ABSTRACT
Crisis Centre for Men As the previous chapters of this book have illustrated, post-Soviet socioeconomic change, in combination with widely held attitudes towards and understandings of male roles and responsibilities, have placed considerable pressure on men. As a result, many men experience high levels of stress, anxiety and/or conflict in various areas of their lives and relationships, both personal and professional. The research on which this book is based has presented a challenge to stereotypes of Russian men as unable to adapt to change, as inherently inclined to indulge in harmful and addictive behaviours, as distant from their families and indifferent to the plight of the women and children around them. It has also questioned assumptions about men’s inability to respond to the difficulties thrown up by post-Soviet developments except with apathetic inertia, or in violent, illegal and otherwise unacceptable ways. Nonetheless, and in spite of the rather more positive picture of men’s agency which has emerged in many of the preceding chapters, it cannot be denied, and indeed must not be ignored, that many men are finding it exceptionally difficult to cope with their present circumstances. A significant proportion of men are responding in ways which may well produce more problems than they resolve. An inclination to turn to heavy drinking, for example, whether as a (re)assertion of masculine identity, as a well-established form of male socializing, or as a means of temporary anaesthesia and escape from the difficulties of daily life, clearly contributes to a plethora of other problems. These include male ill-health and low life expectancy, alarmingly high rates of domestic violence and violent crime, problems with employability and family poverty to name but a few.
