Maxima Library

The women's movement and women's literature are relatively new phenomena in Russian cultural life. Before perestroika there was only one organization for women, and that was the government-controlled Soviet Women's Committee. In the last few years sixty-two have been registered, six newspapers for women are now published, there is a TV programme called "Career Woman", and we have four feminist organizations. In devoting this issue to women's writing we are not proposing a rigid approach to Russian literature on the basis of gender, just as age or race strike us as only marginally relevant. It just so happened that in our search for new and interesting works of literature we have found an abundance of excellent stories by women writers. Some of these we are offering here for your attention as representative of woman's view of the world, and her present search for identity. To a large extent Russia's women are bearing the brunt of the present upheavals in our society.