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Motherland: A Feminist History of Modern Russia, from Revolution to Autocracy
Award-winning journalist Julia Ioffe tells the story of modern Russia through the history of its women, from revolution to utopia to autocracy.
In 1990, seven-year-old Julia Ioffe and her family fled the Soviet Union. Nearly twenty years later, Ioffe returned to Moscow—only to discover just how much Russian society had changed while she had been living in America. The Soviet women she had known growing up—doctors, engineers, scientists—had seemingly been replaced with women desperate to marry rich and become stay-at-home moms. How had Russia gone from portraying itself as the vanguard of world feminism to the last bastion of conservative Christian values?
In Motherland, Ioffe turns modern Russian history on its head, telling it exclusively through the stories of its women. From her own physician great-grandmothers to Lenin’s lover, a feminist revolutionary; from the hundreds of thousands of Soviet girls who fought in World War II to the millions of single mothers who rebuilt and repopulated a devastated country; from the members of Pussy Riot to Yulia Navalnaya, wife of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, she chronicles one of the most audacious social experiments in history and how it failed the very women it was meant to liberate—and documents how that failure paved the way to the revanche of Vladimir Putin.
Part memoir, part journalistic exploration, part history, Motherland paints a portrait of modern Russia through the women who shaped it. With deep emotion, Ioffe shows what it means to live through the cataclysms of revolution, war, idealism, and heartbreak—and reveals how the story of Russia today is inextricably tied to the history of its women.
In 1990, seven-year-old Julia Ioffe and her family fled the Soviet Union. Nearly twenty years later, Ioffe returned to Moscow—only to discover just how much Russian society had changed while she had been living in America. The Soviet women she had known growing up—doctors, engineers, scientists—had seemingly been replaced with women desperate to marry rich and become stay-at-home moms. How had Russia gone from portraying itself as the vanguard of world feminism to the last bastion of conservative Christian values?
In Motherland, Ioffe turns modern Russian history on its head, telling it exclusively through the stories of its women. From her own physician great-grandmothers to Lenin’s lover, a feminist revolutionary; from the hundreds of thousands of Soviet girls who fought in World War II to the millions of single mothers who rebuilt and repopulated a devastated country; from the members of Pussy Riot to Yulia Navalnaya, wife of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, she chronicles one of the most audacious social experiments in history and how it failed the very women it was meant to liberate—and documents how that failure paved the way to the revanche of Vladimir Putin.
Part memoir, part journalistic exploration, part history, Motherland paints a portrait of modern Russia through the women who shaped it. With deep emotion, Ioffe shows what it means to live through the cataclysms of revolution, war, idealism, and heartbreak—and reveals how the story of Russia today is inextricably tied to the history of its women.
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First published October 21, 2025
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 83 reviews
October 16, 2025
Wow, Julia Ioffe has done what many historians fail to do, and that is tell a compelling and thoughtful history whilst maintaining and providing a high level of information and keeping the reader engaged.
This is by no means a quick read but the fact that I had to take more time to sit with it and digest it, adds to what it is I am able to take away from this book. Not only does Ioffe present the reader with a detailed history of what made modern Russia, they use personal memoir to make the book even more accessible.
I really love that, Ioffe highlights the fact that we can add women back into history, who are seemingly ordinary women and it still shed light onto the enormous impact women have had on history whilst often being written out of it. Not every feminist history has to be one of an extraordinary woman.
This is by no means a quick read but the fact that I had to take more time to sit with it and digest it, adds to what it is I am able to take away from this book. Not only does Ioffe present the reader with a detailed history of what made modern Russia, they use personal memoir to make the book even more accessible.
I really love that, Ioffe highlights the fact that we can add women back into history, who are seemingly ordinary women and it still shed light onto the enormous impact women have had on history whilst often being written out of it. Not every feminist history has to be one of an extraordinary woman.
November 9, 2025
The tragedy that is Russia
It was around 2012 that I discovered The New Republic through the miracle of RSS. TNR at that time was an extraordinary bouquet of talented journalists. Julia Ioffe was one of them. She was always clear, a pleasure to read, and insightful, especially concerning Russia. TNR imploded in 2014 and those writers scattered to the four winds. I mostly lost track of Ioffe at that point, although she continued to pop up in occasional bits of drive-by free-lance journalism, such as this article in GQ: Now We All Know What Putin Has on Trump. It was so clear and obvious an insight as to make me wonder why I had never seen it for myself. (In my defense, no one other than Ioffe did, either.) She eventually found a home at Puck, but the volume of her journalistic output is low.
I know the reason, now, or part of it: she's been writing Motherland: A Feminist History of Modern Russia, from Revolution to Autocracy, an extraordinary history and memoire of Russia in the 20th and early 21st centuries.
I have a bone to pick with the subtitle. Ioffe makes clear that because of the divergent history of women in Russia and America, the word "feminist" has entirely different meanings in the two nations. Motherland is not a feminist history, in the sense that the word is usually used in the West. It would have been clearer and more accurate to call it "A history of Russia seen through the eyes of its women."
Ioffe is a Russian-born Jew, Her family moved to the USA in 1990, when she was seven years old. She moved back to Moscow from 2009-2012, where she worked as a reporter, covering (among other things) Pussy Riot and the Navalnys.
Motherland begins with family trees showing four generations of Ioffe's ancestors, Russian Jews all*. The narrative (carefully sourced and documented) tells the story of Russia from the early days of the Bolshevik revolution through Putin's Russia. The story is told almost entirely by telling the stories of women: Ioffe's ancestors, and other women who led the nation.
It's a bleak tale. Russia has treated its women badly, and it's treated its Jews badly, and historically it's been an extraordinarily awful place to be a Jewish woman. Russia was always ready to allow its women those parts of feminism that involved suffering for the Fatherland and its men. Russian women fought in the Great Patriotic War (what we call World War II) and worked full-time jobs from the early days and still do any job that doesn't put them in charge of things. But don't run away with the idea that Russian men live good lives. Ioffe makes it clear that the suffering inflicted on womankind redounds in different and sometimes even worse ways on its men.
Motherland reads like a novel. It's a dramatic and exciting story, if an extraordinarily bleak one. Ioffe writes so well. Here is one of the many passages I highlighted.
*I am always bemused by authors who can do this. Our greatest president, Abraham Lincoln, wrote
Blog review.
It was around 2012 that I discovered The New Republic through the miracle of RSS. TNR at that time was an extraordinary bouquet of talented journalists. Julia Ioffe was one of them. She was always clear, a pleasure to read, and insightful, especially concerning Russia. TNR imploded in 2014 and those writers scattered to the four winds. I mostly lost track of Ioffe at that point, although she continued to pop up in occasional bits of drive-by free-lance journalism, such as this article in GQ: Now We All Know What Putin Has on Trump. It was so clear and obvious an insight as to make me wonder why I had never seen it for myself. (In my defense, no one other than Ioffe did, either.) She eventually found a home at Puck, but the volume of her journalistic output is low.
I know the reason, now, or part of it: she's been writing Motherland: A Feminist History of Modern Russia, from Revolution to Autocracy, an extraordinary history and memoire of Russia in the 20th and early 21st centuries.
I have a bone to pick with the subtitle. Ioffe makes clear that because of the divergent history of women in Russia and America, the word "feminist" has entirely different meanings in the two nations. Motherland is not a feminist history, in the sense that the word is usually used in the West. It would have been clearer and more accurate to call it "A history of Russia seen through the eyes of its women."
Ioffe is a Russian-born Jew, Her family moved to the USA in 1990, when she was seven years old. She moved back to Moscow from 2009-2012, where she worked as a reporter, covering (among other things) Pussy Riot and the Navalnys.
Motherland begins with family trees showing four generations of Ioffe's ancestors, Russian Jews all*. The narrative (carefully sourced and documented) tells the story of Russia from the early days of the Bolshevik revolution through Putin's Russia. The story is told almost entirely by telling the stories of women: Ioffe's ancestors, and other women who led the nation.
It's a bleak tale. Russia has treated its women badly, and it's treated its Jews badly, and historically it's been an extraordinarily awful place to be a Jewish woman. Russia was always ready to allow its women those parts of feminism that involved suffering for the Fatherland and its men. Russian women fought in the Great Patriotic War (what we call World War II) and worked full-time jobs from the early days and still do any job that doesn't put them in charge of things. But don't run away with the idea that Russian men live good lives. Ioffe makes it clear that the suffering inflicted on womankind redounds in different and sometimes even worse ways on its men.
Motherland reads like a novel. It's a dramatic and exciting story, if an extraordinarily bleak one. Ioffe writes so well. Here is one of the many passages I highlighted.
Till her dying day, my grandmother Emma believed that her cousins were buried alive, though she had no way of knowing whether that is what actually happened. I sometimes asked her why it mattered how they died, but to Emma, who vividly remembered her cousins—Polina, who at the time of her death was seventeen, Lyuba, fifteen, and Zhenya, five—it mattered a lot.It's good. If you have any interest in Russia, read it!
*I am always bemused by authors who can do this. Our greatest president, Abraham Lincoln, wrote
I don't know who my grandfather was, I am much more concerned to know what his grandson will be.That first sentence is almost literally true for me. Both my grandfathers died when my parents were children, and I know nothing of them. I know only slightly more about my grandmothers.
Blog review.
November 14, 2025
A book about personal history of the author Russian Jewish family mixed with some famous women, somehow claiming to be about Russian feminism. The author mixed her own experience, obe of a priviliged background somehow projecting it to all Russian women. It is mostly about Moscow women, we have exactly one Russian village, all doom and gloom mixed in there. Russian men got the worst treatment, weep as you read! As far as execptional women we have an opposition leader housewife, Stalin's daughter, various wives and daughters of Soviet leaders and some punk group (a copypaste of the western feminism btw) and thats all! No mention of the Russian womeb at the too, like the Central bank director Elvira Nabiullina ( Russian Tatar) and marketplace billionare Tatiana Kim (Russian Korean). Feminusm as a movement ended by the 1930, there where the book migh end, the rest is just ancedotes on some famous women, none of them particularly feminists! No mention of the brave Russian journalists, like Anna Politkovskaya, who payed with their lives for reporting on the conflict. Instead, we ahve some youtuber with her light interview style pretending to be serious reporting! Not a history of any real Russian women or feminims, just a priviliged outsider view somehow pretending to be Russian.
August 10, 2025
A neat blend of memoir and national history that looks at the last three major eras of Soviet history both via the macro level (Stalin's daughter, etc) and the micro level (the author's family history traced via the women) from the women's point of view of what happened, and what happened to them in turn. Refreshing point of view.
October 13, 2025
Won an early copy of this book.
Fascinating read. Really enjoyed it.
Fascinating read. Really enjoyed it.
December 2, 2025
So good
November 6, 2025
This fascinating history of Russia from the revolution to Putin is told from the woman’s perspective. The history shows an egalitarian country 60+ years before the west caught up and then how it was whittled away from the 1980s on.it also gave me a great perspective on Putin and understanding the war in Ukraine. If you have any interest in Russia, this chunky book is worth your time!
November 6, 2025
The number of stars diminished as the book went on ( I actually started with 4). Attributing all wrongs of the soviet and post-soviet life solely to the personalities of the men on top is misguided. Wide generalizations, romanticising 1917 revolution, and painting women as victims also didn't help.
December 26, 2025
thanks sonya for putting this on my feed!! so so interesting the whole way through and good to finally have a supplemental women’s history to the “alexandra kollontai was there for a bit” vibe from A level soviet history
November 12, 2025
Wow. I could not put this book down. I love that Ioffe weaves her own personal story into this history of women during the Soviet period and into modern-day Russia. Excellently written and very obviously throughly researched. I can’t come up with the right words to capture this book, but just trust me that it is worth the read. Recommend reading The Unwomanly Face Of War by Svetlana Alexievich with this book.
October 27, 2025
A walk through Ruzzia
I grew increasingly frustrated with this as it went on - Ioffe is simply not critical enough on Russian society and culture especially in the third contemporary part. Yes, she gives glimpses of how truly debased this culture is, yet either through her own blindness or naivety she glances over what is rotten to the core. Her description of the soldier's wife who has only concerns on her immediate familial needs while expressing not a scintilla of concern for where her husband is being sent is typical. It makes part 1 of the brave historical figures ring somewhat hollow given this country's full arc. Russia will eventually be defeated in Ukraine and let us hope that much of its culture is put to rest as well.
I grew increasingly frustrated with this as it went on - Ioffe is simply not critical enough on Russian society and culture especially in the third contemporary part. Yes, she gives glimpses of how truly debased this culture is, yet either through her own blindness or naivety she glances over what is rotten to the core. Her description of the soldier's wife who has only concerns on her immediate familial needs while expressing not a scintilla of concern for where her husband is being sent is typical. It makes part 1 of the brave historical figures ring somewhat hollow given this country's full arc. Russia will eventually be defeated in Ukraine and let us hope that much of its culture is put to rest as well.
October 19, 2025
This is a fascinating and well written history of feminism throughout revolutionary Russia that is part memoir as well. Highly readable, incredibly researched and at times completely heartbreaking. I’ve read other works of Russian history and there was so much in this work I didn’t know. I would definitely recommend.
November 5, 2025
Absolutely stunning of more than a century of Russian history through the views of its women. A rich, accessible blend of public women (Stalin's daughter, Gorbachev's wife, Lenin's wife and mistress, etc.) blended with 3 generations of the author's family. Motherland looks at the ordinary, the extraordinary, and the heartbreak of Russian women as they hold the country on their back, and nurture its soul, even as the men destroy it from the inside out.
Highly recommend.
Highly recommend.
October 28, 2025
Desperately needed in an age of increasing authoritarianism
December 9, 2025
Book 2 on my tour through the New York Times Top 100 of 2025 list. I thought this was an absolutely incredible work. I did a ton of research on Russia and Ukraine in college and can remember learning about maybe two women in detail. I wish I had had this book then. It was a captivating and highly informative peek into what the last century was like for women in the Soviet Union and Russia.
November 15, 2025
Made me want to hug my soviet mother in law and cry.
Made me want to hug my all-female Russian Studies professors and cry.
Made me want to hug my children and cry.
Made me want to immediately start it over again, but I refuse to use even one more rental day so this amazing book can reach as many as possible.
Gonna go cry now. You should read this.
Made me want to hug my all-female Russian Studies professors and cry.
Made me want to hug my children and cry.
Made me want to immediately start it over again, but I refuse to use even one more rental day so this amazing book can reach as many as possible.
Gonna go cry now. You should read this.
September 17, 2025
This book was so informative and interesting. Fascinating who the author navigated Russian history through her matriarchal family line. I would highly recommend. Great nonfiction that read like fiction, so engaging. Thank you to NetGalley and Ecco Publishing for giving me the opportunity to read this advanced copy.
November 12, 2025
Phenomenal work by journalist and writer, Julia Ioffe. She traces the history of feminism in Russia from its early inception (the beginnings of the Bolshevik Revolution and the twilight of the Romanov aristocracy) to its crippled state in the modern day, while weaving the sad and bloody legacy of anti-Semitism throughout Russia’s history.
I came in possessing some knowledge of Russian feminism via blogs (I remember Pussy Riot, I think Jezebel covered their members, sham trial, and imprisonment back in the 2010s) and cultural osmosis, like the show Chernobyl (where I learned via the show’s official podcast that many women in the Soviet Union were doctors, scientists, and researchers (including Julia Ioffe's mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother) - unlike here! And I think there was a joke in 30 Rock about Liz Lemon's doorlady being a former doctor in Eastern Europe...) and fiction (mainly YA come to think of it) and the non-fiction, including the impressive Svetlana Alexievich and Anne Applebaum, whom Ioffe name drops - go find their books and read them!
I knew precious little about the early Revolutionaries, including the women closely involved with Lenin and the brilliant Alexandra Kollontai (whose influence unfortunately petered out, crushed beneath the heel of the brute and gangster Stalin), who helped create an all too brief period where women enjoyed unfettered access to reproductive rights, education, and equality in love and work. Having read Simon Sebag Montefiore’s Young Stalin I did know about his first and second wives (the second he definitely drove to suicide and whose tragic death would incite him to go on a massive murder campaign, the Purges) and his daughter, Svetlana (what a life!). Unfortunately, I was well familiar with Beria’s and his horrific abuse of women and girls (his own death in the Death of Stalin movie is soooo satisfying) but not to this extent. I did not know that the American embassy was right by his “home” (does Beria and home belong in the same sentence?) and for sure knew what he was doing to children, which is another layer of horror on an already disgusting, evil man's legacy.
Which brings me to the main point - this book is dark and grim. There are some beautiful bits here and there, but in the land of the perpetual overcast, gray skies not much shines through.
The gender dynamics are explored in immense, personal detail. The way the Russian state leaders have destroyed men through generational wars, the loss of jobs, the way men are both valorized but coddled, important for conceiving children but not exactly encouraged (if not downright mocked) to help their wives in the home and look after their children. In comparison, women are expected to do it all: do well in work and look after the household (including shopping, cooking, cleaning, rearing children, looking after the money).
No wonder millions died of exhaustion, stress, and despair. It is a bleak and unforgiving world in which men can leave and cheat and steal and abuse their women but women cannot abandon them, or fight back without a harsh crackdown from the country. The last chapters, particularly Gasoline, are heart-wrenching and frustrating but all too familiar in turns. The way the police don’t consider violence against women and girls all that particularly important, the violence against protestors, women needing to rescue their men… this happens here, in the US, but in Russia it is on a scale I cannot really fathom. Ioffe’s interview with the lawyer whose clientele is made up of abused women and how the lawyer pointed out how things can’t get worse made me reel. It can’t get worse than a woman who defended herself and accidentally killed a man (with a mushroom knife!) who attacked her in the forest was sentenced to jail for decades. Because she dared to fight back.
I do have some criticisms of the book, though. I was disappointed that there wasn’t a comparison between WWII and the other wars, particularly the Soviet-Afghanistan War and women’s participation in those wars (read Svetlana Alexevich’s unforgettable Zinky Boys: Soviet Voices from the Afghanistan War) (and there are some excellent PBS documentaries out there). I don’t think the latter war gets so much as more than one mention (if that).
Julia Ioffe also mentions (multiple times over) how women would have to spend their lunch breaks searching for food and spend their off-work hours (i.e. when they did not get paid) standing in line to get food and then another line to pay for it. Then there was a sudden switch to mentions of posh grocery stores in Moscow. So, did the bureaucratic, time-wasting system of grocery shopping finally go away? If so, when? How? Am I seriously asking about the transition of the old-fashioned, soul-destroying grocery stores into the modern versions? Yes.
There also wasn’t any mention on the unintentionally hilarious propaganda (A Man Like Putin) and parodies of such propaganda praising Putin, mostly coming from the lips of women. She did mention how Russian women seemed in love with their leader and how he presents - as odd as it may sound - a positive example of manhood: exercising, going outdoors, abstaining from drinking, and eating healthy. Putin is trying to provide, I think, an example of what Russian manhood ought to look like - which is an incredible, mind-breaking contrast to how he treats the men of his country: throwing them into Ukraine as canon fodder, breaking their souls, and destroying their futures to suck up more wealth and power for him and his cronies.
One more thing - Julia Ioffe is clearly left-leaning and included multiple stories about strong, courageous woman. Which is great! However, she did not include the crueler aspects of motherhood and womanhood, like those who supported the invasions into Ukraine and supported their men's blatant looting, with leaked phone calls of wives directing their husbands on what to steal. I will never forget the vile woman, Olga Bykovsky, who encouraged her husband, Roman Bykovsky, to "go ahead and rape Ukrainian women there, OK? And don’t tell me anything. Got it? I am giving you permission. Just be careful!" She has been tried in absentia by Shevchenko district court in Kyiv. Russian women contain multitudes, to say the least.
Complaints and critiques aside, this is a well-researched, fascinating book about Julia Ioffe’s family history and the history of womanhood in Russia - from the highs of equality and free love to the despair and ruin of a country due to a cabal of conspiracy-pilled, gender neutral bathroom obsessed mouse men.
I came in possessing some knowledge of Russian feminism via blogs (I remember Pussy Riot, I think Jezebel covered their members, sham trial, and imprisonment back in the 2010s) and cultural osmosis, like the show Chernobyl (where I learned via the show’s official podcast that many women in the Soviet Union were doctors, scientists, and researchers (including Julia Ioffe's mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother) - unlike here! And I think there was a joke in 30 Rock about Liz Lemon's doorlady being a former doctor in Eastern Europe...) and fiction (mainly YA come to think of it) and the non-fiction, including the impressive Svetlana Alexievich and Anne Applebaum, whom Ioffe name drops - go find their books and read them!
I knew precious little about the early Revolutionaries, including the women closely involved with Lenin and the brilliant Alexandra Kollontai (whose influence unfortunately petered out, crushed beneath the heel of the brute and gangster Stalin), who helped create an all too brief period where women enjoyed unfettered access to reproductive rights, education, and equality in love and work. Having read Simon Sebag Montefiore’s Young Stalin I did know about his first and second wives (the second he definitely drove to suicide and whose tragic death would incite him to go on a massive murder campaign, the Purges) and his daughter, Svetlana (what a life!). Unfortunately, I was well familiar with Beria’s and his horrific abuse of women and girls (his own death in the Death of Stalin movie is soooo satisfying) but not to this extent. I did not know that the American embassy was right by his “home” (does Beria and home belong in the same sentence?) and for sure knew what he was doing to children, which is another layer of horror on an already disgusting, evil man's legacy.
Which brings me to the main point - this book is dark and grim. There are some beautiful bits here and there, but in the land of the perpetual overcast, gray skies not much shines through.
The gender dynamics are explored in immense, personal detail. The way the Russian state leaders have destroyed men through generational wars, the loss of jobs, the way men are both valorized but coddled, important for conceiving children but not exactly encouraged (if not downright mocked) to help their wives in the home and look after their children. In comparison, women are expected to do it all: do well in work and look after the household (including shopping, cooking, cleaning, rearing children, looking after the money).
No wonder millions died of exhaustion, stress, and despair. It is a bleak and unforgiving world in which men can leave and cheat and steal and abuse their women but women cannot abandon them, or fight back without a harsh crackdown from the country. The last chapters, particularly Gasoline, are heart-wrenching and frustrating but all too familiar in turns. The way the police don’t consider violence against women and girls all that particularly important, the violence against protestors, women needing to rescue their men… this happens here, in the US, but in Russia it is on a scale I cannot really fathom. Ioffe’s interview with the lawyer whose clientele is made up of abused women and how the lawyer pointed out how things can’t get worse made me reel. It can’t get worse than a woman who defended herself and accidentally killed a man (with a mushroom knife!) who attacked her in the forest was sentenced to jail for decades. Because she dared to fight back.
I do have some criticisms of the book, though. I was disappointed that there wasn’t a comparison between WWII and the other wars, particularly the Soviet-Afghanistan War and women’s participation in those wars (read Svetlana Alexevich’s unforgettable Zinky Boys: Soviet Voices from the Afghanistan War) (and there are some excellent PBS documentaries out there). I don’t think the latter war gets so much as more than one mention (if that).
Julia Ioffe also mentions (multiple times over) how women would have to spend their lunch breaks searching for food and spend their off-work hours (i.e. when they did not get paid) standing in line to get food and then another line to pay for it. Then there was a sudden switch to mentions of posh grocery stores in Moscow. So, did the bureaucratic, time-wasting system of grocery shopping finally go away? If so, when? How? Am I seriously asking about the transition of the old-fashioned, soul-destroying grocery stores into the modern versions? Yes.
There also wasn’t any mention on the unintentionally hilarious propaganda (A Man Like Putin) and parodies of such propaganda praising Putin, mostly coming from the lips of women. She did mention how Russian women seemed in love with their leader and how he presents - as odd as it may sound - a positive example of manhood: exercising, going outdoors, abstaining from drinking, and eating healthy. Putin is trying to provide, I think, an example of what Russian manhood ought to look like - which is an incredible, mind-breaking contrast to how he treats the men of his country: throwing them into Ukraine as canon fodder, breaking their souls, and destroying their futures to suck up more wealth and power for him and his cronies.
One more thing - Julia Ioffe is clearly left-leaning and included multiple stories about strong, courageous woman. Which is great! However, she did not include the crueler aspects of motherhood and womanhood, like those who supported the invasions into Ukraine and supported their men's blatant looting, with leaked phone calls of wives directing their husbands on what to steal. I will never forget the vile woman, Olga Bykovsky, who encouraged her husband, Roman Bykovsky, to "go ahead and rape Ukrainian women there, OK? And don’t tell me anything. Got it? I am giving you permission. Just be careful!" She has been tried in absentia by Shevchenko district court in Kyiv. Russian women contain multitudes, to say the least.
Complaints and critiques aside, this is a well-researched, fascinating book about Julia Ioffe’s family history and the history of womanhood in Russia - from the highs of equality and free love to the despair and ruin of a country due to a cabal of conspiracy-pilled, gender neutral bathroom obsessed mouse men.
December 21, 2025
This was a really good book. It's a little bit of a weird mixture of three things, with the common theme of a history of Russia through the lens of gender. Those three things: stories of Russia with a focus on prominent women, stories of Ioffe's family, and stories Ioffe has worked on as a reporter.
First, the early portions of the book focus mainly on some prominent women in the early Soviet Union and the roles they played, highlighting how the revolution transformed women's opportunities. There are also some stories of Ioffe's own family, but the main focus is on the more prominent individuals. In the middle section of the book, you still get stories of prominent Soviet women interwoven with stories from Ioffe's family, but now the ratio is flipped, with far more from Ioffe's family. This makes sense as she knew her grandmothers but not her great-grandmothers. This middle section takes us to the fall of the Soviet Union, when the author herself is alive (though still a child) and her family migrates to America. The last part is pretty much Ioffe's reporting. It's an abrupt departure as there is little left about her own family. Aside from Ioffe's own travels back to Russia, she essentially has one grandmother left there and that is it.
Ultimately, the book does feel a bit disjointed, but I have no problem giving it five stars anyway, but each of the elements is fascinating. The stories of her family reminds me a bit of Jung Chang's Wild Swans. The more traditionally historical sections on Russia are very good. And the final section gives us are more intensive view yet at any period of Russia, with an overall trajectory of decline.
The Revolution really did open up all sorts of new opportunities for Russian women. Among other things, one theme of the book is how many Russian women end up working in medicine (including many of Ioffe's relatives). Even things like shooting - Russian women were drilled in firearms in the 1930s, which let many take a more active role in WWII. It wasn't just the occassional sniper, or fighter pilot unit - a lot of Soviet women were involved in combat. After the war, there was a shift to more traditional roles. Men were lauded as the heroes who fought and women's involvement was written out. Women's duties were to help produce more men to make up for the huge population loss incurred during the war. Many households had no fathers and even when there was a guy, he often wasn't around. Still, Khrushchev's wife was an educated women who was involved in things. Under Breznhev, traditional gender roles were even more prioritized. (That said, abortion rights were open and commonly done. In Ioffe's telling, abortions were very common and not a source of shame in Russia. Many women had one or more).
With the rise of Putin, there is an increasing tradition to very traditional values. His own wife is barely present - practically never up until they announced their divorce. Putin openly portrays himself as a macho tough man and prides that version of masculinity. Meanwhile, Russian men keep drinking themselves to death and dying far younger than women do, but there is no real concern. It's that sort of competitive masculinity where those guys who can't hack it -- well, screw 'em. They don't matter. But, obviously, the main focus in this book is on women. They are to focus on their looks and being the helper. Women still work in medicine and accounting, but they are not the decision makers. Russian society under Putin essentially decriminalizes spousal abuse and to the extent those laws still exist, police blithely ignore them. When a high-profile story of a man chopping off his wife's hands leads to a push for reform, even that is walked back. This goes on at the same time Putin increasingly clamps down on any internal dissent to him whatsoever. The book offers some points on how those two things fit together. In both cases, might makes right. Also, if the family is the foundation for society (as the regime keeps asserting) then accepting violence in the family helps makes state violence in society more acceptable. Or it can just be an escape valve - the one place Russian men have any power, so let them use it as much as possible.
Early on, Putin is still working with the west on its own terms. Still allowing for some room for dissent. This is when things like Pussy Riot emerge. By the late 2010s and certainly by the 2020s, Putin is increasingly hostile to the west, justifying all actions to clamp down on the infiltration of western decadence, and there is seemingly no place left for any dissent. Those who have protested before are either abroad, silent, or jailed. Ioffe herself assumes she'd be arrested if she returns, or even her mother would be. The war in the Ukraine still has the support of most Russians, and Putin just leans on the Orthodox church and transphobia, trying to ally with he western Christian right.
Often books like this, that have a history with a bleak trajectory, like to end on a note of hope, that things still have a chance. This one just leaves on a dour note, which I appreciate. (The happy note endings can work too, but I've read so many of them that they feel like cliches and I can appreciate someone noting the current problems and leaving it at that. Ioffe isn't wallowing in despair, but just seeing where things stand.
EXCELLENT WORK
First, the early portions of the book focus mainly on some prominent women in the early Soviet Union and the roles they played, highlighting how the revolution transformed women's opportunities. There are also some stories of Ioffe's own family, but the main focus is on the more prominent individuals. In the middle section of the book, you still get stories of prominent Soviet women interwoven with stories from Ioffe's family, but now the ratio is flipped, with far more from Ioffe's family. This makes sense as she knew her grandmothers but not her great-grandmothers. This middle section takes us to the fall of the Soviet Union, when the author herself is alive (though still a child) and her family migrates to America. The last part is pretty much Ioffe's reporting. It's an abrupt departure as there is little left about her own family. Aside from Ioffe's own travels back to Russia, she essentially has one grandmother left there and that is it.
Ultimately, the book does feel a bit disjointed, but I have no problem giving it five stars anyway, but each of the elements is fascinating. The stories of her family reminds me a bit of Jung Chang's Wild Swans. The more traditionally historical sections on Russia are very good. And the final section gives us are more intensive view yet at any period of Russia, with an overall trajectory of decline.
The Revolution really did open up all sorts of new opportunities for Russian women. Among other things, one theme of the book is how many Russian women end up working in medicine (including many of Ioffe's relatives). Even things like shooting - Russian women were drilled in firearms in the 1930s, which let many take a more active role in WWII. It wasn't just the occassional sniper, or fighter pilot unit - a lot of Soviet women were involved in combat. After the war, there was a shift to more traditional roles. Men were lauded as the heroes who fought and women's involvement was written out. Women's duties were to help produce more men to make up for the huge population loss incurred during the war. Many households had no fathers and even when there was a guy, he often wasn't around. Still, Khrushchev's wife was an educated women who was involved in things. Under Breznhev, traditional gender roles were even more prioritized. (That said, abortion rights were open and commonly done. In Ioffe's telling, abortions were very common and not a source of shame in Russia. Many women had one or more).
With the rise of Putin, there is an increasing tradition to very traditional values. His own wife is barely present - practically never up until they announced their divorce. Putin openly portrays himself as a macho tough man and prides that version of masculinity. Meanwhile, Russian men keep drinking themselves to death and dying far younger than women do, but there is no real concern. It's that sort of competitive masculinity where those guys who can't hack it -- well, screw 'em. They don't matter. But, obviously, the main focus in this book is on women. They are to focus on their looks and being the helper. Women still work in medicine and accounting, but they are not the decision makers. Russian society under Putin essentially decriminalizes spousal abuse and to the extent those laws still exist, police blithely ignore them. When a high-profile story of a man chopping off his wife's hands leads to a push for reform, even that is walked back. This goes on at the same time Putin increasingly clamps down on any internal dissent to him whatsoever. The book offers some points on how those two things fit together. In both cases, might makes right. Also, if the family is the foundation for society (as the regime keeps asserting) then accepting violence in the family helps makes state violence in society more acceptable. Or it can just be an escape valve - the one place Russian men have any power, so let them use it as much as possible.
Early on, Putin is still working with the west on its own terms. Still allowing for some room for dissent. This is when things like Pussy Riot emerge. By the late 2010s and certainly by the 2020s, Putin is increasingly hostile to the west, justifying all actions to clamp down on the infiltration of western decadence, and there is seemingly no place left for any dissent. Those who have protested before are either abroad, silent, or jailed. Ioffe herself assumes she'd be arrested if she returns, or even her mother would be. The war in the Ukraine still has the support of most Russians, and Putin just leans on the Orthodox church and transphobia, trying to ally with he western Christian right.
Often books like this, that have a history with a bleak trajectory, like to end on a note of hope, that things still have a chance. This one just leaves on a dour note, which I appreciate. (The happy note endings can work too, but I've read so many of them that they feel like cliches and I can appreciate someone noting the current problems and leaving it at that. Ioffe isn't wallowing in despair, but just seeing where things stand.
EXCELLENT WORK
October 19, 2025
Russian History : Noble ideals, quickly betrayed by implacable men of power
Julia Ioffe, of Russian Jewish descent left the Soviet Union in 1990, aged 7, with her family, as the USSR itself fell.
In this book she traces the history of feminism and women who were involved in progressive political action from the early days of the Russian revolution, to everything that came later. This is done not just through the lives of women whose names have gone down in that early history, like Alexandra Kollontoi, or women politically and personally involved with Lenin as radical progressives in their own right, like Nadezhda Krupskaya and Inessa Armand. She continues to explore later feminist progressives who continued or continue resist the later dictators of Russian mainstream politics, such as Julia Navalny, and activists from Pussy Riot.
But, proving the tie between the personal and the political, is the history of her own family, particularly the female lineage, stretching back to those early days.
In the very earliest days of the revolution, women were actively encouraged, educated, brought forward. Emancipation was integral to the ideology of the revolution:
“When the Bolsheviks seized power in October 1917 they embarked on a campaign to erase gender and dismantle the bourgeois family, which, in their view, imprisoned women in marriages based on economics rather than love and mutual respect. In just a couple of years Soviet women were granted freedoms and rights that their Western counterparts would have to fight for, in most cases, for several decades”
Unfortunately though, as she later points out, the early election of 1918, in which Russian women were able to vote, was to be the last free election until 1991 when the USSR fell. And the Bolsheviks under Lenin were anyway almost immediately embarked on stifling dissent and eliminating opposition, whether within their own power base, or within wider society.
Ioffe also has profoundly heartbreaking history of this latter elimination of opposition, through the generations of her own family. This is as much the shameful history of antisemitism and pogroms within Russia as it is an account of the way any political dissent in Russia was dealt with from 1918 to the present time, from the gulags to the way the current dictator operates.
This is a very long book, unfortunately, as there is a lot of horrendous history to go through. I wish it could have been a much shorter book – by which, I mean that the endlessly repeated detail of how groups of human beings murder, torture and punish other groups of people for being other, or for being individuals they do not like, had not happened. The malevolent use of imagination to cause the greatest amount of suffering to another individual or group of individuals continues. And is of course, not only confined to Russia. We have these stories endlessly occurring in so many places. This is very hard and dark read, but, for me, it feels important to read such a book, and not to look away,
We are both a species capable of extraordinary humanity, and an extraordinary ability to show that humans are the species who can easily shut the door on all qualities we associate with the second half of our everyday name for our collective: ‘humankind’. So often, in this book, what we see is humanunkind, a species that do not deserve to have ‘kind’ appended to itself.
I’m grateful for Netgalley and the publishers allowing me access to this as a digital ARC. It remains, unfortunately, a read of continuing dark history
Julia Ioffe, of Russian Jewish descent left the Soviet Union in 1990, aged 7, with her family, as the USSR itself fell.
In this book she traces the history of feminism and women who were involved in progressive political action from the early days of the Russian revolution, to everything that came later. This is done not just through the lives of women whose names have gone down in that early history, like Alexandra Kollontoi, or women politically and personally involved with Lenin as radical progressives in their own right, like Nadezhda Krupskaya and Inessa Armand. She continues to explore later feminist progressives who continued or continue resist the later dictators of Russian mainstream politics, such as Julia Navalny, and activists from Pussy Riot.
But, proving the tie between the personal and the political, is the history of her own family, particularly the female lineage, stretching back to those early days.
In the very earliest days of the revolution, women were actively encouraged, educated, brought forward. Emancipation was integral to the ideology of the revolution:
“When the Bolsheviks seized power in October 1917 they embarked on a campaign to erase gender and dismantle the bourgeois family, which, in their view, imprisoned women in marriages based on economics rather than love and mutual respect. In just a couple of years Soviet women were granted freedoms and rights that their Western counterparts would have to fight for, in most cases, for several decades”
Unfortunately though, as she later points out, the early election of 1918, in which Russian women were able to vote, was to be the last free election until 1991 when the USSR fell. And the Bolsheviks under Lenin were anyway almost immediately embarked on stifling dissent and eliminating opposition, whether within their own power base, or within wider society.
Ioffe also has profoundly heartbreaking history of this latter elimination of opposition, through the generations of her own family. This is as much the shameful history of antisemitism and pogroms within Russia as it is an account of the way any political dissent in Russia was dealt with from 1918 to the present time, from the gulags to the way the current dictator operates.
This is a very long book, unfortunately, as there is a lot of horrendous history to go through. I wish it could have been a much shorter book – by which, I mean that the endlessly repeated detail of how groups of human beings murder, torture and punish other groups of people for being other, or for being individuals they do not like, had not happened. The malevolent use of imagination to cause the greatest amount of suffering to another individual or group of individuals continues. And is of course, not only confined to Russia. We have these stories endlessly occurring in so many places. This is very hard and dark read, but, for me, it feels important to read such a book, and not to look away,
We are both a species capable of extraordinary humanity, and an extraordinary ability to show that humans are the species who can easily shut the door on all qualities we associate with the second half of our everyday name for our collective: ‘humankind’. So often, in this book, what we see is humanunkind, a species that do not deserve to have ‘kind’ appended to itself.
I’m grateful for Netgalley and the publishers allowing me access to this as a digital ARC. It remains, unfortunately, a read of continuing dark history
November 28, 2025
Quick disclaimer - this is not an introduction to Soviet or post-Soviet history, and I really think the book works much better if you already understand the political and historical background. This way you can “build on top” of what you know of every period of Soviet Russia and really appreciate the stories and experiences of the women Julia Ioffe describes. Living in post-Soviet country myself and knowing most of the historical facts already, the book is genuinely interesting and summarises the experience of some women that were a big part of history in a very humanistic way.
Even though it’s technically a historical book, the history is mixed with personal stories - sometimes it reads like a memoir, sometimes like a history lesson. That mix makes the women feel real and shows how huge political changes shaped ordinary everyday lives. I listened to the audiobook narrated by Julia and was engaged throughout - no part felt boring.
That said, I didn’t give it 5 stars because I have to say that the scope of the last part of the book is quite limited. It focuses on a small slice of women of the post-Soviet world, and by the end it almost gives the impression that modern Russian or post-Soviet women are mostly housewives searching for husbands (which is definitely not true). The region has countless successful, influential, and inspiring women, and the book leaves out many important voices — which makes the overall picture feel incomplete. Pussy Riot are not the only known feminists :) Also the book focuses mostly on exceptional and privileged Soviet/Russian women and I would have liked to hear more ‘daily’ historical stories of ordinary women - not just statistics on abortions, median men mortality rate due to their lifestyle etc.
Still, I’m glad I read it. If you already know the basics of what life was like in Soviet Russia and want a deeper, more personal look at what harsh reality women actually lived through, this book adds a human layer to that history.
Even though it’s technically a historical book, the history is mixed with personal stories - sometimes it reads like a memoir, sometimes like a history lesson. That mix makes the women feel real and shows how huge political changes shaped ordinary everyday lives. I listened to the audiobook narrated by Julia and was engaged throughout - no part felt boring.
That said, I didn’t give it 5 stars because I have to say that the scope of the last part of the book is quite limited. It focuses on a small slice of women of the post-Soviet world, and by the end it almost gives the impression that modern Russian or post-Soviet women are mostly housewives searching for husbands (which is definitely not true). The region has countless successful, influential, and inspiring women, and the book leaves out many important voices — which makes the overall picture feel incomplete. Pussy Riot are not the only known feminists :) Also the book focuses mostly on exceptional and privileged Soviet/Russian women and I would have liked to hear more ‘daily’ historical stories of ordinary women - not just statistics on abortions, median men mortality rate due to their lifestyle etc.
Still, I’m glad I read it. If you already know the basics of what life was like in Soviet Russia and want a deeper, more personal look at what harsh reality women actually lived through, this book adds a human layer to that history.
November 14, 2025
Run to your nearest bookshop and grab a copy of Julia Ioffe’s new book “Motherland”. Ignore that it is a long and seemingly intimidating volume. Then prepare to set everything else in your life aside as you devour every page. Who knew that Soviet history could be riveting?
Like Julia, I emigrated to the US from the former Soviet Union as a young child. Unlike Julia, I am not an expert on Soviet and Russian history nor am I an incredible storyteller. So thank you, Julia, for writing this book and for bringing a feminist lens to a story typically told from the male point of view. It broke my heart a bit to learn about the ideals of women leaders in the Bolshevik movement and how starkly different reality turned out. Great lessons to be learned there for policy professionals like myself: turns out that policy change alone is not enough. Culture change is a slower and far more delicate process.
I was also deeply moved by the stories of the matriarchs in Ioffe’s family, going back several generations. Their personal histories are interwoven with that of the broader political context, bringing to life the myriad hardships experienced by Jews (including my own relatives and ancestors) over the last 100 years in that part of the world.
Julia’s compassion for her female protagonists, her wit and deft criticisms make for compelling reading. She has a strong perspective of course but also leave space for readers to draw their own conclusions
I couldn’t put the book down so given that dog walks aren’t an option, I added the audiobook - which she reads - into the mix. Soviet history may not compel everyone but given what is happening in our country today, I’d say this is a deeply relevant book. Enjoy!
Like Julia, I emigrated to the US from the former Soviet Union as a young child. Unlike Julia, I am not an expert on Soviet and Russian history nor am I an incredible storyteller. So thank you, Julia, for writing this book and for bringing a feminist lens to a story typically told from the male point of view. It broke my heart a bit to learn about the ideals of women leaders in the Bolshevik movement and how starkly different reality turned out. Great lessons to be learned there for policy professionals like myself: turns out that policy change alone is not enough. Culture change is a slower and far more delicate process.
I was also deeply moved by the stories of the matriarchs in Ioffe’s family, going back several generations. Their personal histories are interwoven with that of the broader political context, bringing to life the myriad hardships experienced by Jews (including my own relatives and ancestors) over the last 100 years in that part of the world.
Julia’s compassion for her female protagonists, her wit and deft criticisms make for compelling reading. She has a strong perspective of course but also leave space for readers to draw their own conclusions
I couldn’t put the book down so given that dog walks aren’t an option, I added the audiobook - which she reads - into the mix. Soviet history may not compel everyone but given what is happening in our country today, I’d say this is a deeply relevant book. Enjoy!
October 30, 2025
Fascinating, eminently readable, and ultimately depressing. Ioffe focuses on three groups of women:
1) Pioneering early leaders of Communist Russia, WWII combat solders, and other women who made a significant historical impact
2) Wives of Russia's leaders from Lenin to Putin, especially the more influential ones (Raisa Gorbachev will always be my hero for her superior attitude towards the simpering, vapid Nancy Reagan)
3) Women from the author's own Russian-Jewish family, with a healthy dose of antisemitism, whether they were pogrom victims or gifted physicians
It was disheartening to learn that, other than the first few years of Lenin's rule, gender equality has mostly been a Russian national myth. Women worked outside the home, had access to free childcare, no-fault divorces, and legal abortions - but they were still expected to do all of the shopping, cooking, cleaning, and kid-related chores, and for the most part they lacked any modern appliances. The shortage of eligible men after WWII, coupled with the loss of state-sponsored jobs when communism ended, and Putin's recent embrace of traditional Orthodox Christianity have created a patriarchal society much like the US's evangelical, trad-wife ideal.
All of my grandparents emigrated from Russia in the early 20th century, so I was predisposed towards this topic, but Ioffe's journalistic style lends itself to a broad audience. Highly recommended, although I suggest you approach the horrific chapter on Russian domestic violence laws (or lack thereof) with extreme caution.
1) Pioneering early leaders of Communist Russia, WWII combat solders, and other women who made a significant historical impact
2) Wives of Russia's leaders from Lenin to Putin, especially the more influential ones (Raisa Gorbachev will always be my hero for her superior attitude towards the simpering, vapid Nancy Reagan)
3) Women from the author's own Russian-Jewish family, with a healthy dose of antisemitism, whether they were pogrom victims or gifted physicians
It was disheartening to learn that, other than the first few years of Lenin's rule, gender equality has mostly been a Russian national myth. Women worked outside the home, had access to free childcare, no-fault divorces, and legal abortions - but they were still expected to do all of the shopping, cooking, cleaning, and kid-related chores, and for the most part they lacked any modern appliances. The shortage of eligible men after WWII, coupled with the loss of state-sponsored jobs when communism ended, and Putin's recent embrace of traditional Orthodox Christianity have created a patriarchal society much like the US's evangelical, trad-wife ideal.
All of my grandparents emigrated from Russia in the early 20th century, so I was predisposed towards this topic, but Ioffe's journalistic style lends itself to a broad audience. Highly recommended, although I suggest you approach the horrific chapter on Russian domestic violence laws (or lack thereof) with extreme caution.
December 10, 2025
This book has changed my life and I’m being so for real right now. It stitched together so many loose threads of my family’s collective memory and all of the disjointed anecdotes I grew up with that I never FULLY understood. Also, in a very unexpected way, it kinda forced me to reckon with my own view of the women in my family, particularly my mum, my grandma, and my great-grandma. I always thought of the three of them as pillars of stoicism, the classic Soviet archetype of a woman who can “stop a steed of horses and enter a burning hut”. I don't think I've heard my grandma complain about anything ever and I've seen my mum cry precisely once. All of Soviet and modern Russian history is ultimately the story of persistent collective trauma, of a state that repeatedly demands unimaginable human sacrifices to feed itself. And these strong Russian women are always there, ready to rebuild the motherland again and again every time the men in power raze it to the ground. Who actually benefits from our resilience and stoicism?
I don’t expect that everyone will have the same emotional reaction or connection to this book, but even at its most basic level it’s a fantastic, extremely sharp analysis of Russian political history that I haven’t really seen or read before. Soooo if you ever feel like picking up a (very intense and sometimes depressing) book about Russian history/culture/politics, I’m literally BEGGING you to start with this one
I don’t expect that everyone will have the same emotional reaction or connection to this book, but even at its most basic level it’s a fantastic, extremely sharp analysis of Russian political history that I haven’t really seen or read before. Soooo if you ever feel like picking up a (very intense and sometimes depressing) book about Russian history/culture/politics, I’m literally BEGGING you to start with this one
December 25, 2025
The author attempts to narrate the history of feminism in the Soviet Union and contemporary Russia through the lens of her own family, moving across several periods: the early 20th-century revolution, the Stalinist era, the Second World War, the collapse of the Soviet Union, and post-Soviet Russia. In principle, this is a promising approach. In practice, Julia fails to deliver.
The book reads largely as a disjointed list of facts, some of which appear poorly researched or insufficiently contextualized. This weakens the author’s central argument and makes it difficult to trust her conclusions. The narrative jumps between historical episodes and personal anecdotes without adequately connecting them.
A second major issue is the author’s persistent tendency to assign blame—to institutions, movements, countries, and individuals alike—without clearly articulating her own position. As a reader, I was left struggling to identify even the most basic takeaways. Is Soviet feminism portrayed as emancipatory or ridiculous? Are American feminists good, bad or not good enough? The book raises these questions but never meaningfully answers them.
Finally, the author’s tone often veers into pretension. She repeatedly signals her own intellectual and cultural superiority—at one point implying that early exposure to opera sets her apart from others—yet the text itself is riddled with unexamined assumptions and biases. This disconnect between self-presentation and analytical rigor further undermines the book’s credibility.
Все говно, а я Дартаньян.
The book reads largely as a disjointed list of facts, some of which appear poorly researched or insufficiently contextualized. This weakens the author’s central argument and makes it difficult to trust her conclusions. The narrative jumps between historical episodes and personal anecdotes without adequately connecting them.
A second major issue is the author’s persistent tendency to assign blame—to institutions, movements, countries, and individuals alike—without clearly articulating her own position. As a reader, I was left struggling to identify even the most basic takeaways. Is Soviet feminism portrayed as emancipatory or ridiculous? Are American feminists good, bad or not good enough? The book raises these questions but never meaningfully answers them.
Finally, the author’s tone often veers into pretension. She repeatedly signals her own intellectual and cultural superiority—at one point implying that early exposure to opera sets her apart from others—yet the text itself is riddled with unexamined assumptions and biases. This disconnect between self-presentation and analytical rigor further undermines the book’s credibility.
Все говно, а я Дартаньян.
Read
October 22, 2025Julia Ioffe’s Motherland is a masterful and unflinching chronicle of Russian history told through the lens of its women an audacious narrative that reframes the evolution of a nation by centering the very voices history too often silences. With her signature journalistic rigor and deeply personal insight, Ioffe traces the journey of Russian womanhood from the revolutionary ideals of Lenin’s era to the conservative resurgence of Putin’s rule.
What makes Motherland so striking is its blend of intimate storytelling and sweeping historical scope. Ioffe bridges memoir, reportage, and analysis to reveal how the promises of equality and empowerment gave way to disillusionment and retraditionalization. From fearless soldiers and scientists to dissidents and dreamers, the women she profiles embody both the resilience and tragedy of a society constantly redefining its identity.
This is not just a history book it’s an act of reclamation. Ioffe’s writing carries both emotional gravity and analytical precision, reminding readers that the story of Russia cannot be fully told without the story of its women. Motherland is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the politics, power, and personal cost of being female in a world shaped by both revolution and repression.
What makes Motherland so striking is its blend of intimate storytelling and sweeping historical scope. Ioffe bridges memoir, reportage, and analysis to reveal how the promises of equality and empowerment gave way to disillusionment and retraditionalization. From fearless soldiers and scientists to dissidents and dreamers, the women she profiles embody both the resilience and tragedy of a society constantly redefining its identity.
This is not just a history book it’s an act of reclamation. Ioffe’s writing carries both emotional gravity and analytical precision, reminding readers that the story of Russia cannot be fully told without the story of its women. Motherland is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the politics, power, and personal cost of being female in a world shaped by both revolution and repression.
November 6, 2025
Julia Ioffe's 'Motherland' is a fantastic look at how the dreams of a feminist Russia were crushed by power-mad leaders who saw women as a means to an end. Once the Bolshevik regime under Lenin gained power, the feminist goals of women's rights were often forgotten or ignored after the first first wave of pro-feminist laws and changes. Feminists were then seen as a threat especially in the countryside. Ioffe, who was born in Russia in the 1980's uses the book to understand how Russia went from a pro-women country to the rigid, anti-feminist country of 2025.
We see from her family's perspective how women were professional and hard-working medical and academic professionals. This was not something unusual, so Ioffe's overriding question for the book is 'How did Russia abandon women and become a country that oppresses them?' Ioffe clearly shows that Russia had all the potential for women, but once again, women were betrayed by men (and fellow women) who saw political power as the most important kind of power. It's heartbreaking and maddening because Ioffe could be writing about the UK and the US in a few years. 'Motherland' serves as a reminder and a warning for those who dare to listen.
We see from her family's perspective how women were professional and hard-working medical and academic professionals. This was not something unusual, so Ioffe's overriding question for the book is 'How did Russia abandon women and become a country that oppresses them?' Ioffe clearly shows that Russia had all the potential for women, but once again, women were betrayed by men (and fellow women) who saw political power as the most important kind of power. It's heartbreaking and maddening because Ioffe could be writing about the UK and the US in a few years. 'Motherland' serves as a reminder and a warning for those who dare to listen.
December 11, 2025
"How do you tell the story of a country through its women?"
In this book, Ioffe takes on that task by uniting three distinctive threads. The first draws Nina Khrushcheva's "idea that the Soviet Union's first ladies were a reflection of the country's fate"; it recounts the lives of USSR/Russian leader's wives, including Yulia Navalnaya (Alexei Navalny's widow), and explores how they influenced national politics in under-appreciated ways. The second thread is a recounting of Ioffe's own family history, following the lives of her four great-grandmothers and their children as they moved from the Pale of Settlement to the United States. Through these "rather ordinary foremothers," Ioffe demonstrates how various policies or historical events impacted everyday people. The last thread is Ioffe's writing about her experiences in Russia as a journalist covering contemporary social issues.
Overall, an illuminating but grim look into how the promise of women's liberation during the Russian Revolution has devolved over successive generations. I appreciated the thought and craft that went into structuring this book, and I found Ioffe's journalistic writing more compelling than her historical analysis.
In this book, Ioffe takes on that task by uniting three distinctive threads. The first draws Nina Khrushcheva's "idea that the Soviet Union's first ladies were a reflection of the country's fate"; it recounts the lives of USSR/Russian leader's wives, including Yulia Navalnaya (Alexei Navalny's widow), and explores how they influenced national politics in under-appreciated ways. The second thread is a recounting of Ioffe's own family history, following the lives of her four great-grandmothers and their children as they moved from the Pale of Settlement to the United States. Through these "rather ordinary foremothers," Ioffe demonstrates how various policies or historical events impacted everyday people. The last thread is Ioffe's writing about her experiences in Russia as a journalist covering contemporary social issues.
Overall, an illuminating but grim look into how the promise of women's liberation during the Russian Revolution has devolved over successive generations. I appreciated the thought and craft that went into structuring this book, and I found Ioffe's journalistic writing more compelling than her historical analysis.
October 31, 2025
Er is veel geschreven over Rusland vanaf de revolutie tot nu toe, maar dit is het eerste boek (voor mij) wat uit puur feministisch of vrouwenoogpunt geschreven is. En dat heeft Ioffe knap gedaan. Het is een heel informatief boek geworden met toch ook veel nieuwe gezichtspunten en dan ook nog heel goed geschreven. Het begint bij de eerste revolutionaire vrouwen (Kollontai, Armand, Krupskaya) en gaat dan naar de communistische geemancipeerde vrouwen en naar de vrouwelijke soldaten in WWII. Tussendoor beschrijft Ioffe haar familiegesciedenis vooral in de vrouwelijke lijn: Joodse vrouwen, intellectuelen etc. Eigenlijk moet ik zeggen in de matriarchale lijn. Russische mannen komen er in het algemeen niet goed van af in dit boek. Waarschijnlijk ook terecht.
De schrijfster gaat wat meer in detail in op de levens van de echtgenoten van Stalin, van Chrustjev,
Gorbatjsov, Putin en aan het eind van Navalny.
Ioffe is uit Rusland met haar ouders naar de VS gegaan en verbaast zich daar over de zaken, waar z.g. feministen zich druk over maken. Het leven van Russische vrouwen is zo totaal anders.
Een heel interessant en goed geschreven boek.
De schrijfster gaat wat meer in detail in op de levens van de echtgenoten van Stalin, van Chrustjev,
Gorbatjsov, Putin en aan het eind van Navalny.
Ioffe is uit Rusland met haar ouders naar de VS gegaan en verbaast zich daar over de zaken, waar z.g. feministen zich druk over maken. Het leven van Russische vrouwen is zo totaal anders.
Een heel interessant en goed geschreven boek.
September 22, 2025
“Motherland” by Julia Ioffe is a powerful telling of recent Russian history through the lens of Russian women. She uses this book to give voice to women at many levels of society, allowing the reader to see the strength and resolve of Russian women across recent generations. At times this book reads like a well-written history; at other times the tone is more that of a memoir. Ioffe includes the stories of women who were famous alongside stories of her family and others that she got to know through her years a s a journalist. This juxtaposition of well-known historical figures and personal narratives makes “Motherland” accessible and interesting. It also gives the reader a sense of the very human consequences of politics and war. Many of the stories are painful. That said, I highly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in the history of Russia or in how politics impacts cultures and individuals.
Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Collins for access to this Advance Readers Copy.
Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Collins for access to this Advance Readers Copy.
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