This handbook brings together recent and emerging research in the broad areas of women and gender studies focusing on pre-revolutionary Russia, the Soviet Union and the post-Soviet Russian Federation. Within the boundaries of the Russian Federation, the scope moves beyond the typically studied urban centres of Moscow and St Petersburg to examine the regions Krasnodar, Novosibirsk , rural societies and village life. Its chapters examine the construction of gender identities and shifts in gender roles during the twentieth century, as well as the changing status and roles of women vis-a-vis men in Soviet political institutions, the workplace and society more generally. This volume draws on a broad range of disciplinary and methodological approaches currently being employed in the academic field of Russian studies.