Women’s History in Russia: (Re)Establishing the Field
This collection of essays, all by Russian scholars, is the first of its kind to address a broad English-speaking audience. It presents the theories and methodologies employed by Russian national historiography to make sense of Russian gender and women’s history. The essays in this volume discuss women’s and gender history in Russia, highlighting sensitive areas in the Russian academic community and in Russian society in general. The book appears in the context of an intense backlash against the liberal ideology of Russian modernization. That backlash has manifested itself in constant and persistent calls for traditional values and the rejection of gender as a concept, which many Russians believe entails the ability to choose one’s sex. Women are expected to return to their “natural state” as mothers and housekeepers; feminism has once again become a perceived cause of bad motherhood, is seen as a general threat to the family, and is even held responsible for “unnatural vices.” These attacks on gender and feminism as academic concepts, together with their further politicization, underscore the importance of women’s history in Russia. They also force scholars to reflect on the reasons and roots of such hostility. Furthermore, they bring up immanent questions about the nature and origins of these traditional values. These are the questions this books answers.
Marianna Muravyeva is a Professor and Marie Curie Senior Research Fellow at Oxford Brookes University, UK, and a senior researcher at the Higher School of Economics, St. Petersburg, Russia. She specializes in the history of crime, legal history, gender history, and the history of sexuality in early modern Europe. Her publications include the edited volumes Gender in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe (2013); Shame, Blame, and Culpability: Crime and Violence in the Modern State (2012); and Bytovoe nasilie v istorii rossiiskoi povsednevnosti [Violence in the history of Russian everyday life] (2012).
Natalia Novikova is an independent scholar. She received her doctorate from Yaroslavl’ State Pedagogical University, Yaroslavl, Russia, and worked as an Associate Professor of History for more than 15 years for this university. She has published a number of articles on Russian women’s movements, including “Early Historical Accounts of the Russian Women’s Movement: a political dialogue or a dispute?” in Women’s History Review 20(4) (2011).
"This volume is most certainly a very welcome addition to the English-language literature on Russian and Soviet women’s history, even more particularly so because it brings together a range of papers reflecting the current state of research on topics in this field from across the Russian regions. As such, its chapters serve to reorient the historical focus of research on Russian and Soviet women beyond the country’s old and new capital cities. It is evident from the collection that some of the most exciting developments in the field are now taking place outside the major metropolitan centers of Moscow and St. Petersburg, which still remain the locations most often visited by western researchers and where most international collaboration is located. Also welcome is the fact that the individual chapters demonstrate the growing penetration and awareness of western historiographies and research methodologies in post-Soviet publications across the Russian Federation, and this opens up the prospects for the further development of cross-cultural exchange, networking, and the publication of shared and comparative findings."
Melanie Ilic University of Gloucestershire and University of Birmingham Slavic Review, 75: 1 (2016)
"This volume marks a milestone in the development of women's history in Russia. It reflects the accomplishments of scholars in this field since the late 1980s and expresses concern about the politicization of gender issues in Russia today. [...] All the authors connect with Western publications on their topics, to a greater or lesser degree. Western scholars also assisted in the preparation of the volume for publication. This speaks to the creation of a single international scholarly community of specialists in Russian gender studies - a very welcome development."
Eve Levin University of Kansas The Historian, 78:4 (2016)
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