ABSTRACT
This chapter offers a reading of a selection of Soviet women’s personal narratives in relation to their discussion of romantic and intimate relationships. It focuses on what is revealed in the texts about Soviet women’s views, behaviours and commentary on different aspects of love and sex as they were growing into adulthood. Concern to bring greater stability to Soviet society via the key building block of the family, however, led to a much more conservative turn under Stalin from the early 1930s. Alongside the general lack of knowledge about such matters, there were a number of more practical factors that delayed, restricted or prevented Soviet women from forming intimate relationships. Soviet culture and personal belief systems, as well as the outlook of their parents, had a significant impact on young women’s individual moral standing and values, and the determined women’s own attitudes to such practices as sex before marriage.
