ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the cultural and historical backgrounds that have shaped grandparenthood in the Soviet period and the post-Soviet period. It analyzes Russian grandparenting, reviews the existing literature, and discusses the marginalization of grandfathers, subcultural variations, and social policies that affect grandparents. In the Soviet period, mothers had a much more elaborated role than fathers in Russian families, and the dynamics of matrifocality extend to grandmothers and still continue in today's families. Cultural, economic, and demographic changes in the transition from state socialism to market capitalism have compounded the problems faced by Russian grandparents. Research in both the Soviet and post-Soviet periods has emphasized the importance of close intergenerational ties and matrifocal, female-dominated networks of caregiving in Russian families. Compared to grandmothers, grandfathers' contributions to family chores including childcare are modest in matrifocal Russian families. Some social policies in the post-Soviet era do confirm and provide some support for grandparents' important role in the family.
