"Fascinating reading. ... Pushkareva offers insights into the power and influence of some women rarely
mentioned in earlier works. Especially interesting are the chapters on women in the ruling elite before Mongol
rule and during the Enlightenment. ... A useful supplementary text in courses in Russian history, women's history,
and Russian civilization. For specialists in the twentieth century, the work provides an opportunity to learn about
precedents for some practices that became part of the Soviet era. A good bibliography and index assist the reader
in using the book as a reference. ... The reader gets an excellent sense of Russian customs and life in each era.
... An essential contribution to the history of Russian women."
-- History: Reviews of New Books
"[Pushkareva] reveal[s] 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. ... The first published history of women in this region, this is recommended as an
addition to public and academic libraries."
-- SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL
"[Pushkareva] reveal[s] 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. ... The first published history of women in this region, this is recommended as an
addition to public and academic libraries."
-- LIBRARY JOURNAL
M.E. Sharpe, Inc. Web Site, September, 2000
Summary
As the first survey of the history of women in Russia to be published in any language, this book is itself an
historic event--the result of the collaboration of the two leading Russian and American specialists on Russian
women's history. It encompasses the stories of renowned historical figures as well as of the ordinary women who
shaped and preserved Russian customary life over the past millennium. The four sections of the book are devoted
to presenting a comprehensive and multifaceted picture of the life of women in Kievan Rus, Muscovy, and Imperial
Russia of the 18th and 19th-early 20th centuries, with a concluding discussion of the Soviet period. The study
draws upon a great variety of sources including chronicles, travelers' accounts, hagiography, memoirs, literary
texts, archeological finds, oral poetry, didactic literature produced by the church, law codes and legal documents,
and iconography and portraiture--examples of which highlight the text. Women in Russian History is the fourth title
in the series The New Russian History, which makes examples of the finest work of the most eminent historians in
Russia today available to English-language readers. Each volume has been specially prepared with an international
audience in mind, and each is introduced by an outstanding Western scholar in the same field.
