Contemporary Russian Soviet women's fiction, 1939-1989

A number of critics have observed that there is no tradition of women's writing in Russian. The writings of Lydia Chukovskaya, I. Grekova and Tatiana Tolstaya--the principle subjects of the present work--partially contradict this perception, and defy the restrictions imposed by ideological authoritarianism and of gender.All three writers describe aspects of the Soviet, and human, condition, in unique ways. Lydia Chukovskaya's fiction portrays women, paralyzed by the scope of the Stalinist terror, who attempt to survive with dignity and accept their individual responsibility. I. Grekova writes about single women who maintain their autonomy through a balance between their professional and domestic lives. Tatiana Tolstaya's characters inhabit an atmosphere of lyrical alienation from which there is no exit.This study examines in detail the work of these writers in the context of other Soviet men and women writers, as well as in the light of Western, feminist thought