Until recent years, the great majority of the Russian population lived and worked in rural areas. This book provides an overview of the forces - economic, social, and ideological - that shaped and transformed Russian peasant society, especially the position of women in it, from the early nineteenth century to the present. The first half of the book deals with prerevolutionary Russia, the second with Soviet Russia. Topics include family life in the countryside, women's work, childbirth and midwifery, religion, the experience of peasant women during the Revolution and collectivization, and the condition of women in the Soviet Union in recent years. The work will be useful not only in Russian history courses, but also in a variety of courses in social history, women's history, peasant history, and European history.
Industry Reviews
"[T]he essays are linked to one another by several recurrent themes, which give the book overall cohesion and homogeneity....This collection of essays is very useful...in its reconstruction of the main stages of the long process of change from the abolition of serfdom to Gorbachev's perestroika." --Journal of European Economic History
"[A] unique contribution to the study of Russian history as it expands our understanding of the role of gender in the process of historical change,...an essential addition to undergraduate reading lists...Russian Peasant Women will also prove an invaluable source for research students embarking on a study of Russian women, rural society and peasant culture."--Revolutionary Russia
"Excellent organization and expert use of unfamiliar sources."--John Posey, St. Joseph's College
"Not only a politically correct subject, but genuinely useful...nothing else centers on this enormous subject."--Francis B. Randall, Sarah Lawrence College
"Contains some fascinating scholarly research on a rarely analyzed subject."--James Newbill, Yakima Valley College
"A handy compilation of articles....Students are always interested in the status of peasant women, and this will make that study much easier."--Nellie Ohr, Vassar College
"First-rate! A collection of this type is long overdue. Well-edited and informative. Exactly what is needed for my undergraduate survey."--William B. Husband, Oregon State University
"Opens up to students a whole world barely examined in textbooks. Matussian's introductory essay provides a nice overview of the setting. Students should find Farnsworth's essay particularly readable and provocative."-Paul Revetow, Missouri Southern State College
"An excellent collection of essays--a perfect addition to my Women in Russia/USSR course. Farnsworth and Viola deserve thanks for making available such a useful compendium."--Ann Hibner Koblitz, Hartwick College
"A valuable supplement to the standard Russian history course, Russian Peasant Women provides insight into an often overloaded aspect of Russian history."--James A. Brown, Tougaloo College
"A fascinating and useful collection. Opens a window on an important aspect of Russian life."--Jeffrey Brooks, Johns Hopkins University
"A very successful combination of scholarship and classroom usability. Helps fill a very definite gap in our understanding of Soviet society."--A.V. Riasanovsky, University of Pennsylvania
"An excellent collection of essays on Russian peasant women, both before and after the revolution of 1917. It is an important subject that has received very little attention up till now from scholars. The collection is most welcome and should be useful in many courses on Russian social history or Women's Studies."--Walter M. Pintner, Cornell University
"An exciting collection that brings together in one volume the best scholarship of the past ten years or so devoted to Russian peasant women. The chief contributions of the essays come from new data sources and from fresh and innovative readings of ethnographic and traditional folk materials. There is no doubt in my mind that this volume should stand on every Russian historian's bookshelf. Many of its essays should be part of the reading for any undergraduate
course in modern Russian/Soviet history."--Peter Czap, Amherst College
"A valuable resource that should find steady use in courses on Russian women and peasants and in more general courses on modern Russian history. Unlike other books on this topic, it enables the students to follow in detail the transformation of the status and role of women in a key social group--one that, until quite recently, constituted the majority of the Russian population--from the mid-nineteenth century to the present."--William G. Wagner, Williams
College
"An important and useful collection that fills a wide gap. The editors are among the leading scholars in Russian women's history, and their book is analytically strong, centering on the household as the framework for exploring the changing lives of rural women. I particularly welcome the essay on rural women and Glasnost, which I will use to talk about the extraordinary recent events in Russia and Eastern Europe."--Jean H. Quataert, State University of
New York, Binghamton
"An instructive and revealing historical survey...well produced and carefully edited."--Canadian Journal of History
"Well-written, concise and insightful."--Norma C. Noonan, Augsburg College
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