This monograph examines the Soviet state's attempt to rebuild and repopulate following World War II by offering to support families while encouraging women to enter the full-time work force. However, combined with the realities of postwar life and broken promises, this program was lacking and forced women to adopt their own survival strategies. The conflict between economic reality and the state's demands dictated the shape of women's lives as they attempted to balance both domestic concerns and professional advancement. This study scrutinizes a society that loudly proclaimed sexual equality...

Drawing on newly available archival materials including official documents, reports, and personal accounts, this remarkable study presents a detailed picture of the living standards of various social groups in prewar Soviet Russia, and the role of state-controlled distribution of food and goods as a tool of the Stalinist dictatorship. The study offers a new perspective not only on the period of collectivization, industrialization, and terror but also on the regime's most rudimentary method of controlling human behavior and reshaping the social order. In her conclusion the author analyzes the...

This volume traces the majesty and scandals of imperial Russia, from Peter the Great to the Bolshevik Revolution.