Bolshevik Women

Rating:
Summary: Innovative and entertaining
Review: I was forced to read this book, in that I took a class taught by the author. Fortunately, I didn't have to steel my soul and tell her to her face that it reeked (not that I would have had the guts to do that anyhow), for it was definitely the best book we read in that particular Russian history class. Recounting the histories of Soviet women both well-known (Kollontai) and not so well-known (Zemliachka), Clements shows, in well-structured arguments, how the women of the Bolshevik movement, feminists as well as socialists, interpreted their feminist mission in the context of what they felt must happen in Russia before women and other oppressed minorities truly gained equal rights. One of the most fascinating themes in the book is how Soviet women viewed their task in contrast to the Western suffragist movement, which was largely led by the well-to-do. This book is an excellent introduction to Soviet history in the early years and offers several directions for study in the history of the Soviet Union and of feminism.