This book focuses on survival strategies developed at local levels in response to changing cultural, political and economic structures in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. An interdisciplinary approach is adopted as the contributors engage with questions of gender, ethnicity, migration, nationalism, employment and labour patterns and changing family structures.

With the collapse of Soviet rule and the emergence of independent Russia, the image of Russian women in the Western imagination has changed dramatically. The authors of this work take a look at what lies behind the above images and how Russian women are coping with a very different sort of life. The main focus is on the effect of unemployment on Russian women and how they are coping with it. The first part of the book looks at why women have been targeted for redundancy and the problems they face in the emerging Russian labour market. The second then goes on to explore the response of the state, a range of women's organizations and of individual women themselves to the new situation. The text is based on case studies and personal interviews carried out in the Moscow region in 1993-94 and aims to provide access to the thinking of women and their organizations in Russia today.

The disintegration of Eastern Europe and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989 marked the beginning of what was hailed both East and West as a period of tranformation to liberal democracy. Yet in the years that have followed, the peoples of the vast region have found themselves dealing with new tensions, insecurities and the chaos of the new order. This wide ranging study comprises of case studies drawn from various countries of the former socialist world. Centring around the theme of survival strategies developed in response to changing cultural, political and economic structures, the contributors consider the problems implicit in these changing economies at all levels, from household strategy to state and policy formation. It covers a huge geographical area and explores many other themes such as: gender; ethnicity; migration; employment and labour patterns; changing family structures; and ideas of nationalism. By emphasizing local level experience, regional difference and the use actors make of local knowledge in developing survival strategies, this study argues that local level research is essential to an understanding of the transformations taking place.

With the collapse of Soviet rule and the emergence of independent Russia, the image of Russian women in the Western imagination has changed dramatically. The authors of this work take a look at what lies behind the above images and how Russian women are coping with a very different sort of life. The main focus is on the effect of unemployment on Russian women and how they are coping with it. The first part of the book looks at why women have been targeted for redundancy and the problems they face in the emerging Russian labour market. The second then goes on to explore the response of the state, a range of women's organizations and of individual women themselves to the new situation. The text is based on case studies and personal interviews carried out in the Moscow region in 1993-94 and aims to provide access to the thinking of women and their organizations in Russia today.

This collection of essays looks at the impact on women of the political changes which have taken place in East-Central Europe since the 1930s. It is unusual in combining a strong contemporary focus with re-evaluations of what the socialist experience has meant for women. It brings together specialists from both East and the West to offer insights into women's lives and responses to change in countries which have a shared legacy of state socialism yet are as culturally diverse as Russia and Germany, Poland and Estonia.