say it with flowers?

International Women's Day. A bit weird to witness it here, considering Russian history. After all, demonstrations marking International Women's Day were one of the key moments which led to the 1917 Russian Revolution. Alexandra Kollontai persuaded Lenin to continue it, and in the Soviet period the day used to honour women mainly as workers, joining together people across the Eastern and socialist bloc.

These days, though, March 8th is, to quote Irina Lovanova "associated with men's adoration of women's magnetic charm, tenderness, caring loyalty and blooming beauty. In Russia all living men (including foreigners) are duty bound to express their warm feelings to all living women, with no exceptions. Failure could result in a sudden reduction of life expectancy." Which means it is a day for giving flowers. The streets are full of men buying flowers and women receiving them; I saw mainly tulips, but also mimosa. And yes, it makes me a bit depressed.

on gender politics

As far as I can tell International Womens' Day here means that men give women flowers. And the Russians I have been talking to - male and female - really don't see this as a problem; the complexities of gender politics are for the rest of Europe, not here.

And then I watched the (brilliant) 1979 Mosfilm Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears on YouTube, and something - perhaps completely wrong - fell into place. Put simplistically, everyday commonsense in 1950s to 70s America and the UK ideally located middle-class white women as the angels of the house in opposition to male power in the public realm of work. Across the same period in the Soviet Union, men and women were equally envisaged as workers so gender relationships were located differently. Don't want to give the plot away, but MDNBIT centres on how important it is, ultimately, for women to allow male authority in the home.

What I don't know is how much things have changed here since the 1970s. What I do know is that it does not mirrors the path of western feminism.

You can find Moscow does not Believe in Tears in several parts - start here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0p17OA5Qn0&feature=PlayList&p=BAA956327D80B5E9&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=97

A male-female imbalance?

If you have spent any time checking out Russia -related websites you will have come across yet another Russian Brides offer. There is ongoing debate here about the 'problem' of more women than men - usually given as a 56% to 44% split.

And why? Well people still seem to be arguing that it is to do with how many Russian men were killed in the second world war. So all those extra women must be pretty elderly by now...

In fact, as of 2007, the average life expectancy in Russia was 61.5 years for males and 73.9 years for females (11 years less on average than in Europe or the States)* - a real change from the late 1950s when it was the other way around, although things are getting now better again.

However, this imbalance gives the Russian brides sites a great line - and I quote:

"Russia has always suffered from a shortage of men relative to the number of women (currently men make up only 44% of the total population). Russian Girls want to chat with you. After the Second World War, in which 27 million Russians were killed (the bulk of the casualties were men) there was a great shortage of men. Russian Bride discovers western men. There was even a popular song in the 1960s that went "according to statistics, there are only eight men for every ten Russian girls". Russian Woman as exemplar of romance overseas. In many ways, this "deficit", which still prevails in modern day Russia, has given has placed Russian men in a very enviable position while increasing the number of mail order brides seeking marriage overseas."

This author also uses this imbalance to 'explain' why Russian men can still get away with sexism (still called chauvinism here). Certainly my female colleagues think chauvinism remains rife.


* Reference from a pretty thorough Wikipedia entry.