Practices of Social Asceticism in the Russian Province in the end of 19th – early 20th centuries (Using the Example of Penza Department of the Society for the Care of the Wounded and Sick Soldiers and the Sisters of Charity Community)

The article analyzes the experience of women's participation in the activities of the Society for the Care of Sick and Wounded Soldiers on the example of its Penza department.Special attention is paid to the social volunteering of women of different classes within the framework of the Penza Community of Sisters of Charity in the name of St. Olga.The source base of the study was the materials of the paperwork of the Penza department of the Society for the Care of Sick and Wounded Soldiers, regulating the issues of joining the Society as sisters of charity, articles of the provincial periodicals on the activities of the local ladies' club at the Society, as well as a report on the activities of the local Community of Sisters of Charity.The issues of joining the Society, training sisters of charity, the activities of the ladies' club and the local Community of Sisters of Charity are investigated.The direct participation of Penza noblemen in caring for sick and wounded soldiers was a reference model of behavior that formed new social standards.The willingness of ladies, not burdened with material worries, to serve society and take care of its good contributed to the formation of social responsibility and the spiritual and moral identity of the local community.The analysis of the petitions of the Penza provincials on the issue of joining the sisters of charity allowed to analyze the motives, social and age structure.It is noted that the possibility of active empathy forms a new image of a woman of the post-reform period and opens up prospects for her social realization.It has been revealed that the internal and external challenges of the post-reform period provoked a wave of patriotic feelings, which contributed to the consolidation of Russian society and the formation of new models of interaction between the authorities and public.