This groundbreaking collection is the first book to present the history of women in the Soviet era by bringing together firsthand accounts of Russian women and their lives. The eight women interviewed for this book represent diverse social backgrounds and geographical regions?but all were born before the Bolshevik revolution, a generation intimately familiar with the world's first attempt to create a socialist society and to promise full emancipation for women. Their narratives vividly illustrate both the difficulties posed by such extreme social instability and the vastly expanded opport