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This book examines the place of women in Soviet Russia from the 1917 Revolution through the post-World War II period, discussing how the Soviet construction of gender perpetuated inequality even as it dramatically expanded women's roles in society.
Chapters explore Bolshevik activists' ideals of women's liberation and their failure to realize these ideals; the significance of women's labor to the Soviet economy, alongside continued workplace discrimination; state reproductive policies and essentialist understandings of femininity; women's World War II military service and representations of gender in postwar commemorations; and the role of socialist ideology in the formation of the Soviet system and Stalinist culture. Throughout, Hoffmann places Soviet history in its international context, including comparisons of Soviet women's social positions with those of their counterparts in other countries. The book makes clear the centrality of the Soviet gender order to the country's social, cultural, and political history, as well as providing an important historical case for understanding the broader struggle for women's equality.
Intended for students and scholars alike, this book is a valuable resource for all those interested in gender history, Soviet history, labor history and World War II.
List of contents
List of Figures
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part I. Gender and Women's Roles1. The Soviet Gender Order and the Elusiveness of Women's Equality
2. Women's Work and the Gendered Division of Labor during the Stalinist Era
3. Mothers in the Motherland: Stalinist Pronatalism in its Pan-European Context
4. Representations of Gender in Soviet War Memorials
Part II. Ideology and Culture5. Socialist Ideology, State Interventionism, and Soviet Governance in its International Context
6. Was there a "Great Retreat" from Soviet Socialism? Stalinist Culture Reconsidered
Index
About the author
is College of Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor of History at The Ohio State University. He is the author of four previous monographs-
Peasant Metropolis: Social Identities in Moscow, 1929-1941 (1994);
Stalinist Values: The Cultural Norms of Soviet Modernity (2003);
Cultivating the Masses: Modern State Practices and Soviet Socialism (2011); and
The Stalinist Era (2018). He also edited
Russian Modernity: Politics, Knowledge, Practices (2000);
Stalinism: The Essential Readings (2002); and
The Memory of the Second World War in Soviet and Post-Soviet Russia (2022).
