Men in Contemporary Russia: The Fallen Heroes of Post-Soviet Change? by Rebecca s> Kay (review)

Abstract

REVIEWS 393 in the Centre of Helsinki (surroundedby buildings of the state, the city, the universityand a church)and concludes with a considerationof the 'petrified paradoxes of masculine enterprises'.Connections between embodiment and power are analysed, for example, through Foucault'stheory of panopticon. In chapter four Valenius explores the implicationsof Finland being represented as a 'maid'. Many national representationsrefer to mothers, such as Mother Russia or Svea Mamma (Sweden).Finland'seternal maid is rendered intelligiblethroughthe geopoliticalposition of Finlandbetween Eastand West a maid needs to be protected and defended as an object of desire which, Valenius argues, has promoted a cult of 'great men'. At the same time there were debates between the protagonistsof differentpolitical orientationsand their representatives.Valenius also uses the concept of (dis-)embodying thenation in orderto referto the liminalityof the maid who is preventedfrombecoming an adult. In chapter five the maid is depicted as troubled and sufferingas a border region and a battle field. Through differentways of representingthe maid, issues such as power relations as well as threatened borders were contested. Here the constructionof the nation consistsof masculineactivities.The place of the female is merely symbolic. Through this female symbol men negotiate what divides and unites them. The maid is threatenedby a range of Russian male figures. Potential rapistsare representedusing racist imagery. In reference to Nagel, Valenius notes that in this way borders are constructed as ethnosexual. Masculine honour is also depicted through the shame of the female and her rescueby a man. These visualrepresentationsspeaktheir own very strong language and Valenius interpretsthis language deftly. In the context of nationality women bear the burden of representation, whereas nations themselves are scenes of masculine action. As Yuval-Davies has suggested,women have had a central although often invisible role in the construction of the nation. Women merely represent,whilst men are placed at the centre of nationaland politicalagency. The paradoxof the Finnish maid as the object of an eternal threat is that she contradictsnationalism. Valenius tells a storythat will be familiarto internationalreadersbut it is also rendered as contextually different because of its location in the border between Finland and Russia, historically a dividing line between East and West and now the outer border of the European Union. HelsinkiCollegium for Advanced Studies TUULA GORDON University ofHelsinki Kay, Rebecca. Menin Contemporagy Russia:7The FallenHeroes ofPost-Soviet Change? Ashgate, Aldershotand Burlington,VT, 2006. X + 236 pp. Illustrations. Notes. Appendix. Bibliography.Index. ?C45.??. THERE is a widespread perception, Rebecca Kay argues, that masculinityis in a state of crisis.The shift from heavy industryto more 'feminine'types of work, such as the service industries, has eroded men's traditional role as 394 SEER, 85, 2, 2007 breadwinner. Often unable to provide for their families, they have not found other roles to compensate. This 'crisis of masculinity' has supposedly reached its height in Russia. Negative portrayals of Russian men abound both in the Russian and Western media, with the latter taking on a distinctly symbolic flavour: 'It is as if the degeneration of a nation can best be typified by the image of the self-pitying drunk, defeated by circumstance, spiralling into an early grave' (p. i). Kay's aim is to provide a more balanced understanding of the ways in which Russian men have experienced and responded to post-Soviet change. The book is divided into two sections. The first is concerned with the public sphere: military service, the labour market and private enterprise. The second turns to the private sphere of family and relationships. As well as analysing media reports on masculinity, Kay carried out ethnographic research in two provincial areas. She chose to work in the provinces since most previous ethnographic research has focused on the larger cities. In addition, one of her chosen regions, Altai, has pioneered a highly successful Regional Crisis Centre for Men. Interviews with the Centre's clients provide testimony not only to the difficulties confronting men, but also to the courage and resilience with which many deal with them. Kay does not deny that some men cannot cope. 14,000 women are killed by their male partners every year, and more than ioo,ooo men die as a result of murder or suicide. The propensity for violence and...