Gender and Sexuality in Russian Civilisation considers gender and sexuality in modern Russia in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Chapters look individually at gender and sexuality through history, art, folklore, philosophy or literature,but are also arranged into sections according to the arguments they develop. A number of chapters also consider Russia in the Soviet and post-Soviet periods. Thematic sections include: *Gender and Power *Gender and National Identity *Sexual Identity and Artistic Impression *Literary Discourse of Male and Female Sexualities *Sexuality and Literature in Contemporary Russian Society

Gender and Sexuality in Russian Civilisation considers gender and sexuality in modern Russia in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Chapters look individually at gender and sexuality through history, art, folklore, philosophy or literature,but are also arranged into sections according to the arguments they develop. A number of chapters also consider Russia in the Soviet and post-Soviet periods. Thematic sections include: *Gender and Power *Gender and National Identity *Sexual Identity and Artistic Impression *Literary Discourse of Male and Female Sexualities *Sexuality and Literature in Contemporary Russian Society

Twelve groundbreaking essays show the varied and complex ways in which ideas about sexuality, gender, and the body have shaped and been influenced by Russian literature, history, art, and philosophy from the medieval period to the present day.

This volume charts the changing aspects of gender in Russia's cultural and social history from the late seventeenth century to the Stalinist era and the collapse of the Soviet Union. The works, while focusing on women as a primary subject, highlight in particular gender difference, the construction of both femininity and masculinity in a culture that has undergone major transformation and disruptions over the period of three centuries.

The first full-length study of same-sex love in any period of Russian or Soviet history, Homosexual Desire in Revolutionary Russia investigates the private worlds of sexual dissidents during the pivotal decades before and after the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution. Using records and archives available to researchers only since the fall of Communism, Dan Healey revisits the rich homosexual subcultures of St. Petersburg and Moscow, illustrating the ambiguous attitude of the late Tsarist regime and revolutionary rulers toward gay men and lesbians. Homosexual Desire in Revolutionary Russia reveals a world of ordinary Russians who lived extraordinary lives and records the voices of a long-silenced minority.

An exploration of the lives and expectations of young women in the new Russia, looking at the enormous changes that the new social and economic order have brought.

The revolution of 1905 challenged not only the social and political structures of imperial Russia but the sexual order as well. Throughout the decade that followed-in the salons of the artistic and intellectual avant-garde, on the pages of popular romances, in the staid assemblies of physicians, psychiatrists, and legal men—the talk everywhere was of sex. This eagerly awaited book, echoing the title of a pre-World War I bestseller, The Keys to Happiness, marks the first serious attempt to understand the intense public interest in sexuality as a vital dimension of late tsarist political culture. Drawing on a strong foundation of historical sources—from medical treatises and legal codes to anti-Semitic pamphlets, commercial fiction, newspaper advertisements, and serious literature—Laura Engelstein shows how Western ideas and attitudes toward sex and gender were transformed in the Russian context as imported views on prostitution, venereal disease, homosexuality, masturbation, abortion, and other themes took on distinctively Russian hues. Engelstein divides her study into two parts, the first focusing on the period from the Great Reforms to 1905 and on the two professional disciplines most central to the shaping of a modern sexual discourse in Russia: law and medicine. The second part describes the complicated sexual preoccupations that accompanied the mobilization leading up to 1905, the revolution itself, and the aftermath of continued social agitation and intensified intellectual doubt. In chapters of astonishing richness, the author follows the sexual theme through the twists of professional and civic debate and in the surprising links between high and low culture up to the eve of the First World War. Throughout, Engelstein uses her findings to rethink the conventional wisdom about the political and cultural history of modern Russia. She maps out new approaches to the history of sexuality, and shows, brilliantly, how the study of attitudes toward sex and gender can help us to grasp the most fundamental political issues in any society.

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 t...

In this book, leading western specialists and Russian and Ukrainian feminists examine how gender has shaped Russian and Ukrainian history from the twelfth century to the present. In particular, they analyse the current backlash against women's emancipation. Using new archival materials and the insights of feminist theory, the contributors explore the relevance of gender equality and difference in Russian history. They find that women have not merely submitted to the patriarchal system, but instead have found creative ways of resisting it. Chapters focusing on contemporary Russia discuss abortion, pornography, sexual minorities, young women's lifestyles, the impact of economic reform on women and the development of the women's movement. This book will be of interest to students and specialists in Russian, Ukrainian and women's studies, as well as to historians, political scientists, sociologists and economists.