Overview
- Provides a micro-oral history based on interviews with Russian women
- Adds to our understanding of how the end of the Soviet system affected individuals in a variety of classes and locations
- Offers a gendered economic focus on the transition from communism
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About this book
Initially expected to bring efficiency to the Russian economy and prosperity to Russian society, the shock therapy of price liberalization, privatization and macroeconomic stabilization introduced under Boris Yeltsin was quickly condemned as having worsened the lives of most Russians. Based on conversations with more than two dozen women in a provincial Russian capital, this book takes a retrospective look at these economic policies and explores how they transformed the trajectory of the lives of these women- both positively and negatively- in the family and in the workplace. McKinney considers the everyday experiences of the women as they provided for their families, established businesses, travelled abroad, and adjusted to the new economic, political and social environment of the Late Soviet and Post-Soviet era. Through their divergent experiences, Russian Women and the End of Soviet Socialism casts light on how these women viewissues of gender, ethnicity, domestic and international politics, and the end of the Soviet experiment.
Students and scholars across a range of disciplines, including gender studies, sociology, economics and history, will find this book of interest.Similar content being viewed by others
Keywords
Table of contents (12 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
Reviews
“McKinney’s book can be situated at the crossroads of economics, women’s studies, history and oral history. … This book is useful for those who want to understand the relationship between policymaking and daily practices, the current Russian situation from a historical perspective, gender role constellations in Russia and the outcome of the abrogation of the state-supported gender contract.” (Tetiana Havlin, Europe-Asia Studies, August 20, 2021)
“This volume makes a welcome and valuable addition to the literature on the everyday experiences of women during the tumultuous period of Gorbachev’s reforms during the late 1980s in the Soviet Union and in the years following the country’s collapse in 1991. … This volume is likely to find its place in Russian and Soviet women’s history and gender studies.” (Melanie Ilic, Slavonic and East European Review SEER, Vol. 99 (2), April, 2021)
“Drawing on interviews she conducted with Russian women, McKinney illuminates the wrenching transformations of the post-Soviet period on everyday life. With respect and quiet admiration she listened in on what her protagonists had to say, skilfully capturing the resiliency, pluck, and acceptance they demonstrated in negotiating life in the new Russia. This is a book about harsh realities. But also about hope.” (Donald J. Raleigh, University of North Carolina, USA)
Authors and Affiliations
About the author
Judith McKinney is Associate Professor of Economics, Hobart and William Smith Colleges, USA.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Russian Women and the End of Soviet Socialism
Book Subtitle: Everyday Experiences of Economic Change
Authors: Judith McKinney
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16226-9
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: Social Sciences, Social Sciences (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-16225-2Published: 02 September 2019
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-16228-3Published: 02 September 2020
eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-16226-9Published: 17 August 2019
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XII, 285
Number of Illustrations: 1 b/w illustrations, 4 illustrations in colour
Topics: Gender Studies, Gender and Economics, Russian, Soviet, and East European History, Social Structure, Social Inequality