Elizaveta Nikolayevna Vodovozova (, née Tsevlovskaya, , 17 August 1844,

Demidov The Demidov family (Russian: Деми́довы), also known as Demidoff or Dimidov, is a prominent Russian nobility, Russian noble family that rose to immense wealth and influence during the 18th and 19th centuries. The Demidovs became a wealth ...

Smolensk Governorate Smolensk Governorate () was an administrative-territorial unit ('' guberniya'') of the Tsardom of Russia, the Russian Empire, and the Russian SFSR. It existed, with interruptions, between 1708 and 1929. Smolensk Governorate, together with seven o ...

Imperial Russia Imperial is that which relates to an empire, emperor/empress, or imperialism. Imperial or The Imperial may also refer to: Places United States * Imperial, California * Imperial, Missouri * Imperial, Nebraska * Imperial, Pennsylvania * ...

, — 23 March 1923, Petrograd, USSR) was a Russian

children's writer Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created for children. In addition to conventional literary genres, modern children's literature is classified by the intended age of the reade ...

educational theorist Education sciences, also known as education studies or education theory, and traditionally called ''pedagogy'', seek to describe, understand, and prescribe education including education policy. Subfields include comparative education, educationa ...

and

memoirist A memoir (; , ) is any nonfiction narrative A narrative, story, or tale is any account of a series of related events or experiences, whether non-fictional (memoir, biography, news report, documentary, travel literature, travelogue, etc.) ...

, the wife of Vasily Vodovozov. An 1862

Smolny Institute The Smolny Institute () is a Palladian edifice in Saint Petersburg that has played a major part in the history of Russia, notably as a center of women's education, and the headquarters of the Bolsheviks during the early stages of the October Re ...

graduate, she started writing in 1863 on issues of women's emancipation and pedagogy for the magazines like ''Detskoye Chteniye'' and ''

Narodnaya Shkola ''Narodnaya Shkola'' (, ''School for the People'') was a pedagogical fortnightly published in Saint Petersburg in 1869–1889. The journal's objective was providing the teachers, mostly in the Russian province, with the new methodological and theor ...

''. Her debut publication, "What Stops a Woman from Becoming Independent?" (published by ''

Biblioteka Dlya Chtenya ''Biblioteka Dlya Chteniya'' (, ) was a Russian monthly magazine founded in Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire, in 1834 by Alexander Smirdin. History The magazine "of literature, sciences, arts, industry, current news and fashion" was launched in ...

'' in September 1863) came as a direct response to

Nikolai Chernyshevsky Nikolay Gavrilovich Chernyshevsky ( – ) was a Russian literary and social critic, journalist, novelist, democrat, and socialist philosopher, often identified as a utopian socialist and leading theoretician of Russian nihilism and the N ...

's novel '' What Is to Be Done?''.''Vilenskaya, E. and Roitberg, I.'
''Memoirs of the Woman of the Sixties''
/ Воспоминания шестидесятницы. Foreword to: ''At the Dawn of Life'' / На заре жизни (Том первый) Серия литературных мемуаров М., "Художественная литература", 1964 Kak ludi na Belom svete givut - Anglichane

Kak ludi na Belom svete givut - Anglichane

Many of Vodovozova's ideas originated during an extensive trip over

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

and

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

which she and her husband Vasily Ivanovich undertook soon after their marriage in April 1862, in order to investigate the theories of

Friedrich Fröbel Friedrich Wilhelm August Fröbel or Froebel (; 21 April 1782 – 21 June 1852) was a German pedagogue, a student of Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, who laid the foundation for modern education based on the recognition that children have unique nee ...

and how they worked in practice. Her influential book "Intellectual Development of Children" (Умственное развитие детей от первого появления сознания до восьмилетнего возраста, 1871) enjoyed seven re-issues in pre-1917 Russia. A strong proponent of the idea of the active use of music and games as educational and developmental means, she published a book ''Russian Folk Songs for One Voice and Active Games for Children'' (Одноголосые детские песни и подвижные игры с русскими народными мелодиями, 1876) as a supplement to her own educational program. Highly popular at the time were Vodovozova's children's stories. Many of them were collected in her books ''From Russian Life and Nature'' (Из русской жизни и природы, 1871—1872) and ''For Leisure'' (На отдых, 1880). For decades Vodovozova's most important work was considered to be her magnum opus ''The Life of the Peoples of Europe. Narratives in Geography'' (Жизнь европейских народов. Географические рассказы, 1875—1883), reissued in ten volumes as "How People of Different Nations Live" (Как люди на белом свете живут, 1894—1901). In retrospect, though, the truly lasting part of her legacy proved to be her numerous memoirs and biographical sketches. Much lauded were her books ''Among the Petersburg Youth of the Sixties'' (Среди петербургской молодёжи шестидесятых годов, 1911) and ''Things Long Gone'' (Из давнопрошедшего, 1915). Vodovozova's best biographical and analytical works, including the essays on

Konstantin Ushinsky Konstantin Dmitrievich Ushinsky () ( – ) was a Russian teacher and writer, credited as the founder of scientific pedagogy in the Russian Empire.L.G. Guseva"Konstantin Dmitrievich Ushinsky: The Founder of Scientific Pedagogy in the 19th Cent ...

Vasily Sleptsov Vasily Alekseyevich Sleptsov (, July 31, 1836 – April 4, 1878), was a Russian writer, playwright, journalist and social reformer. Biography Sleptsov was born in Voronezh into a noble family. His father Alexey Vasilyevich was a military man, his ...

and

Vasily Semevsky Vasili, Vasily, Vasilii or Vasiliy (Russian: Василий) is a Russian masculine given name of Greek origin and corresponds to ''Basil''. It may refer to: *Vasily I of Moscow Grand Prince from 1389–1425 *Vasily II of Moscow Grand Prince fro ...

(her second husband whom she married in 1886, after Vodovozov's death), were collected in her two best-known books, ''At the Dawn of Life'' (На заре жизни, 1911) and ''Dreams and Reality'' (Грёзы и действительность, 1918).Русские писатели. 1800 — 1917. Биографический словарь. Т. 1: А — Г. Москва: Большая российская энциклопедия, 1992. С. 455—456.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vodovozova, Elizaveta Russian educational theorists People from Smolensk Governorate People from Smolensk Oblast Women writers from the Russian Empire Russian women short story writers Short story writers from the Russian Empire Children's writers from the Russian Empire Russian women children's writers 1844 births 1923 deaths Russian women memoirists