Introduction

This is a case study of a regional enclave of traditional culture which has retained its character despite the impact of the ideology, economics and politics of the Soviet Union of which it is a part. To understand even partially how such a rural society persists in the face of the pressures of a Soviet socialist, modernizing regime, a description of the domestic unit is important. Whatever changes might be about to take place under the reforming policies of the Soviet Government while led by Mikhail Gorbachev, the value of this work is to see the background, established in well over half a century of Soviet rule, into which reforms would have to be implanted.