The Socialist Car: Automobility in the Eastern Bloc

11. Women and Cars in Soviet and Russian Society

186 WOMEN AND CARS IN SOVIET AND RUSSIAN SOCIETY Corinna Kuhr-Korolev What is the goal in studying marginalia such as Russian women and their relationship to cars? What insight can it offer us, given the fact that cars remained a minority phenomenon in the Soviet Union and that women so rarely sat behind the wheel that they were practically an endangered species? What is the result of thinking about cars in connection with women and society—that is, when questions of automobility, gender relations, and women’s emancipation, daily life, and consumption are all brought together? For different reasons it is unusual to look at social developments in the last two decades of the Soviet Union and in Russia since 1990 through the lens of either cars or women. There has been only one attempt to approach the history of the Soviet Union through the back door by researching cars.1 Scholars examining the social roles of Soviet and Russian women have tended to confine themselves to typically feminine fields. Perhaps combining these two can produce unexpected insights into the assumptions we have been making about each, and more specifically about those dimensions of consumption and everyday life from which women traditionally have been excluded. The argument of this chapter is that cars had meaning not just for Soviet men but for women too and that they continued to do so into the post-Soviet era. The meanings sometimes coincided but often did not. This applies to both the concrete and easily described, such as the role of the car in daily life, and the more difficult to grasp: the car as an article of consumption, as an expression of social prestige and individual feminine independence. We are also concerned about the extent to which these meanings have changed over time and especially in recent years, when the number of women drivers has risen dramatically. 11 WOMEN AND CARS 187 In comparison with other formerly socialist countries, it can be assumed that Russiaisdifferentasfaraswomenbehindthewheelareconcerned,thoughwhether we are talking about degrees in kind or qualitatively different cultural standards is a question that will require further research. Surely the relative scarcity of cars in the USSR is one variable, but we would also have to assess whether Soviet gender roles were more strictly defined and enforced than elsewhere in the Eastern Bloc, something that has yet to be demonstrated with any degree of persuasiveness. The topic of automobiles in Russia has hardly been researched from the perspective of gender. The only exception is an article by Rostislav Konenko, who describes the image of women behind the wheel in Soviet propaganda.2 Lewis Siegelbaum discusses male bonding in Soviet car culture while also acknowledging the role of women.3 In women’s studies there are numerous works on the image, roles, and daily life of Soviet women.4 For the period since 1990, research has emphasized women’s political participation and their part in establishing democracy and civil society.5 Historians have barely begun to study the daily lives of women since 1990.6 There are a number of informative sociological studies, however, of which those on the new middle class, its changing values, and changed consumption habits are most important.7 11.1 Interviewee Nina P. behind the wheel of her father’s car at the age of 5, 1960s. CORINNA KUHR-KOROLEV 188 My own study of women and cars began with the current situation. There are a variety of easily accessible sources, many of which are on the Internet: pages for women who drive, taxi companies of women for women,8 women’s car clubs,9 driving schools that specialize in teaching women,10 and discussion forums in which men can vent their annoyance with women drivers. The printed journal Zhenshchina za rulem (Women behind the Wheel) was available throughout the first years of this century, and even the more traditional Za rulem (Behind the Wheel) contains a column entitled “Women’s Club.”11 Sources for the Soviet period are far more difficult to come by. In this case one must comb through women’s magazines such as Rabotnitsa (Woman Worker) or look into Za rulem for clues to women behind the wheel. It is therefore necessary to rely on oral sources also. This chapter draws on in-depth interviews with six women and countless conversations with women and men about driving in Russia and in the Soviet...