The Bunker – News without the nonsense How revolutionary women shaped modern Russia
Oct 16, 2025
Julia Ioffe, a journalist and author of "Motherland: A Feminist History of Modern Russia," explores the evolution of women's roles in Russia from revolutionary ideals to today’s conservative climate. She shares personal anecdotes from her Soviet childhood and examines the experiences of pioneering Bolshevik feminists, contrasting them with modern figures like Raisa Gorbacheva. Ioffe also discusses Putin's influence on gender dynamics and highlights contemporary female activists, offering insights into the complexities of femininity and power in Russia today.
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Immigrant Family's Work Ethic
- Julia Ioffe recounts arriving in the US in 1990 and seeing women keeping careers while also managing households.
- Her father expected his daughters to be breadwinners, which shaped her view of gender roles.
Inside The Life Academy
- Julia Ioffe describes attending Life Academy classes teaching women how to attract and keep wealthy husbands.
- The curriculum included sexual techniques, flirting, and ways to make a man financially successful so women could stay home.
From Soviet Emancipation To Backlash
- Ioffe contrasts Soviet-era women's broad roles with post-Soviet domestic-focused femininity to ask how the change occurred.
- She frames early Soviet policies as radical advances that later gave way to conservative retrenchment.
