In Russia, since the period of the adoption of Christianity, both married and unmarried marriages have existed. Approximately from the same time, such a concept as an official divorce appeared. Despite the fact that the church looked extremely negatively at the dissolution of the union illuminated by God, there were enough such cases. They are registered in the so-called Pilot books, a kind of code of church-secular laws and norms.
Wife's right to file for divorce
The society of Ancient Rus was extremely patriarchal. All laws were "sharpened", mainly for a man. The husband had the right to file for divorce for thousands of reasons: if his wife corrupted him, got a "second husband", behaved indecently (went to feasts or even in a bathhouse with strangers), turned out to be sterile, attempted on the life of her husband, etc.
But the woman also had some rights. The Church Statutes of the times of the princes Vladimir Svyatoslavovich and Yaroslav Vladimirovich describe cases when a spouse had the right to demand the dissolution of even a married union. According to the Byzantine eclogue, the church was obliged to satisfy this requirement if a man:
was unable to fulfill his conjugal duty; fornicated on the side; for a long time he was listed as missing, which was practically equated with death; got sick with leprosy; took monastic tonsure; forced his wife to engage in prostitution (“trade in his honor”); attempted the life of his half; participated in a conspiracy against the sovereign, which could have global consequences not only for the conspirator himself, but also for his wife and children.
Later, new legislation was adopted in Russia, which significantly reduced the rights of women and generally reduced the number of legal grounds for divorce. For example, a woman was not eligible for a divorce if her spouse was cheating. The man retained this privilege. Also, the wife could no longer demand a divorce if the husband was impotent.
But there was also one assumption in this question, which many couples used successfully. The church allowed divorce if the husband himself agreed to amicably dissolve the marriage if he was incapacitated (usually imaginary). This was often used even by rulers. So the eldest son of Ivan Kalita, Prince Semyon Ivanovich, on the basis of a fictitious illness, divorced his second wife Eupraxia.
After the divorce, the woman happily married a second time. In a new marriage, she had four children and, in general, everything went very well. If the spouses managed to agree among themselves, they could thus bypass the law, dissolve their unsuccessful union and try their luck with another person.
Other reasons for divorce
With the adoption of the new legislation, the woman had 2 more reasons to file for divorce. The first was the insult. If the husband slandered his wife and accused his wife of treason without proof, she could well file for divorce and receive financial compensation in addition. The second reason seemed to be a slave position. If a man married a girl, being a slave, and hid it from her or secretly sold himself to a slave, already being married, the wife had every right to demand a divorce.
There were also cases of unauthorized departure of women from the family to their lover, which was equated with divorce. Such ladies were called "freedmen". But this situation did not end well for the woman: she was sent to the monastery to repent. The lover of a freedman must pay a fine to the Metropolitan. And yet, for many women, even this situation was a perfectly acceptable way to avoid life with an unloved person.
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