Mary Buckley

Perestroika and Soviet Women

Leading specialists explore the impact both perestroika and glasnost have had on Soviet women as workers, consumers and political actors. They discuss the implications of reform for female labor, the falling percentage of female deputies and the position of women in the Ukraine. The authors also show how glasnost had helped to expose social problems while at the same time obscuring the role of girls in youth culture, creating images of irresponsible mothers and leading to the spread of pornography and anti-abortion sentiments.

Russian foreign policy and its critics

Throughout the history of the Soviet state, and now of the smaller Russian Federation, there have been critical turning points which redirected and reshaped foreign policy. These can be prompted in any state by leadership change, reassessed state interest, domestic political reforms requiring linked foreign policy reforms, the image of the foreign minister, events in the broader global arena or a combination of more than one of these variables. The events of 11 September 2001 facilitated one such turning point, although arguably President Putin was looking for ways of improving relations with the West anyway after the strained period of NATO intervention in Kosovo. The global fallout from 11 September provided him with an opportunity significantly to realign Russias foreign policy, despite potential opposition from communists, nationalists and the foreign policy and defence establishments at home. For economic and geopolitical reasons, moreover, it was in his leaderships interest so to do. The subsequent hostage crisis in Moscow between 23 and 26 October 2002 also presented Putin with the opportunity to cement his assertive foreign policy. Realignment, however, will not necessarily bring with it all expected benefits, such as fast entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO), the destruction rather than storage of US nuclear weapons or an equal vote in all NATO decisions. As in the past, periods of good relations are accompanied by disagreements, strains and, sometimes, crises.

The Politics Surrounding Gender Issues and Domestic Violence in Russia: What Is to Be Done, By Whom and How?

Julie Hemment, Empowering Women in Russia: Activism, Aid and NGOs (Bloomington and Indianapolis, IN: Indiana University Press, 2007). Pp.xv+188; index.

Recent Russian Press Coverage of Unfree Labour

22.95 (paperback). ISBN 0 253 34839 0. Janet Elise Johnson, Gender Violence in Russia: The Politics of Feminist Intervention (Bloomington and Indianapolis, IN: Indiana University Press, 2009). Pp.xv+230; index. £16.99 (paperback). ISBN 978 0 253 22074 5. Suvi Salmenniemi, Democratization and Gender in Contemporary Russia (London and New York: Routledge, 2008). Pp. xiv+264; index. £85.00 (hardback). ISBN 978 0 415 44112 4. Ol’ga Stuchevskaya, ‘Kharassment i Rossiiskie zhenshchiny’, Vestnik obshchestvennogo mneniya, 2008, No.4 (96), July–August, pp.43–9. Aleksandra V. Lysova, ‘Zhenskaya agressiya i nasilie v sem’e’, Obshchestvennye nauki i sovremennost’, 2008, No.3, pp.167–75.

Book Reviews : Women in the Politics of Postcommunist Eastern Europe Marilyn Rueschmeyer M.E. Sharpe, New York and London, 1994. 288pp, £16.00pbk

Set in brief historical and legal context, this chapter explores some of the different ways in which the Russian press has recently packaged stories about human trafficking and labour exploitation and highlights the associated messages that journalists deliver or imply. The chapter presents selected articles from a trawl of Rossiiskaya gazeta, Nezavisimaya gazeta, Komsomol’skaya pravda, Pravda and Argumenty i fakty to include a span of styles and treatments. It then concentrates on one particularly sensational story and asks what are the implications of portraying human trafficking in this manner. It also raises questions of ‘enabled citizenship’ and argues that those in unfree labour situations may be de jure citizens but de facto do not enjoy citizenship rights.

Political groups and crisis

professionals highlight the many sources and manifestations of ageism. Professor John Phillipson gives an account of how ’structured dependency’ is created by social and economic factors and Professor Mary Marshall explains how workers’ own fears of old age prevent them from acknowledging older people’s emotional, personal and sexual needs. The viewer is left in no doubt that ageism permeates every area of life and is inherent in health and social service provision. Attention is drawn to multiple discrimination which affects older people from ethnic minorities and other disadvantaged

Post-Soviet women : from the Baltic to Central Asia

By 1990, groups and movements across the political spectrum were voicing discontent with Gorbachevs reforms. Their reasons varied, as did their political strategies. What they shared was a view that ‘crisis’ existed and that Gorbachev was to blame. Although none of the groups discussed below was able on its own to unseat the president, they each indicated his lack of credibility in society at large. One of the paradoxes of Gorbachevs leadership was that when his de jure authority was at its height, his effective authority was at its weakest.