View source for Dora Russell

{{Short description|British writer, feminist and socialist campaigner (1894–1986)}}
{{other uses|Dora Russell (disambiguation)}}
{{EngvarB|date=August 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2014}}

{{Infobox person
| honorific_prefix   =
| name          = The Countess Russell
| image         = Dora Russell born Black by Lady Ottoline Morrell in 1922 (cropped).png
| alt           = Dora Russell
| caption       = by Lady [[Ottoline Morrell]] in 1922 (cropped)
| birth_name    = Dora Winifred Black
| birth_date    = {{birth date|1894|4|3|df=y}}
| birth_place   = [[Thornton Heath]], [[Croydon]], [[Surrey]], [[England]]
| death_date    = {{death date and age|1986|5|31|1894|4|3|df=y}}
| death_place   = [[Porthcurno]], [[Cornwall]], England
| nationality   = British
| party         = [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour]]
| other_names   = 
| occupation    = Author and social activist
| years_active  = 
| known_for     = 
| notable_works = 
| spouse        = {{Marriage|[[Bertrand Russell]]|1921|1935|end=div}}
| children      = 4
}}

'''Dora Winifred Russell, Countess Russell''' ({{née}} '''Black'''; 3 April 1894 – 31 May 1986) was a British author, a [[feminist]] and [[socialism|socialist campaigner]], and the second wife of the philosopher [[Bertrand Russell]]. She was a campaigner for [[contraception]] and [[Peace movement|peace]]. She worked for the UK-government-funded [[Moscow]] newspaper ''British Ally'', and in 1958 she led the "Women's Peace Caravan" across Europe during the [[Cold War]].

== Early life ==
Dora Winifred Black was born at 1 Mount Villas, Luna Road, [[Thornton Heath]], [[Croydon]], in [[Surrey]], into an English upper-middle-class family, the second of four children.<ref>{{Cite ODNB|url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-40676|title=Russell [née Black], Dora Winifred (1894–1986), writer and campaigner for women's rights|year=2004|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/40676|isbn=978-0-19-861412-8}}</ref> Her father, Sir Frederick Black, worked his way up in the [[Civil Service]] and laid great store by his children's education, regardless of their gender. She went to a private co-educational primary school near her parents' home and won a junior scholarship to [[Sutton High School (London)|Sutton High School]]. In 1911, she spent nearly a year at a private boarding school for girls in Germany, in preparation for the '[[Responsions|Little Go]]' at [[Cambridge]]. There she won a modern languages scholarship to [[Girton College, Cambridge]]. Soon she joined the [[Heretics Society]], co-founded by [[C.K. Ogden]] in 1909. It questioned traditional authorities in general and religious dogma in particular. The society helped her to discard traditional values and develop her own [[feminist]] mode of thought. In June 1915, she received a [[first class degree]] with distinction in Modern Languages at Girton.<ref name=Gorham/>

==Career==
After the victory of the [[Bolsheviks]] in the [[October Revolution]] in [[Russia]], Russell decided to attend the [[2nd World Congress of the Comintern|Second World Congress of the Comintern]] with [[Marjory Newbold]] and others, in support of Bolshevik cause.<ref>{{Cite ODNB|title=Newbold [née Neilson], Marjory (1883–1926), socialist and communist|url=https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/55682|access-date=2020-10-02|year=2004|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/55682|language=en}}</ref>

==Birth control campaigning==
Russell supported [[Rose Witcop]] and [[Guy Aldred]] and who were prosecuted for publishing [[Margaret Sanger]]'s ''Family Limitation'' which was a guide to contraception. Their action was denounced by a  magistrate as "indiscriminate" publication<ref name="Times19230111">''The Times'', 11 January 1923, p.7</ref> and the contraception guides were to be [[Book burning|destroyed]].<ref name="Times19230210">''The Times'', 12 February 1923, p.5</ref> Russell,<ref name=spart>{{Cite web|title=Dora Russell|url=https://spartacus-educational.com/TUrussellD.htm|access-date=2021-05-17|website=Spartacus Educational}}</ref> her husband and [[John Maynard Keynes]], paid the legal costs of the unsuccessful appeal.<ref name="Russell">Russell, Dora, (1975) ''The Tamarisk Tree''</ref>

In 1924 Russell campaigned for birth control with the support of [[Katharine Glasier]], [[Susan Lawrence]], [[Margaret Bondfield|Margaret Bonfield]], [[Dorothy Jewson]], [[H. G. Wells]] and [[John Maynard Keynes]]<ref>{{Cite web|title=Dora Russell|url=https://spartacus-educational.com/TUrussellD.htm|access-date=2021-09-26|website=Spartacus Educational}}</ref> and founded the [[Workers' Birth Control Group]] which provided advice on birth control to working-class women.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Humanist Heritage: Dora Russell (1894-1986)|url=https://heritage.humanists.uk/dora-russell/|access-date=2021-09-26|website=Humanist Heritage|language=en}}</ref> In the same year she ran unsuccessfully as a Labour candidate for Chelsea.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Humanist Heritage: Dora Russell (1894-1986)|url=https://heritage.humanists.uk/dora-russell/|access-date=2021-09-26|website=Humanist Heritage|language=en}}</ref> She campaigned in the [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]] for birth control clinics, but the party was afraid of losing the support of Roman Catholic voters.<ref name="spart" /> She said that she hated the Labour Party after the leadership overruled her lobbied support at the 1925 convention.<ref name="boston">{{Cite web|last=Levine|first=Judith|date=2014-04-29|title=Women and Children First|url=http://bostonreview.net/books-ideas/judith-levine-women-children-first-dora-russell-feminism|access-date=2021-05-18|website=Boston Review|language=en}}</ref> Public male ally [[H. G. Wells]] refused to support her campaign which he believed was only of appeal to women.<ref name="boston" />

{{Election box begin |title=[[1924 United Kingdom general election|General election 1924]]: Chelsea}}
{{Election box candidate with party link|
  |party      = Unionist Party (UK)
  |candidate  = [[Samuel Hoare, 1st Viscount Templewood|Samuel Hoare]]
  |votes      = 13,816
  |percentage = 65.7
  |change     = +8.7
}}
{{Election box candidate with party link|
  |party      = Labour Party (UK)
  |candidate  = Dora Russell
  |votes      = 5,661
  |percentage = 26.0
  |change     = -1.5
}}
{{Election box candidate with party link|
  |party      = Liberal Party (UK)
  |candidate  = [[Iolo Aneurin Williams]]
  |votes      = 1,557
  |percentage = 7.4
  |change     = -8.1
}}
{{Election box majority|
  |votes      = 8,155
  |percentage = 38.8
  |change     = +9.3
}}
{{Election box turnout|
  |votes      = 29,582
  |percentage = 71.1
  |change     = +7.3
}}
{{Election box hold with party link|
  |winner     = Unionist Party (UK)
  |swing      = +5.1
}}
{{Election box end}}
In 1929 Russell organised the [[World League for Sexual Reform]]'s highly successful Congress in London with the Australian-born birth control campaigner [[Norman Haire]]. Held over the course of five days in [[Wigmore Hall]] it was attended by leading intellectuals including [[George Bernard Shaw]], [[Margaret Sanger]] and [[Sigmund Freud]] who debated topics that included psychoanalysis, prostitution, censorship, and contraception.<ref>Diana Wyndham. (2012) {{cite web|title=Norman Haire and the Study of Sex|url=http://purl.library.usyd.edu.au/sup/9781743320068}} Foreword by the Hon. [[Michael Kirby (judge)|Michael Kirby]] AC CMG. (Sydney: {{cite web|title=Sydney University Press)|url=http://sydney.edu.au/sup/}}</ref><ref name="Levine" />

== Beacon Hill School and views on education ==
[[file:Bertrand, Dora Russell and Lucy Mary Silcox by Lady Ottoline Morrell 1928.png|thumb|Bertrand, Dora and the feminist headteacher [[Lucy Mary Silcox]] in 1922]]
In 1927 Russell founded a progressive school called Beacon Hill School, with Bertrand Russell, in which they tried to teach children to leave behind superstition and the irrational views of previous generations. Instead, Russell espoused scientific, libertarian and [[progressive education]],<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Gorham|first=Deborah|date=2005|title=Dora and Bertrand Russell and Beacon Hill School|url=https://mulpress.mcmaster.ca/russelljournal/article/download/2071/2096|journal=Russell: The Journal of Bertrand Russell Studies|volume=25|pages=39–76|doi=10.15173/russell.v25i1.2071|doi-access=free}}</ref> with one former student reminiscing: <blockquote>"One of my fondest memories is of the Natural History lessons with Dora, based on the study of that great tome ‘The Science of Life’ (by H. G. Wells, Julian Huxley & G. P.Wells). Dora encouraged us to question, to follow our curiosity […] into all sorts of highways & bye-ways of phenomena of life; to speculate; to wonder […] I remember sheer fascination and a sense of the infinity of the field of knowledge that was waiting to be explored."<ref>{{Cite book|last=Ward|first=Harriet|title=A Man of Small Importance: My Father Griffin Barry|publisher=Dormouse Books|year=2003|pages=188}}</ref></blockquote>Russell expressed her views on education in a book called ''In Defence of Children''. Russell ran the school on her own until World War II.<ref name="vol3">{{Cite book|last=Russell|first=Dora|title=The Tamarisk Tree|publisher=Virago|year=1977|isbn=0-86068-194-7|location=London|oclc=9315183}}</ref>

== World War II ==
During the war, Russell moved to London to work for the [[Ministry of Information (United Kingdom)|Ministry of Information]] in their Reference Division, located in a [[London University]] building near the [[British Museum]]. There, she wrote reports to order on various subjects. From there, she joined the group employed by the British Government to create the newspaper ''British Ally: Britansky Soyuznik.'' The newspaper was published in Moscow via the [[Embassy of the United Kingdom, Moscow|British Embassy]] for six years.<ref name="vol3" /> It mirrored a Soviet newspaper published in London, and both had started due to a 1942 treaty. The newspaper was intended to give details of the British war effort; it was well illustrated and well-received in Russia.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Pechatnov|first=Vladimir O.|date=1998|title=The Rise and Fall of Britansky Soyuznik: A Case Study in Soviet Response to British Propaganda of the Mid-1940s|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2640154|journal=The Historical Journal|volume=41|issue=1|pages=293–301|doi=10.1017/S0018246X97007577|issn=0018-246X|jstor=2640154|s2cid=159914237 |url-access=subscription}}</ref>

== Peace activism ==
After the war, she became an advocate of the peace movement and was one of the founding members of the [[CND]], in which she joined with other prominent leftists ([[Bertrand Russell]], [[J. B. Priestley]], [[Michael Foot]], [[Victor Gollancz]] among others) in campaigning for worldwide [[nuclear disarmament]].

<blockquote>"It has taken us centuries of thought and mockery to shake the medieval system. – With this in view I have taken as impulses, instincts, or needs certain driving forces in the human species as we know it at present, and argued for such social and economic changes as will give them new, free, and varied expression. To take even this first step towards a happy society is a herculean task. After it has been accomplished, generations to come will see what the creature [us] will do next. We none of us know; and we should be thoroughly on our guard against all those who pretend that they do."<ref name="book26">{{cite book|title=The Right to Be Happy|url=https://archive.org/details/righttobehappy00russ|url-access=registration|date=1927|publisher=Harper & Bros.|location=New York and London|oclc=1091095}}</ref></blockquote>She was still speaking on peace issues on 2 April 1981, when she addressed a Merseyside Peace Week.<ref>LSE archive at {{cite web|title=Archived copy|url=http://www2.lse.ac.uk/library/archive/online_resources/cnd/cnd_1.aspx|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111108135211/http://www2.lse.ac.uk/library/archive/online_resources/cnd/cnd_1.aspx|archive-date=8 November 2011|access-date=2011-07-26|df=dmy}} (accessed 26 July 2011)</ref>

=== Women's Peace Caravan ===
The [[Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament]] was formed in 1957. On 20 May 1958 Russell set out from Edinburgh with fifteen other women on what became known as the "Women's Peace Caravan". The motorised caravan set out for Moscow and to make links with other women across Europe.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Bruley|first=Sue|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BE9dDwAAQBAJ&q=women%27s+peace+caravan+dora+russell&pg=PA143|title=Women in Britain since 1900|date=1999-09-06|publisher=Macmillan International Higher Education|isbn=978-1-349-27743-8|page=143|language=en|access-date=15 July 2021|archive-date=9 August 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210809213312/https://books.google.com/books?id=BE9dDwAAQBAJ&q=women%27s+peace+caravan+dora+russell&pg=PA143|url-status=dead}}</ref>

== Relationship with Bertrand  Russell ==
By the autumn of 1915, Dora Black had moved to London and begun postgraduate studies in eighteenth-century French thought at [[University College London]]. She first met [[Bertrand Russell]] in 1916 when joining him on a weekend walking tour.<ref name="Levine">{{cite web|last1=Levine|first1=Judith|title=Women and Children First: Dora Russell and the Evolution of Feminism|url=http://bostonreview.net/books-ideas/judith-levine-women-children-first-dora-russell-feminism|website=bostonreview.net/|publisher=Boston Review|access-date=23 February 2016|date=30 April 2014}}</ref> However, the pair did not embark on a relationship before 1919, when Russell invited her to join him during his summer holidays. Before that, Black had supported Russell in his campaign against [[conscription|military conscription]] in World War I.

Black and Russell visited [[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic|Soviet Russia]] in 1920, soon after the [[Bolshevik revolution]]. Russell was unimpressed by [[Vladimir Lenin]], but Black, like many English socialists at the time, saw a vision of a future ideal civilisation. The couple also visited China.

=== Marriage to Bertrand Russell===
Dora and Russell were married on 27 September 1921 at [[Battersea Town Hall]], with [[Eileen Power]] and [[Frank Russell, 2nd Earl Russell|Frank Russell]] acting as witnesses. Dora, who was seven months pregnant with the couple's first child, [[John Conrad Russell, 4th Earl Russell|John]], wore black during the ceremony. Their second child Kate was born in 1923.<ref name="Gorham">{{cite journal|last1=Gorham|first1=Deborah|title=Liberty and love? Dora Black Russell and marriage|journal=Canadian Periodicals Index Quarterly|date=2011|volume=46|issue=2|page=247|url=http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA274585417&v=2.1&it=r&p=CPI&sw=w&asid=0f577ca4d31191b1e51ad27828a3f5f3|access-date=23 February 2016}}</ref>

She had at first rejected Russell's offer of marriage. In common with some radical women of her generation, she felt the laws regulating marriage contributed to women's subjugation.<ref name=Levine/> In her view, only parents should be bound by a [[social contract theory|social contract]], and only insofar as their co-operation was required for raising their children. Implicit was her conviction that both men and women were [[polygamy|polygamous]] by nature and should therefore be free, whether married or not, to engage in sexual relationships that were based on mutual love. In this she was as much an early sexual pioneer as in her fight for women's right to information about, and free access to, birth control. She regarded these as essential for women to gain control over their own lives, and eventually become fully [[freedom (political)|emancipated]]. Her husband was a supporter of radical views but she said that she was expected to do the "bottle-washing".<ref name=boston/>

She published her book on the inadequate education of women and inequality with the title ''Hypatia or Woman and Knowledge'' in 1925.<ref name=booth267/> The prologue explains why she chose the title:<ref name=booth267/> "Hypatia was a university lecturer denounced by Church dignitaries and torn to pieces by Christians. Such will probably be the fate of this book."<ref name=booth267>{{citation|last=Booth|first=Charlotte|author-link=Charlotte Booth|date=2017|title=Hypatia: Mathematician, Philosopher, Myth|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RVvdDgAAQBAJ&pg=PT57|pages=26–27|location=London|publisher=Fonthill Media|isbn=978-1-78155-546-0}}</ref>

Russell became Countess Russell on 3 March 1931, when Bertrand Russell's elder brother Frank died and her husband became the 3rd Earl Russell.

During their open marriage, Dora had an ongoing relationship with left-wing journalist Griffin Barry. They had two children whilst she was still married to Russell: Harriet Ruth Barry (1930-2024), and Roderick Barry (1932-1983).<ref>{{cite news |title=Former Eau Claire Man Figure in British Divorce |work=Leader-Telegram |date=November 30, 1934 |location=Eau Claire, Wisconsin |page=5 |via = [[Newspapers.com]]}}</ref> Bertrand at first registered Harriett as his own daughter, but found the dynamic emotionally untenable and he began an affair with his student (and the children’s sometime nanny), [[Patricia Spence]]. Dora noted that during the subsequent divorce, her husband used all of his privilege to gain advantage.

==Death==
Russell died at [[Porthcurno]], Cornwall, on 31 May 1986, aged 92.<ref name=nyt>{{cite web|author=AP |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1986/06/02/obituaries/dora-russell-social-activist-and-wife-of-the-philosopher.html |title=Dora Russell, Social Activist And Wife of the Philosopher |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=2 June 1986 |access-date=2 March 2016}}</ref> Her ashes were scattered in the garden there.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://heritage.humanists.uk/dora-russell/#:~:text=After%20closing%20Beacon%20Hill%20School,in%20the%20Soviet%20relations%20division.&text=Dora%20Russell%20died%20on%2031,scattered%20in%20the%20garden%20there.|title=Humanist Heritage: Dora Russell (1894-1986)}}</ref>

==Bibliography==
* (with Bertrand Russell) ''The Prospects of Industrial Civilization''. London: G. Allen & Unwin, 1923.
* ''Hypatia or Woman and Knowledge''. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner, 1925.<ref name=booth267/>
* {{cite book|title=The Right to Be Happy|url=https://archive.org/details/righttobehappy00russ|url-access=registration|date=1927|publisher=Harper & Bros.|location=New York and London|oclc=1091095}}
* {{cite book | title=In Defence of Children | date=1932 | publisher=H. Hamilton | location=London | oclc=6749463}}
* {{cite book | title=The Tamarisk Tree: My Quest for Liberty and Love | location=London | publisher=Virago | date=1975}}
* {{cite book | title=The Religion of the Machine Age | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LPY9AAAAIAAJ | location=London | publisher=Routledge & Kegan Paul | date=1983 |isbn = 9780710095473}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* {{wikiquote-inline}}
*{{cite web|title=Dora Winifred Russell Papers|url=https://search.socialhistory.org/Record/ARCH01225/Description|publisher=International Institute of Social History|access-date=23 February 2016}}
*{{cite web|title=Dora Russell fonds|url=http://library.mcmaster.ca/archives/findaids/fonds/r/russelld.htm|website=McMaster University Library|publisher=The William Ready Division of Archives and Research Collections|access-date=23 February 2016|archive-date=3 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303112759/http://library.mcmaster.ca/archives/findaids/fonds/r/russelld.htm|url-status=dead}}
{{Abortion in the United Kingdom}}
{{Bertrand Russell (Navigational box)|state=autocollapse}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Russell, Dora}}
[[Category:British women's rights activists]]
[[Category:Alumni of Girton College, Cambridge]]
[[Category:British anti–nuclear weapons activists]]
[[Category:British humanists]]
[[Category:British atheists]]
[[Category:British communists]]
[[Category:British feminist writers]]
[[Category:British anti-war activists]]
[[Category:1894 births]]
[[Category:1986 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Thornton Heath]]
[[Category:British socialist feminists]]
[[Category:People educated at Sutton High School, London]]
[[Category:Bertrand Russell]]
[[Category:Labour Party (UK) parliamentary candidates]]
[[Category:British countesses by marriage]]
[[Category:Reproductive rights activists]]