Routledge Contemporary Russia and Eastern Europe Series- Women in Soviet Film The Thaw and Post-Thaw Periods

This book explores the portrayal of women in Soviet films of the 1950s to 1970s, during which time a large number of films featured complex female characters who went beyond the stereotypical women of Soviet realism.

This book illuminates and explores the representation of women in Soviet cinema from the late 1950s, through the 1960s, and into the 1970s, a period when Soviet culture shifted away, to varying degrees, from the well-established conventions of socialist realism. Covering films about working class women, rural and urban women, and women from the intelligentsia, it probes various cinematic genres and approaches to film aesthetics, while it also highlights how Soviet cinema depicted the ambiguity of emerging gender roles, pressing social issues, and evolving relationships between men and women. It thereby casts a penetrating light on society and culture in this crucial period of the Soviet Union’s development.