Description: 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 opportunity for women in Soviet Russia.

The stories of these eight Russian women offer an extremely rare perspective into personal life in the Soviet era. Some were from the poor peasantry and working class, groups in whose name the revolution was carried out and who sometimes gained unprecedented opportunities after the revolution. Others, born to "misfortune" as the daughters of nobles, parish priests, or those peasants termed "well-to-do", suffered bitterly as enemies to a new government. The women interviewed here speak candidly about family life, work, sexual relations, marriage and divorce, childbirth and childbearing, and legalized abortion as well as the underground pursuit of such services after abortion was outlawed in 1936.

As no previous book has done, A Revolution of Their Own illuminates the harsh reality of women's daily lives in the Soviet Union as well as reveals the accomplishments made possible by the expanded opportunities that the Soviet government provided for women. Their stories show why many Russian women continue to take pride in the public achievements of the Soviet perioddespite, or perhaps because of, the painful price each was made to pay.

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