This book brings together research in gender studies focusing on pre-revolutionary Russia, the Soviet Union and the post-Soviet Russian Federation. For the Soviet period chapters extend the geographic coverage of the book beyond Russia itself to examine women and gender relations in the Soviet ‘East’ (Tatarstan), Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan) and the Baltic States. Within the boundaries of the Russian Federation, the scope moves beyond the typically studied urban centres of Moscow and St Petersburg to examine the regions (Krasnodar, Novosibirsk), rural societies and village life. The origins of the contributions can be identified in a range of subject disciplines ( history, literature, sociology, political science, cultural studies ) but the chapters also adopt an inter-disciplinary approach to the topic of study.