By ignoring gender issues, historians have failed to understand how efforts to control women--and women's reactions to these efforts--have shaped political and social institutions and thus influenced the course of Russian and Soviet history. These original essays challenge a host of traditional assumptions by integrating women into the Russian past. Using recent advances in the study of gender, the family, class, and the status of women, the authors examine various roles of Russian women and offer a broad overview of a vibrant and growing field.

Women known as shriekers howled, screamed, convulsed and tore their clothes. Beleived by many to be possessed by demons, these central figures in the cultural drama of klikushestuo stirred various reactions among those who encountered them. While peasants and clergymen sheltered the shriekers, others analyzed, diagnozed and objectified them. The Russian Orthodox Church played an important role for, while moving toward a scientific explanation for the behaviour of the klikushi, it was reluctant to abandon the ideas of possession and miraculous exorcism.

Women known as shriekers howled, screamed, convulsed, and tore their clothes. Believed to be possessed by devils, these central figures in a cultural drama known as klikushestvo stirred various reactions among those who encountered them. While sympathetic monks and peasants tended to shelter the shriekers, others analyzed, diagnosed, and objectified them. The Russian Orthodox Church played an important role, for, while moving toward a scientific explanation for the behavior of these women, it was reluctant to abandon the ideas of possession and miraculous exorcism. Possessed is the first book...