The book by Michelle LaMarche Marrese (USA) is dedicated to the paradox of the legal status of noblewomen in Imperial Russia. On the one hand, in the society of that time, a married woman could neither work nor travel without her husband’s permission, and divorce was almost out of her reach. On the other hand, as the author shows, based on a detailed analysis of many property transactions and litigations, noblewomen had broad rights to own and dispose of property and were excellent at using them in practice. If in Western Europe married ladies of noble rank could not dispose of their property until the second half of the 19th century, then in Russia they received the right to alienate property and manage it already in 1753. The expansion of this right over the next century is considered by the author from the perspective of the evolution of the institution of private property. The monograph convincingly refutes the existing androcentric idea of the noble society of pre-reform Russia. CONTENTS: Preface to the Russian edition 5 From the author 6 Introduction 11 Chapter 1. From subsistence to the specified part: women and inheritance law 33 Chapter 2. The mystery of Russian law: married women and control of property 68 Chapter 3. Marriage and separate ownership of property 104Chapter 4. “Who is the mistress of the house”: gender and the culture of noble property 142Chapter 5. The culture of transferring property by inheritance: women and men as testators 199Chapter 6. The landowner in her possessions and away from them: women and the management of estates 233Chapter 7. Women and the trial 275Conclusion 316Appendix 1. About sources: land registers 322Appendix 2. Family relations between the parties to inheritance disputes involving noblewomen (1700-1861) 328List of tables 329Abbreviations 331Bibliography 332Name index 357