Women’s History in Russia: (Re) Establishing the Field

This book is the first English language, all-Russian book on women's history, and translates the knowledge, theories and methodologies in use within Russian national historiography to tackle gender and women's history. It represents the research results of Russian gender and women's historians who are devoted to advancing women's rights and gender sensitive agenda in the Russian academic community and Russian society in general. This book appears in the context of a deep backlash from the liberal ideology of Russian modernization. This backlash has manifested itself in the constant and persistent calls for traditional values and the rebuke of gender as a concept, allowing people to choose their sex. Women have been expected to return to their "natural state" as mothers and housekeepers; feminism once again became a pre-condition for bad motherhood and a general threat to family and was even held responsible to "unnatural vices". Such an attack on gender and feminism as academic concepts and their further politicization makes women's history especially sound. It also prompts scholars to reflect on the reasons and roots of such hostility. Furthermore, it brings up the imminent question of what these traditional values are and where they come from. These are questions that this book answers.