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Soviet Union [USSR] Function of Family
The government has assumed many functions of the pre-Soviet
family. Various public institutions, for example, have taken
responsibility for supporting individuals during times of sickness,
incapacity, old age, maternity, and industrial injury. State-run
nurseries, preschools, schools, clubs, and youth organizations have
taken over a great part of the family's role in socializing
children. Their role in socialization has been limited, however,
because preschools had places for only half of all Soviet children
under seven. Despite government assumption of many
responsibilities, spouses were still responsible for the material
support of each other, minor children, and disabled adult children.
The transformation of the patriarchal, three-generation rural
household to a modern, urban family of two adults and two children
attests to the great changes that Soviet society has undergone
since 1917. That transformation has not produced the originally
envisioned egalitarianism, but it has forever changed the nature of
what was once the Russian Empire.
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Excellent monographs analyzing Soviet society include Soviet
Economy and Society by David Lane and Modern Soviet
Society, originally published in French, by Basile Kerblay. In
Poverty in the Soviet Union and other articles and books,
Mervyn Matthews discusses the problems of poverty and low wages in
certain sectors of the Soviet economy. Providing a general overview
of the Soviet Union, Vadim Medish's The Soviet Union
contains useful insights into Soviet society, as does the
Cambridge Encyclopedia of Russia and the Soviet Union. In
their monograph Modernization, Value Change, and Fertility in
the Soviet Union, Ellen Jones and Fred W. Grupp provide useful
information on the position of women in Soviet society and on male
and female roles.
Genia K. Browning's Women and Politics in the USSR
focuses on the position of Soviet women in society in general and
Soviet feminism in particular. Gail Warshofsky Lapidus has written
several informative books and articles on Soviet women. (For
further information and complete citations,
see Soviet Union USSR -
Bibliography.)
Data as of May 1989
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