Changes

When they got to the Soviet Union many women, not surprisingly, faced challenges, but for some, these challenges—or at least a sense that they were suffering for a good cause—were part of the attraction. Even though foreigners had many advantages over Soviet citizens in terms of their access to food and other basic necessities, housing was scarce (especially in Moscow), and what housing there was tended to be small and not necessarily in good repair. Outside of big cities there were bed bugs and primitive facilities. Russian bureaucracy was (and is) infamously difficult to maneuver.

It was evident that most Russians were suffering from shortages of basic necessities, including food, and most foreigners knew about arrests, had heard rumors about violence, and were aware that they were under surveillance. These things became especially evident by the 1930s, but even prior to this time American women who stayed for any length of time commented upon how often innocent people seemed to be unjustly arrested, and people heard about the violence that accompanied the collectivization of agriculture (beginning in 1928), and about the Ukrainian famine, beginning in 1931 and usually seen as resulting directly from Stalin’s policies. After 1935 the paranoia and fear were totally inescapable.

Because I engage with so many bodies of scholarship—but also tried to write in an accessible fashion that would emphasize the stories of the people involved, their deeper feelings, motivations, and reactions—the book can be used in a variety of ways. It is a work of US women’s history, especially considered through a transnational lens. It engages with the history of American radicalism. It presents a new angle on the Cold War and its gendered dimensions. It is a work of comparative history. It could be drawn from in courses on performance. It could be part of a course dealing with Americans abroad (I teach such a course myself). In my heart of hearts I hope people outside the academy will also be interested in the book, and that it can bridge a divide that separates books read in colleges and universities from books read by anyone else (or anyone else who reads, that is).

[[Category:Women's History]] [[Category:20th Century History]] [[Category:Radicalism]] [[Category:Interviews]][[Category:Russian History]] [[Category:United States History]]