To finish a project of this size requires both professional and personal support. I have had both in abundance, and I am truly grateful.
For their patient descriptions and explanations, I thank the activists and scholars active in Russia, especially Nataliia Abubikirova, Elisabeth Duban, Gabri — elle Fitchett-Akimova, Venera Ibragimova, Irina Khaldeeva, Zoia Khotkina, Marina Malysheva, Mariia Mokhova, Al’bina Pashina, Marina Pisklakova, Larisa Ponarina, Dianne Post, Elena Potapova, Marina Regentova, Nataliia Sereda, Guzel’ Sharapova, and Elena Tiuriukanova. I am grateful to the Moscow Center for Gender Studies for their cultivation of excellent gender-related research and their willingness to share it with all the Western feminists, like me, who show up at their library. I thank R. Amy Elman and Valerie Sperling for their thorough review of the manuscript. I am deeply indebted to Jean Robinson, whose support and insight guided me through my graduate training and who has now become a co-editor, a co-author, and a friend.
I also thank the many colleagues whose comments and questions kindled insights in the book or encouraged me to keep writing, especially Laura Brunell, Jillian Cavanaugh, Sheila Croucher, Karen Dawisha, Dorothy McBride, Kelly Moore, Carol Nechemias, Aino Saarinen, S. Laurel Weldon, and Sharon Zukin. I thank Nanette Funk, Sonia Jaffe Robbins, and Ann Snitow for their nourishing monthly workshop of activist-scholars speaking on gender in postcommunist Europe and Eurasia, sponsored by New York University’s Center for European Studies and the Network of East-West Women. I thank my students, particularly those at Brooklyn College who keep me on my intellectual toes with their unexpected questions grounded in complex and transnational lives. I thank Rebecca Tolen and Carol Kennedy for their careful editing at different stages in the process.
During this project, I have benefited from the institutional support of Indiana University, Miami University, and Brooklyn College, City University of New York, especially the uncommon political science department. A fellowship from the Ethyl Wolfe Institute for the Humanities at Brooklyn College gave me a year to draft the book, and a Whiting Teaching Fellowship provided some financial resources. Financial support for field research came from the City University of New York PSC-CUNY Research Award Program, Brooklyn College’s Tow Faculty Travel Fellowship, the International Research & Exchanges Board, the National Security Education Program, and the Russian and East European Institute at Indiana University.
I express deep gratitude to my partner in life, John Mark Summers, whom I met just as I was starting this project. Our mutual support for each other, through many endeavors, has taught me a new way of being. I appreciate the encouragement and assistance of my multitalented and globally knowledgeable friends, especially Belinda Cooper, Roberta Krauvette, Sara VanGunst, and Sarah Webb. I thank my parents who taught me to see injustice.
janet elise johnson
Brooklyn, New York, 2008
xviii acknowledgments