This collection of essays investigates the multifaceted roles and experiences of Russian peasant women across two centuries of social and political transformation. Editors Beatrice Farnsworth and Lynne Viola compile recent scholarship to challenge traditional historical narratives that often marginalized the female perspective in rural Russian life. By examining the intersection of gender, labor, and state policy, the authors argue that understanding the peasant household is essential to grasping the broader development of Russian society from the nineteenth century through the late Soviet era.

Historians and scholars of Slavic studies identify this work as a foundational text for integrating gender analysis into the study of Russian rural history. Readers frequently note the academic rigor of the essays and the clarity with which the contributors synthesize complex social data.