Russia’s feminist paradise proved anything but — even before Putin

Julia Ioffe's book, "Motherland: A Feminist History of Modern Russia," explores the complex and often contradictory experiences of women in Russia throughout the 20th century, revealing that the promised feminist utopia of the Bolshevik era quickly deteriorated. The Bolsheviks initially aimed to dismantle traditional gender roles and the "bourgeois family" after the 1917 revolution, granting women significant rights such as suffrage, equal marriage, no-fault divorce, and access to free education and abortion. However, these advancements began to unravel under Stalin, who banned abortions in 1936, and whose regime involved widespread purges and the imprisonment of women as "traitors' wives," with their children often sent to horrific orphanages. While World War II saw Soviet women serving in combat roles, including fighter pilots and snipers, this brief period of relative equality was not sustained. After the war, and particularly after Stalin's death, policies shifted, with Khrushchev inadvertently penalizing single mothers and a general societal shift away from the early feminist ideals. In the post-Soviet era, Russia experienced significant social and eco... download the app to read more