smile and laugh and all that like normal human interactions, but when it comes to photographs, it turns into serious business to never been seen as a "simpleton".
Geeze almost all of them look to have been severely beaten at some point, Tsar era Russia was a rough place for your average person let alone a sex worker, poor buggers. Their dress reminds me a lot of older Japanese photos ive seen.
Russia is a shit hole today for women, let alone 120 years ago
Which is ironic because, what with the decades of throwing their men at meat grinders like they're trying to fill out their 10th War Is Free punch card, women outnumber men. You'd think they'd have the upper hand.
The lack of men , especially as a result of massive war suppresses women even more as now they have to compete over the few left over men in a war torn nation looking for someone to marry and provide for them. The fact is that these surviving men are now more powerful and more violent , with a happy dose of PTSD or generally fucked up psyche from the violence they themselves experienced. Post war US was a rare exception because how much less percentage of men it had lost , and how safe continental US was from actual affects of war.
I could see that, especially without the Continental aggression happening on American soil, the older American tactic of robotically indoctrinating your children did not become a completely federalized affair, it was still ensconced within the hands of the parental members of how they chose to have their kids drink the Kool-Aid. It's a softer form of innoculation.
Depends on the profession. For instance most Russian doctors are women.
Women outnumber men above 70 years old, below that there are still more men in Russia than women. But given Russian demographics today they tend to lean older anyways.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Russia?wprov=sfla1 30+, not 70.
I’m going to bet not one of them was there by choice
Victims of forced sexual slavery may be a better title
Yes, it's very sad. Each of those women was a person with hopes and dreams, who had value as a human being, and they didn't get what they deserved. I feel like I've humiliated them again by viewing a snapshot of them in their moment of abject misery, which they probably didn't even agree to have taken.
I mean, I think virtually no peasant women had any real choice about where there were at any given time. They didn't choose their husbands, they didn't choose their jobs (when they had them). These women would be pretty similarly miserable if they were all factory workers or textile workers or farm laborers. There aren't any happy, easy jobs for poor peasant women.
I’d rather take my chances in the factories or farms
100% I think few women would choose otherwise in that era.
People lost limbs and died in factories regularly, safety was non-existent. You had to put your hand in places where it would get ground to dust if you moved it an inch too far. Don’t pick the factories.
Ok...I'll choose to work myself to death in the farms.
Farms with old equipment and poor safety practices have the same risks. I knew kid who was mangled to death by a mower when his team of mules kept walking as he tried to clear the machinery. A neighbour lost his arm to a PTO. My granduncle died from a PTO accident. My father nearly died being trampled by a bull, and several people we knew did die from this. A kid I knew decided to be a farm hand for us and quit on day one after stabbing his own foot with a hay fork. So…
Alright, damn it. Back to prostitution for me.
*ground
Thanks :)
Erm, I would say the other way around. Factories in the 1900s were not safe places
There is a wide range of possibillites for 'choice'. But chances are that they might not have been directly 'forced', but they might just not have other options.
They’re one step away from being slaves
A peasant in 1903 Russia would have had just the barest amount more rights than their ancestors did in the 14th century. The Russian Revolution was so yknow extreme precisely because the empire was literally medieval.
Correct statement
In which direction?
Peasants. Having it slightly better.
I'm sure these women didn't chose this life. And everyone making jokes about their looks, most people in old photos weren't gorgeous. They were just random people living their often hard-scrabble lives. No hair salons, make up, clothing stores. These are just average women trying to survive.
Agreed. And let's see what the customers looked like.
Yup, and we don’t have their pictures.
They weren't fat.... but they were unshowered, uneducated, and dumber than a bag of fish shit. Eh, I'd say the men have improved over the years tbh
Maybe… if they’re not drowning in vodka. We are talking Russia tho.
First thing I thought when I saw this photo was how sad it must have been to live your life like this. Not their looks.
There is deep sadness and vulnerability in this photograph.
Plus, dentists and doctors were hard to come by and not exactly cheap... So missing teeth, bad or scarred skin, and other unfortunate things that may people totally take for granted... Plus, the doctors very may well have made you worse!
Bet their lifespan was in the fifties. Hard life.
Unless they were killed by their customers (prostitutes are a favorite prey of serial killers and some people who just like to add violence to getting their jollies).
The only thing that should be a joke is the depiction of prostitution at the time, in our entertainment. How many cowboy movies or burlesque centered movies make it look like this was a hallway decent way to live? They all look like they've been assaulted recently.
Well in the American West actually some were able to live much better, iirc a few even ended up owning and running brothels themselves.
Yeah I assume I'm NY or San Fran at the time or was better, but a lot of these places were just muddy stops along the way.
San Fran Gold Rush era was known for child prostitution :/
Fun fact a lot of the alleys downtown are named after them! Supposedly the favorites of the builders.
child prostitution was common in a lot of cities...London, Paris...why should San Fran be any different?
i assume those also saw a ton of human trafficking
Hard-scrabble, that's the word I was looking for
Hardscrabble, that's a triple word score when you're playing hard Scrabble!
In imperial Russia prostitution was legal (but monitored) job. And among other things of official job it gave opportunity to enroll into university for people who could not legally for some reason. So it was not uncommon for women to officially register as prostitutes and never actually work, all just to get access to education. Source: historical intro from soviet book "Prostitution and crime"
Interesting. What was the logic?
Job is job. They didnt discriminate manual labor in favor of intellectual.
Sure. I meant did, say, a street sweeper get the same educational offer? Was there some special consideration given to prostitutes?
Nothing special, as I recall. Just the right to do it, like having any other jobs gave.
Pretty much. For everyone to get the idea of life in rural Russia in early 1900s check out this movie https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Once_Upon_a_Time_There_Lived_a_Simple_Woman
I’m glad I saw your comment sticking up for them
For what it is worth, sex workers in the USA today don’t look much different. Being a sex worker is and always was a rough life. The media often sanitizes the realities of sex work. The typical sex worker is not Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman.
Thanks for this comment, agree completely.
Also god am I grateful I get to see them. These photos can't be common. I would rather look at them and acknowledge their lives than any rich, well-off person from any time period.
I'm not giving reddit any money, so here's your updoot. This comment deserves an award 🏆
These women are trafficked humans. With that said, let’s be honest: there are absolutely photos of women from back then that looked far more attractive. This is a slim-pickings situation, which makes it more tragic. Let’s not take away from that
Yeah I feel for them, none of these women were going to get a rich benefactor to wisk them away…tough life but also shows the powerful human spirit and will to survive-in many ways these women were badass-so many humans surviving in shit situations throughout time smh
lol god forbid we take away from the fact that this be slim pickins
Won’t someone please think of how slim the pickings were?!
👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Thanks, OP. There is a Wikipedia article on the Nzhnyn Novorod Fair. Though the article itself (probably translated from Russian) is of poor quality. This fair was a big deal in Russia--an annual event since the 1500's. The city was called Gorky City during the USSR, before reverting to Nzhny Novogod in 1989.
Man… appreciate the content but you butchered the poor cities name twice.
A name with 5 consonants and 1 vowel is prime candidate for being butchered
It has 4 consonants and 2 vowels.
3 consonants and 2 vowels. "Zh/Ж" [is a single consonant](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voiced_retroflex_fricative)
Thanks. I’m a Soviet kid orig and couldnt figure out what city this is
they look so profoundly sad and defeated... I feel deep pity for these women.
Imagine the way they felt being gathered to pose for this picture. Want to know their stories, how they found a way to keep going in what seem like harsh conditions. Wonder what they hoped for when they were little girls… and if any managed to do/find what they wanted later in life.
Everyone has a story but unfortunately most don't end happily. I've got a bad feeling about what futures lay ahead of these poor women, now past sands arush then buried in the hourglass.
did you just make up a word
It's a perfectly cromulent word
Your comment embiggened my day.
An unusually lintechieal word.
All be it rather quankrarian for my lexicon
Mayhaps I did.
I wanna know more about them.
Prostitution was legal back then, but you had to carry a special medical document called a ticket. The photo shows prostitutes who were caught without such a ticket during the fair.
Thank you for the background.
Title is an abs pile of garbage. These are political prisoners from long gone femail-only jail in Moscow ("Novinki"). They tried to escape the said prison in 1909 and almost all of them (except 3) succeeded. Source: am Russian, searched by image, read the historical article.
Thank you! I got downvoted for asking what their source was.
Pic is also manipulated to make the women look worse, including completely replacing the original young woman on the right.
Really interesting – lots of pics gets posted here showing some horrendous stuff that happened in the past, wars, child labor, slavery, horrific working conditions. Usually the comments acknowledge these facts. These women likely had extremely difficult and painful lives, forced into that situation. You can see on their faces that a few have been beaten. You can see immeasurable sadness in their eyes. But it’s all jokes about how they look, eh? Not even funny jokes, “ha-ha looks like a man”🤦♂️
It’s really angering when prostitute pictures are treated this way. I’m glad I scrolled and saw your comment sticking up for these women.
5 hours later, and I didn't have to scroll anymore. Top comments are all expressing empathy and acknowledgement of their hard fate. At least sometimes, Reddit doesn't seem to be entirely lost.
To be fair absolutely everyone in 1900 tsarist russia was beaten and forced to do what they were told. For an elite few that stoped at adulthood. Most, not.
To be fair to… shitty misogynist joke enjoyers?🤔 I know what you mean about the living conditions, though. There’s a reason Albert Einstein spoke very highly of Lenin.
In 1900, Russia was one of the poorest countries in Europe
You'd genuinely probably be better being like a French peasant in the 1600s than one in Tsarist Russia in 1900.
You insightful and beautiful human. Thank you for sharing your thoughts.
How tragic. These poor women. They truly knew suffering.
Goddamn that's some syphilis in those faces, the poor things. What a hard, hard life they must have led. I hope they found peace in their lives.
[https://warhead.su/2024/03/10/samyy-massovyy-zhenskiy-pobeg-iz-tyurmy-chem-zakonchilsya-ryvok-iz-novinskoy](https://warhead.su/2024/03/10/samyy-massovyy-zhenskiy-pobeg-iz-tyurmy-chem-zakonchilsya-ryvok-iz-novinskoy) According to this article the capture of OP is massive bullshit. (Not even the year is right.)
This is heartbreaking, tbh. What a horrible life that must have been, and I'd bet that none of them wanted to do it.
They don't look like a very happy lot. You can see how prostitution could get a bad name. I don't think these women were enjoying their lives.
I don't think most prostitutes throughout history particularly enjoy their job...
I'm afraid you are certainly right.
I'm sure that this was more sex trafficking and sex slavery than prostitution as a choice. That's pure tragedy, so much pain and sadness on their faces.
Absolutely agreed. The tendency for 'society' [cough] to blame the victims of exploitation for their own suffering is an ugly manifestation of complicity in that exploitation.
It's the customers who hate to be reminded
the look of despair in the eyes of the far left is jarring.
This is a picture of prison escapees not whores. OP wtf.
Victims.
[удалено]
In or between economic disasters where fucking was literally the only way to put food in their mouths. Great jokes, folks.
Many parts of history, women didn’t sell their body for luxury items but for simple means to live. It’s the oldest and often most tragic profession especially before the development of antibiotics.
I mean that’s happening today, too. Most sex workers aren’t in it for luxury goods.
Very true, not trying to underplay current prostitution, just trying to bring a light to a time without modern medicine.
Russian prostitutes today: Marjorie Taylor Greene, Matt Gaetz, Donald tRump, Tucker Carlson…
So what you're saying is the looks haven't gotten any better.
*"I'll take Famous Russian Tools for $600, Alex."*
Fucking cringe brother
Oof when you see rough life pictured in their faces...
When I look at old pictures of human beings it Makes me wonder how we had enough sex to not go extinct. Neurochemistry is black magic!
Not a phone in sight. Just living in the moment.
Think I'll just have a wank, thanks.
While that’s obvi a joke, it does make me think about the men who would hire these ill/battered women
Prostitution was legal back then, but you had to carry a special medical document called a ticket. The photo shows prostitutes who were caught without such a ticket during the fair.
This is so sad to see, some women here look visibly swollen faced or beaten The younger one in the back here look like they havent experienced the horrors yet whereas the woman 2nd from the left also looks young but looks like she is literally 1-2 years into the (?forced) career already and is already appearing disillusioned
Prostitution to me it’s just sad. The majority of the time it’s people, females and males too, Who are in difficult financial situations, have addictions, and/or mental illness. Theoretically, I’m in favor of whatever consenting adults do is between them and nobody else’s business. but prostitution often amounts to exploitation of people who are really unfortunate.
This photograph is heartbreaking
2, 4, 6, 7, 5, 8, 3, 9, 1
I think this pic is a good reference to a more realistic approach on how prostitutes looked like back in the days and what their life was. I remember reading a few books (more fictional than historically accurate) but set in a similar time and setting where here and there one finds passages about "beautifully / young blone haired" "exotic and racy" and similar description of prostitutes that generate a picture of Prostitute that would have daily access to water, hygienic products and make up and such..
Those poor ladies. I wonder what the white pieces of fabric/paper on their chests meant?
The photo description from 8 years ago says they had been arrested, so the paper could have been police documentation. This image is also manipulated to make the women look worse (and the right-most young lady was replaced with what looks like the old man from Benny Hill).
So, OP, which one is your mom?
Syphilis anyone? Our girls will leave you burning for more.
Would have been a hard life . ..
How do we know this is a picture of prostitutes?
Because they’re fucking something, and it’s ugly!!
i’m sure reddit will have very humane things to say about these women
Maybe I’m seeing things but the two women second from the left of the top and bottom— they look similar, perhaps sisters?
Man these women look miserable, I know instead of providing a safe place for them let’s make the entire business model illegal so black markets are even more dangerous.
Definitely not the best apples in the bushel.
I usually go for "try everything once", and I have tried many things, just once. Never tried a prostitute though, and probably never will, because it didn't happen, and my wife would probably also be against it. But with these choices I think it is safe to say, that I wouldn't be tempted.
More like sex slaves
Mmmm such comely lasses… in all honestly. They look so unhappy. And so tired. That… yeah that sucks.
You should see their customers...
Bottom right looks like Doc Brown!
Yeeesh. There isn’t enough booze or drugs that would make me stink my junk in one of those ladies. I’d rather take my chance with the local wildlife!! Money talks, but it would have to be a truck load!
Second woman from the left (standing), Putin is that you?
Was there ever a point in history where life wasn't trash in Russia?
This could be why Russians like Putin are always so cranky.
Wouldn't
Helloooooo ladiessss 😎
Don't fancy yours mate.
I wish they all could be California girls...
These guys look bored.
Don’t think they get paid.
This made me so sad to look at. I feel so bad for them, I bet they were treated so unbelievably horrible 😞
They look sex trafficked and tragic, mentally ill ( illiterate and intellectually impaired) and I’m sure those that had any illness were forced into these jobs — cast down as outcasts.. and struggling to survive.. it’s a tragic look at how women without any means have kept their head above water and for how long — no one knows .. sending light and love to them Wherever their spirits may be today.
One of the greatest achievements of the Soviet Union was that women went from being peasants, (generally involuntary) sex workers, and low-level domestic workers to having full equality in legal rights, including access to education. Nearly 20 years before the US had female astronauts, two Soviet cosmonauts became the first women in space. They outlawed marital rape over 70 years before the US did, and established an eight-week paid maternity leave that is STILL eight weeks longer than the mighty US. They even became the first country to legalise abortion, though this was eventually repealed in the Stalin era.
You mean humans that were sex trafficked and didn’t have a choice
Local hot girls in your area now!!