Based on an extensive reading of a broad range of women’s accounts of their lives in the Soviet Union, this book focuses on many hidden aspects of Soviet women’s everyday lives, thereby revealing a great deal about how the Soviet Union operated on a day-to-day basis and about the place of the individual within it. Including testimony from both celebrated literary and cultural figures and from many ordinary people, and from both enthusiastic supporters of the regime and dissidents, the book considers women’s daily routines, attitudes and behaviours. It highlights some of the hidden inequalities of an ostensibly egalitarian society, and considers many wider questions, including how extensive was the ‘reach’ of the Soviet regime; how ‘modern’ was it; how far were there continuities after 1917 between the new Bolshevik regime and Russia’s imperial past; and how homogenous and how mobile was Soviet society?

This book provides a rich picture of what everyday life was like for women in Soviet times by presenting the life stories of eight women who were born in the interwar period. The life stories are told through interviews with the women who were well educated and well placed in Soviet society, often in elite positions, and therefore well able to observe and articulate the wider conditions for Soviet women besides their own personal circumstances. The interviews, which are edited and preceded by a full introduction setting the context, touch on a wide variety of issues: key events in Soviet history; religion and nationalities policies; and women’s everyday experiences of life in the Soviet Union – growing up and going to school; education; falling in love and getting married; giving birth and starting a family; housework and paid employment; travel; leisure and culture; and remembering the past.

This book provides a rich picture of what everyday life was like for women in Soviet times by presenting the life stories of eight women who were born in the interwar period. The life stories are told through interviews with the women who were well educated and well placed in Soviet society, often in elite positions, and therefore well able to observe and articulate the wider conditions for Soviet women besides their own personal circumstances. The interviews, which are edited and preceded by a full introduction setting the context, touch on a wide variety of issues: key events in Soviet history; religion and nationalities policies; and women's everyday experiences of life in the Soviet Union - growing up and going to school; education; falling in love and getting married; giving birth and starting a family; housework and paid employment; travel; leisure and culture; and remembering the past.

Focusing on urban areas in the 1930s, this college professor illuminates the ways that Soviet city-dwellers coped with this world, examining such diverse activities as shopping, landing a job, and other acts.

This edited volume explores the everyday struggles and challenges of women living in the South Caucasus. The primary aim of the collection is to shift the pre-occupation with geopolitical analysis in the region and to share new empirical research on women and social change. The contributors discuss a broad range of topics, each relating to women’s everyday challenges during periods (past and present) of turbulent transformation and conflict, thus helping make sense of these transformations as well as adding new empirical insights to larger questions on life in the South Caucasus. Part I begins the discussion of women and social change in Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan by examining the contradictions between traditional gender roles and emancipation and how they continue to dictate women’s lives. Part II focuses on women’s experiences of war and conflict in Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia and Nagorny Karabakh, as well as displacement from Abkhazia and Azerbaijan. Part III examines the challenges faced by sexual minorities in Georgia and feminist activism in Azerbaijan. Women's Everyday Lives in War and Peace in the South Caucasus will be of interest to students and scholars across a range of disciplines, including sociology, politics, gender studies and history.

Seasoned Socialism considers the relationship between gender and food in late Soviet daily life. Political and economic conditions heavily influenced Soviet life and foodways during this period and an exploration of Soviet women’s central role in the daily sustenance for their families as well as the obstacles they faced on this quest offers new insights into intergenerational and inter-gender power dynamics of that time. Food, both in its quality and quantity, was a powerful tool in the Soviet Union. This collection features work by scholars in an array of fields including cultural studies, literary studies, sociology, history, and food studies, and the work gathered here explores the intersection of gender, food, and culture in the post-1960s Soviet context. From personal cookbooks to gulag survival strategies, Seasoned Socialism considers gender construction and performance across a wide array of primary sources, including poetry, fiction, film, women’s journals, oral histories, and interviews. This collection provides fresh insight into how the Soviet government sought to influence both what citizens ate and how they thought about food.

Discusses conditions in the Soviet Union affecting women and presents their viewpoints on equality.