Women, the state, and revolution : Soviet family policy and social life, 1917-1936 /

Goldman focuses on subjects that have been largely ignored in early Soviet history. Nearly 14 percent of the book covers the ideological origins of the Bolshevik vision on the woman question and the "withering away" of the traditional family. The remainder is devoted to the Soviet state's efforts to address issues of central importance to Russian women: de facto marriage, contraception, abortion, and divorce. Goldman's feminist perspective in tracing what she sees as the betrayal of the libertarian commitment to individual freedom inherent in the woman question and the end of the patriarchal family through the 1936 policy for a repressive strengthening of the family unit might impress some as controversial. Yet the book is a valuable investigation of issues central to the Soviet regime's claim for seven decades of liberating women and fostering freer, more equal relations between the sexes. Based on solid archival research, the absence of a bibliography is an unfortunate shortcoming. The book should be read by all serious students of the Soviet period. Upper-division undergraduates and above.