1. Victims and agents: gender in post-Soviet states Mary Buckley; Part I. Women in the Russian Federation: 2. Do Russian women want to work Sarah Ashwin and Elain Bowers; 3. Rural women and the impact of economic change Sue Bridger; 4. Women and the culture of entrepreneurship Marta Bruno; 5. Images of an ideal woman: perceptions of Russian womanhood through the media, education and women's own eyes Rebecca Kay; 6. 'She was asking for it': rape and domestic violence against women Lynne Attwood; 7. 'For the sake of the children: gender and migration in the former Soviet Union Hilary Pilkington; 8. When the fighting is over: the soldiers' mothers and the Afghan madonnas Kathryn Pinnick; 9. Adaptation of the Soviet women's committee: deputies' voices from 'Women of Russia' Mary Buckley; 10. Women's groups in Russia Olga Lipovskaya; Part II. Women Outside Russia in Newly Independent States: 11. Women in changing societies: Latvia and Lithuania Nijole White; 12. Progress on hold: the conservative faces of women in Ukraine Solomea Pavlychko; 13. Out of the kitchen into the crossfire: women in independent Armenia Nora Dudwick; 14. The women's peace train in Georgia Tamara Dragadze; 15. Between tradition and modernity: the dilemma facing contemporary Central Asian women Shirin Akiner.