Women's Glasnost vs. Naglost - by Tatyana Mamonova

About the Book

Yeltsin is certainly not the Sakharov of the Democratic Movement. Russian people sarcastically call his burning the Parliament an October Revolution of 1993. In Women's Glasnost vs. Naglost we finally hear the voices of the Russian women on what it means to be female and Russian in the tumultuous climate that is modern Russia. The founder of the Russian women's movement, Tatyana Mamonova was the first Russian woman exiled from the Soviet Union for publishing the underground samizdat, Woman and Russia. Now lauded as the Simone de Beauvoir of Russia, Mamonova has interviewed 17 Russian women on the subject of the C.A.S. as it relates to glasnost. Women from all walks of life are asked about changes with respect to their roles and expectations as women. Artists, professionals, dissidents, lesbians, doctors, writers, and civil servants tell their stories in candid terms showing that there is still a long road ahead. Revisions and elaborations of speeches delivered on Mamonova's American tours, poetry in her own hand, and line drawings in her own eloquent and prolific style compliment her essays and the women's interviews.

Book Synopsis

Yeltsin is certainly not the Sakharov of the Democratic Movement. Russian people sarcastically call his burning the Parliament an October Revolution of 1993. In Women's Glasnost vs. Naglost we finally hear the voices of the Russian women on what it means to be female and Russian in the tumultuous climate that is modern Russia. The founder of the Russian women's movement, Tatyana Mamonova was the first Russian woman exiled from the Soviet Union for publishing the underground samizdat, Woman and Russia. Now lauded as the Simone de Beauvoir of Russia, Mamonova has interviewed 17 Russian women on the subject of the C.A.S. as it relates to glasnost. Women from all walks of life are asked about changes with respect to their roles and expectations as women. Artists, professionals, dissidents, lesbians, doctors, writers, and civil servants tell their stories in candid terms showing that there is still a long road ahead. Revisions and elaborations of speeches delivered on Mamonova's American tours, poetry in her own hand, and line drawings in her own eloquent and prolific style compliment her essays and the women's interviews.

Review Quotes

"Tatyana Mamonova brings us face to face with women of the former Soviet Union now: in the midst of chaos and difficulty, after a history of repression and fear, one hears their strength, love of family, creativity, and courage. And then there are Mamonova's own essays: luminous with empathy, striking in their intellectual clarity, and filled with love and respect for the integrity of women."-Andrea Dworkin Author of Mercy and Intercourse

"Tatyana Mamonova is a courageous feminist in exile. Everything she tells us about Russia is extremely precious."-Kate Millett Author of Flying and Sexual Politics

"Tatyana Mamonova's Women's Glasnost vs. Naglost is a very important book that is particularly timely at this critical point in Russian-American relations. It is a very valuable contribution to a better understanding of both Russian society and Russian women, many of whom are interviewed in this book -- and of how any real move toward democracy must include the female half of the population. . . . I highly recommend it for anyone interested in the birth of the Russian women's movement."-Riane Eisler Author of The Chalice and the Blade

"This is indispensible for anyone interested in understanding the conditions of Russian women struggling to make their voices heard in the midst of the disintegration of the Soviet empire."-Joanna Hubbs Author of Mother Russia

About the Author

TATYANA MAMONOVA was born in Russia and exiled to Europe in 1980. She was invited to the U.S. from Paris by the Bunting Institute at Harvard University to be Scholar-in-Residence. She is a public speaker as well as an accomplished artist and writer and is now publishing a magazine, Woman and Earth, in both Russian and English. Her first two books, Woman and Russia, and (Russian Women's Studies) Essays on Sexism in Soviet Culture, were both highly acclaimed and have been reprinted many times.