Women in Russian History: From the Tenth to the Twentieth Century (New Russian History)
To counter stereotypes held by Westerners about Russian women, researcher Pushkareva has written a history of women in her native country that spans the period from Kievan Rus to the fall of the Soviet Union. Although not totally successful in dispelling the notion of women's bleak existence in that part of the world, she does reveal many interesting aspects of the lives of her subjects. She emphasizes the power of the Russian Orthodox Church and peasant tradition in limiting female participation in society, and she highlights areas of achievement, particularly in the realm of property and judicial rights. Her work is strongest in its depiction of the pre-Moscovite period and weakest in its assessment of 20th-century society. Little space is given to specific women outside the elite class, and there is an overload of fashion description. The first published history of women in this region, this is recommended as an addition to public and academic libraries.?Rose Cichy, Osterhout Free Lib., Wilkes-Barre, Pa.Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.