This collection of essays examines women in the Khrushchev era, using both newly-accessible archival material and a re-reading of published sources. Exploring diverse subjects including housing, space flight, women workers, cinema, religion and consumption, the volume places the analysis of specific events or issues within a broader discussion of economic, political, ideological and international developments to provide a full analysis of the era.

Drawing on previously inaccessible records, this book discusses love, sex, marriage, divorce, and child-rearing during Khrushchev's «thaw» of the 1950s and early 1960s. It analyses the Soviet government's attempts to supervise private life and enforce communist morality, and it describes the diverse ways in which people responded to official prescriptions. Written in a lively and accessible style, this book provides an innovative exploration of the interactions between Soviet ideology and everyday life.

If the home remained a safe space for families during the Soviet occupation of Lithuania, why is it that the memories of women's domestic lives in Soviet Lithuania are so fragmented? In Family and the State in Soviet Lithuania, Dalia Leinarte deftly challenges the commonplace 'kitchen culture' idea that the home was a site of silent resistance where traditional Lithuanian values continued to be nurtured. Instead, this fascinating book reveals how the totalitarian state gradually abolished the private lives of Lithuanian families altogether. Based on over 100 interviews and an array of archival sources, this book analyses how family policy formed the everyday life of men and women and considers how the internalisation of Soviet ideology took place in the private sphere. From a well-developed after-school activity program for children to strict rules regarding the working hours of men and women, ultimately the family could not remain isolated from the regime. Family and the State in Soviet Lithuania is the first book to explore family policy in the Soviet Baltic states and is therefore a vital resource for scholars of Soviet and gender history.

This book examines, through a detailed study of Soviet residential childcare homes and boarding schools, the much wider issues of Soviet policies towards deviance, social norms, repression, and social control. It reveals how through targeting children whose parents could not or did not take care of them, as well as children with disabilities, the system disproportionately involved children from socially marginal and poor families. It highlights how the system aimed to raise these children from the margins of society and transform them into healthy, happy, useful Soviet citizens, imbued with socialist values. The book also outlines how the system fitted in to Khrushchev’s reforms and social order policies, where the emphasis was on monitoring and controlling society without the recourse to direct repression and terror, and how continuity with this period was maintained even as the rest of Soviet society changed significantly.

The period from Stalin’s death in 1953 to the end of the 1960s marked a crucial epoch in Soviet history. Though not overtly revolutionary, this era produced significant shifts in policies, ideas, language, artistic practices, daily behaviours, and material life. It was also during this time that social, cultural, and intellectual processes in the USSR began to parallel those in the West (and particularly in Europe) as never before. This volume examines in fascinating detail the various facets of Soviet life during the 1950s and 1960s, a period termed the ‘Thaw.’ Featuring innovative research by historical, literary, and film scholars from across the world, this book helps to answer fundamental questions about the nature and ultimate fortune of the Soviet order – both in its internal dynamics and in its long-term and global perspectives.

A concise and accessible introduction to the gender histories of eastern Europe and the Soviet Union in the 20th century. These essays juxtapose established topics in gender history such as motherhood, masculinities, work and activism with newer areas, such as the history of imprisonment and the transnational history of sexuality. By collecting these essays in a single volume, Catherine Baker encourages historians to look at gender history across borders and time periods, emphasising that evidence and debates from Eastern Europe can inform broader approaches to contemporary gender history.

Youth and Rock in the Soviet Bloc explores the rise of youth as consumers of popular culture and the globalization of popular music in Russia and Eastern Europe. This collection of essays challenges assumptions that Communist leaders and Western-influenced youth cultures were inimically hostile to one another. While initially banning Western cultural trends like jazz and rock-and-roll, Communist leaders accommodated elements of rock and pop music to develop their own socialist popular music. They promoted organized forms of leisure to turn young people away from excesses of style perceived to be Western. Popular song and officially sponsored rock and pop bands formed a socialist beat that young people listened and danced to. Young people attracted to the music and subcultures of the capitalist West still shared the values and behaviors of their peers in Communist youth organizations. Despite problems providing youth with consumer goods, leaders of Soviet bloc states fostered a socialist alternative to the modernity the capitalist West promised. Underground rock musicians thus shared assumptions about culture that Communist leaders had instilled. Still, competing with influences from the capitalist West had its limits. State-sponsored rock festivals and rock bands encouraged a spirit of rebellion among young people. Official perceptions of what constituted culture limited options for accommodating rock and pop music and Western youth cultures. Youth countercultures that originated in the capitalist West, like hippies and punks, challenged the legitimacy of Communist youth organizations and their sponsors. Government media and police organs wound up creating oppositional identities among youth gangs. Failing to provide enough Western cultural goods to provincial cities helped fuel resentment over the Soviet Union’s capital, Moscow, and encourage support for breakaway nationalist movements that led to the Soviet Union’s collapse in 1991. Despite the Cold War, in both the Soviet bloc and in the capitalist West, political elites responded to perceived threats posed by youth cultures and music in similar manners. Young people participated in a global youth culture while expressing their own local views of the world.

In Homes and Homecomings an international group of scholars provide inspiring new historical perspectives on the politics of homes and homecomings. Using innovative methodological and theoretical approaches, the book examines case studies from Africa, Asia, the Americas and Europe. Provides inspiring new historical perspectives on the politics of homes and homecomings Takes an historical approach to a subject area that is surprisingly little historicised Features original research from a group of international scholars The book has an international approach that focuses on Africa, Asia, the Americas and East and West Europe Contains original illustrations of homes in a variety of historical contexts

This annual series, published in co-operation with the Women in International Development Program at Michigan State University, uses a multidisciplinary approach to explore women's experiences across a wide range of geographical areas, economic sectors, and societal institutions. The articles presented in each volume synthesize a growing body of literature on key issues, suggest priorities for research, and propose changes in development policy and programming. Each volume is divided into three major sections. In the first, contributors distill and interpret research in review articles; in the second - a trend report - they provide original analysis of existing data sets; and in the final section, they analyze a specific research concern from varying perspectives.

Barbara Alpern Engel's Marriage, Household and Home in Modern Russia is the first book to explore the intricacies of domestic life in Russia across the modern period. Surveying the period from 1700 right up to the present day, the book explores the marital and domestic arrangements of Russians at multiple levels of society and the impact of broader historical developments, including war and revolution, upon them. It also traces the evolution of marriage, household and home as institutions over three centuries, whilst also highlighting the inter-relationship between public policy and private life, in what is a wholly original historical assessment of domesticity in modern Russia. In the process, the author expertly synthesizes the key works, arguments and discussions in the field, mapping out the historiographical landscape of this compelling aspect of Russian social history. Marriage, Household and Home in Modern Russia is crucial reading for any student or scholar of modern Russian history.