Domestic Service in the Soviet Union
-
Select format
-
- Publisher:
- Cambridge University Press
- Publication date:
- 25 April 2024
- 02 May 2024
- ISBN:
- 9781009467193
- 9781009467209
- 9781009467162
- Dimensions:
- (229 x 152 mm)
- Weight & Pages:
- 0.598kg, 318 Pages
- Dimensions:
- (229 x 152 mm)
- Weight & Pages:
- 0.446kg, 318 Pages
You may already have access via personal or institutional login
Show more authors 
You may already have access via personal or institutional login
Book description
This innovative study is the first to explore the evolution of domestic service in the Soviet Union, set against the background of changing discourses on women, labour, and socialist living. Even though domestic service conflicted with the Bolsheviks' egalitarian message, the regime embraced paid domestic labor as a temporary solution to the problem of housework. Analyzing sources ranging from court cases to oral interviews, Alissa Klots demonstrates how the regime both facilitated and thwarted domestic workers' efforts to reinvent themselves as equal members of Soviet society. Here, a desire to make maids and nannies equal participants in the building of socialism clashed with a gendered ideology where housework was women's work. This book serves not only as a window into class and gender inequality under socialism, but as a vantage point to examine the power of state initiatives to improve the lives of household workers in the modern world.
Awards
Winner, 2025 Joan Kelly Memorial Prize in Women's History, American Historical Association
Winner, 2025 Best Book in Women's and Gender Studies, Association for Women in Slavic Studies
Winner, 2025 Heldt Prizes, Association For Women in Slavic Studies
Reviews
‘Klots’s book offers an insightful analysis of how the Soviet state struggled with the issue of domestic service even as it pledged to do away with inequality and exploitation.’
Maria Lipman Source: Foreign Affairs
‘wonderful and illuminating’
Wendy Z. Goldman Source: The Russian Review
‘… Alissa Klots’s book represents a landmark contribution to Soviet historiography, opening new analytical pathways for examining live-in domestic labor.’
Tamar Qeburia Source: H-Soz-Kult
‘… a deeply complicated story, and one that Klots tells deftly. … this work is engaging and thorough, providing a nuanced if critical analysis of the Soviet system. She has created an excellent example of why it is important … to rescue groups like domestic workers from the condescension of both their contemporaries and posterity. This book is an excellent example of what social history like this can achieve.’
Deirdre Ruscitti Harshman Source: The American Historical Review
‘A well-researched and innovative monograph … in terms of the aims articulated in the subtitle, it succeeds admirably, contributing much of interest to the wider picture of Soviet history as well.’
Catriona Kelly Source: Journal of Modern History
Contents
Contents
-
Introduction
pp 1-22 - A Kitchen Maid to Rule the State
-
-
- You have access
- HTML
- Export citation
-
Metrics
Altmetric attention score
Full text views
Full text views helpTotal number of HTML views: 0
Total number of PDF views: 0 *
Loading metrics...
* Views captured on Cambridge Core between #date#. This data will be updated every 24 hours.
Usage data cannot currently be displayed.
Accessibility standard: Unknown
Why this information is here
This section outlines the accessibility features of this content - including support for screen readers, full keyboard navigation and high-contrast display options. This may not be relevant for you.
Accessibility Information
Accessibility compliance for the HTML of this book is currently unknown and may be updated in the future.