Editor's Introduction

Abstract

The 1990s represented a period of intense change in the Russian historical profession. With the collapse of the Soviet Union and its ideological underpinnings, historians no longer had to frame Russian history within the class categories of a Marxist historiography. They were now free to consider other historiographical approaches. One of these new historiographies used gender as a category of analysis. Influenced by French poststructuralism, gender had already become a "hot" topic among Western scholars in the 1980s. It was precisely at this moment that Russian scholars now freed from the domination of Marxist historiography began to pursue other forms of historical interpretation. In the fall of 1994 Russian Studies in History (vol. 33, no. 2) introduced readers to the work of Svetlana Aivazova, whose article "Toward a History of Feminism" applied the concept of gender analysis to a history of Russian feminism. At that time, it was unclear whether Russian scholars would incorporate gender into their historical discourse or whether Aivazova's article would represent a path not taken.