Bolshevik Women

Description

Bolshevik Women is a history of the women who joined the Soviet Communist Party before 1921. Drawing on a database of more than five hundred individuals as well as on intensive research into the lives of the most prominent female Bolsheviks, Barbara Clements tells the fascinating story of the female Reds who survived imprisonment, built bombs, led armies into battle, and struggled to survive under Stalin. The study argues that women were important members of the Communist Party during its formative years.

'Barbara Evans Clements' provocative study of Bolshevik women adds a critically important, long-neglected dimension to our understanding of Bolshevism, the Russian revolutions, and the Stalin era. It is a thoroughly researched, compelling work of original scholarship.' Alexander Rabinowitch, University of Indiana 'A richly nuanced collective portrait of the female membership of the Bolshevik party. The book's vivid and engaging personal details are set against a textured background and gain resonance and depth from the careful quantitative work that Clements has carried out. The book captures all the complexities of radical women's lives. It represents an important contribution to both Soviet history and the history of European women.' Barbara Alpern Engel, University of Colorado