When the winds of change began to blow through the Soviet Union in the 1980s, few people anticipated the rapidity and depth of the transformations or the social instability that resulted. On the one hand, new freedoms have encouraged self-expression, individual initiative, and cultural and religious revivals (Figure 5.23); on the other hand, the post-Soviet era has brought very hard times to many as access to jobs and the social safety net have become more difficult. Men and women have been differently affected by the massive changes in this region.

Soviet policies that encouraged all women to work for wages outside the home have transformed this region. By the 1970s, ninety percent of able-bodied women of working age had full-time jobs, giving the Soviet Union the highest rate of female paid employment in the world. However, the traditional attitude that women are the keepers of the home persisted. The result was the double day for women. Unlike men, most women worked in a factory or office or on a farm for 8 or more hours and then returned home to cook, care for children, shop daily for food, and do the housework (without the aid of household appliances). Because of shortages (the result of central-planning miscalculations), they also had to stand in long lines to procure necessities for their families.

These special pressures on working women affected diets because there was so little time or space for cooking and there were so few helpful appliances. The everyday cuisine in most of the region was limited during the Communist era; only recently have market forces made a wider range of food available. Traditional recipes are now being revived. Figure 5.24 shows several distinct dishes of the region that are prepared at home or in restaurants. The popularity of hearty soups and stews and the common use of root vegetables and grains (bread is an essential part of every meal) reflect the region’s climate, soil, and agricultural systems.

225

When the first market reforms in the 1980s reduced the number of jobs available to all citizens, President Gorbachev encouraged women to go home and leave the increasingly scarce jobs to men. Many women lost their jobs involuntarily. By the late 1990s, women made up 70 percent of the registered unemployed, despite the fact that because of illness, death, or divorce, many if not most were the sole support of their families. Consequently, many had to find new jobs.

On average, the female labor force in Russia is now more educated than the male labor force. The same pattern is emerging in Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, and parts of Muslim Central Asia. In Russia, the best-educated women commonly hold professional jobs, but they are unlikely to hold senior supervisory positions and are paid less than their male counterparts. In 2007, the wages of women professional workers averaged 36 percent less than those of men. Still, this region ranks higher in gender income equity than many others.

The Trade in Women During the economic boom stimulated by marketization and oil and gas wealth, the “marketing” of women became one of the less savory entrepreneurial activities. One part of this market is the Internet-based mail-order bride services aimed at men in Western countries. A woman in her late teens or early twenties, usually seeking to escape economic hardship, pays about $20 to be included in an agency’s catalog of pictures and descriptions. (One Internet agency advertises 30,000 such women.) She is then assessed via e-mail or Facebook by the prospective groom, who then travels—usually to Russia or Ukraine—to meet women he has selected from the catalog and to potentially have one of them accompany him to the West to marry.

Sex work has also increased in recent years. Precise numbers are hard to come by, but a 2010 UN report estimates that 140,000 women have been smuggled into Europe, where they become part of a sex trade that generates $3 billion annually. The post-Soviet states comprise the primary source region for Europe’s sex workers. Most of the women are supplied by members of the Russian Mafia, who have been known to kidnap schoolgirls or deceive women who are looking for jobs as maids or waitresses in Europe, and then force them to work as prostitutes. This is a form of trafficking, which is defined by the United Nations as the recruiting, transporting, and harboring of people through coercion for the purpose of exploiting them.

The Political Status of Women One way for women to address institutionalized discrimination is to increase their political power. Although women were granted equal rights in the Soviet constitution, they never held much power. In 1990, women accounted for 30 percent of Communist Party membership but just 6 percent of the governing Central Committee. The very few in party leadership often held these positions at the behest of male relatives.

226

Since the fall of the Soviet Union, the political empowerment of women has grown somewhat, but long-standing cultural biases against women in positions of power remain. In many countries, the number of women in legislatures has risen (Figure 5.25), but often this is because male leaders want to appear more progressive in the eyes of international donors. Frequently they promote women who are the least likely to work for change. Support among women themselves for women’s political movements is not widespread, as many fear being seen as anti-male or against traditional feminine roles.

The official Soviet ideology was atheism, and religious practice and beliefs were seen as obstacles to revolutionary change. Orthodox Christianity, which was the official religion of the Russian Empire, was tolerated, but few people went to church, in part because the open practice of religion could be harmful to one’s career. Now, religion is a major component of the general cultural revival across the former Soviet Union.

The overall level of religiosity is moderate in Russia by global standards but a number of people, especially those from indigenous ethnic minority groups, are turning back to ancient religious traditions. For example, the Buryats from east of Lake Baikal in Siberia, who are related to the Mongols, are relearning the prayers and healing ceremonies of the Buryat version of Tibetan Buddhism, which they adopted in the eighteenth century. The shamans who lead them have organized into a guild to give official legitimacy to their spiritual work. They now pay taxes on their clergy income.

In Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, Belarus, Georgia, and Armenia, most people have some ancestral connection to Orthodox Christianity. Those with Jewish heritage form an ancient minority, mostly in the western parts of Russia and Caucasia, where they trace their heritage back to 600 b.c.e. Religious observance by both groups increased markedly in the 1990s, and many sanctuaries that had been destroyed or used for nonreligious purposes by the Soviets were rebuilt and restored.

A countertrend to the robust revival of Orthodox Christianity is the spread of evangelical Christian sects from the United States (Southern Baptists, Adventists, and Pentecostals). Evangelical Christianity first came to Russia in the eighteenth century, but after 1991, American missionary activity increased markedly. The notion often promoted by this movement—that with faith comes economic success—may be particularly comforting both to those struggling with hardship and to those adjusting to new prosperity.

In Central Asia, Islam was repressed by the Soviets, who feared Islamic fundamentalist movements would cause rebellion against the dominance of Russia. Today, Islam is openly practiced and is increasingly important politically across Central Asia, Azerbaijan, and some of the Russian Federation’s internal ethnic republics, such as Chechnya and Tatarstan. Especially in the Central Asian states, however, the return to religious practices is often a subject of contention. Some local leaders still view traditional Muslim religious practices as obstacles to social and economic reform.

227

Militant Islamic movements have often been violently repressed by Central Asian governments, in part out of fear of influences from nearby countries where Islam plays a greater role in politics. In some cases, these influences are clear—as in Tajikistan’s civil war (1992–1997), which involved Afghan Taliban fighters, and the conflict in Chechnya in which Saudi militants fought. At times, government repression has backfired, as when Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan joined forces to eliminate an extremist Islamic movement in 2000. In their fervor to eliminate radicals, these governments persecuted ordinary devout Muslims, especially men, which actually helped recruit more Islamic militants instead. Human Rights Watch, an organization that monitors human rights abuses worldwide, reports that Uzbekistan’s government jails and tortures believers who worship independently outside the strict supervision of the state. In part, this is done out of concern that the Arab Spring will spread and lead to demands for more human rights and religious freedom in Uzbekistan too.