Women's Health in Post-Soviet Russia: The Politics of Intervention by Michele s> Rivkin-Fish (review)

Abstract

REVIEWS 385 from a range of angles, including the democratization of school administration , teacher-pupilrelations,and the teaching of democracy in school crucial questions in Russia's democratic transformation,yet often overlooked in 'mainstream'literature.Kerr's second chapter tacklesthe issue of the impact of demographic changes on educational policy, while Part One is completed by a smalldetour from Russian education,with a studyby Kara Brown of the education of Russian speakersin Estonia. Part Two is labelled 'The teacher, the textbook and educationalpractice', and begins with a valuable portrait of the teaching profession by Ben Eklof and the late Scott Seregny,in which they trace the significanceof the relationship between teachers and the State from pre-revolutionaryRussia to the present, with teachers having to cope with the demands of an intrusiveand restrictivestate,yet also tending to turnto the state,ratherthan the local community , for material and moral support. The subsequent chapters deal with variousaspectsof the social science and humanitiescurriculum: Janet Vaillant on civic education; Vera Kaplan, Alexander Shevyrev and Igor lonov with individualcontributionson the natureof change in historyteaching (including detailed analyses of textbook provision);and Nadya Peterson on continuity and change in approaches to the study of literature. The focus on these aspects of the curriculum is fullyjustified, given the place they held in the Soviet school system, and the need since the late i98os to addressthe issue of their 'deideologization'.Part Two ends with an overviewbyJames Muckle of the conduct of lessons in the Russian school. The result,then, is a very strongvolume which deservesattention not just from specialistscholarsof Russian education, but also from the field of comparative education and, crucially,the field of Russian studies as a whole the insightsit provideswill enrichthe workof those who searchforclues of the direction of Russia's transformation.Inevitably the book's scope has limitations (e.g. the issue of the internationalizationof Russian education, as shown by Russia'ssigning up to the Bologna process, has emerged as a major issue since this book was developed), but the balance of chapter topics gives an extremely valuable point from which to proceed with furtherinvestigations. The volume is dedicated to the memory of Scott Seregny and Friedrich Kuebart, two distinguished and highly respected members of the close-knit group of scholarsof Russianeducation,who participatedin the meetingsfrom which this book was produced, and who sadly passed away during its preparation . It serves as a most fitting tribute to the enormous contribution both made to the field. Governance ResearchCentre S. L. WEBBER University ofBristol Rivkin-Fish,Michele. Women's HealthinPost-Soviet Russia:ThePolitics ofIntervention . New Anthropologies of Europe. Indiana University Press, Bloomington and Indianapolis, 2005. XiV + 253 pp. Notes. Bibliography. Index. $21.95 (paperback). THIs book summarizes and interprets intensive ethnographic field work conducted in St Petersburgbetween 1993 and 2000. The focus of the study 386 SEER, 85, 2, 2007 was the way in which reproductivehealth services had changed during the years followingthe collapse of the Communistpartyin the Soviet Union. The approach that Michele Rivkin-Fishadopts is however not simple. Ethnography is here used to explicitlyanswerparticularquestions,and to provide clear sighted analysisof changes and meanings that the various key actorsbring to this arena: doctors, policy makers,patients and internationalreformers. The book is divided into two quite distinctparts, in the first of which are presented interviews and observations about the attempts that international reformerssuch as the World Health Organisationwere making in the early I99OS to change reproductive health services in St Petersburg.This is contrasted with the general internationalpressure to move towards the market and individualityin public and private life here of course in health care. Finallythe section turnstowardschangesin the sexualmoralitythatwas being profferedfor young people in the conduct of their personallives. Rivkin-Fish observes that the WHO intervention was ratherjudgemental about health care professionals,implying that they were insensitive to the needs of their patients through a common recourse to medical arrogance.Drawing on her ethnographyshe demonstratesconvincinglythat the WHO approachwas not founded in the real lives of the doctors and patients,who were in realityboth sufferingfrom the powerless that a soviet way of life combined with steady impoverishmenthad imposed on them. This theme is then elaborated to show that the individualizingsolutions implied by the marketizationof health care, and the...