Ideal of Woman
From Slavic.info
In regard to the position and standard of the woman, Slavs are comparatively more progressive than many nations of Western Europe. Even the wife in Old Russia enjoyed an independence which her Western sister was bound to envy her. Hobhouse in his Morals in Evolution (London, vol. I, p. 229) says: "In 1812 the same principles were backward in Europe, because in twelve years the most forward, Russia and Italy, strange combination, being the only other countries which fully recognized the independence of the wife's property in the absence of a settlement." In the Codex ("Zakonik") of the famous Serbian ruler, Tzar Dushan 1 Silni (Dushan the Mighty)—published in 1340, promulgated at the Serbian parliament (Sabor) in Skopje in 1349 and 1354, based on ancient judicial custom among the Serbs, as well as on contemporary Byzantine laws, representing to a very high degree the development of the Serbian jurisdiction in the Middle Ages —we read the following passages:
"If a husband abandons his wife, he must pay penalty. ... If a wife abandons her husband, the penalties are the same. . . . The husband has the right forcibly to take her back, In case the husband abandons his wife he is forced to return to her. If he has meantime cohabited with another woman he shall be forced to abandon that woman and return to his wife." Parents were forbidden to encourage a daughter to abandon the husband's home.
The family ties are very strong among all Slavs. They have a saying that until a man marries he is only half a, man, and their reverence for parents almost recalls patriarchal times, from which the Serbian Zadruga and Bratstvo, and the Russian Mir are very distinct survivals. The women in Zadruga, for instance, are submitted to the stareshma's wife, and this was especially the case in Montenegro. Before the death of stareshina it was usually ascertained which of the members enjoyed the greatest confidence, and he was acknowledged the new head of the Zadruga, often without even going through the formality of an election. But sometimes the members of a Zadruga placed in this position of authority an energetic and wise woman, and she was the stareshina whom every one obeyed. The women of a Zadruga were on duty (i. e., to cook for the whole house, etc.) at special times and in a certain order. Vladislav R. Savich in his above cited book points the humanitarian trait of the Slavic women and their common sense in matters of domestic science. Paulus Diaconus, the well-known historical writer of the eighth century, "relates how his grandfather was made prisoner by the Avara in Pannonia, but managed to escape and fled through Slavonia to Italy. On his journey through the forest he found no food and fell exhausted to the ground. Fortunately a Slavic woman from a neighboring village found him, and although he, being a Longobard, was considered an enemy, she, pitying his state, took him to her house and kept him many days. And when he had recovered his strength she led him through the forest and showed him his way. It is not without interest to note that this Slav village woman had some sound knowledge of medicine, as during the first days, when he lay utterly exhausted, she gave him no solid food but only milk and soups. This was more than was known to a contemporary Byzantine general, who on arriving in Italy gave his starving troops solid food, which caused wholesale death in their ranks." (p. 44-4.5).