This volume takes a systematic look at the position of women in the post-Soviet states of the former USSR. The first focuses on the economy, society and polity of the Russian Federation; the second gives specialists' insights into social, political, economic and military developments in the other republics of the former Soviet Union. The book pays special attention to women's own perceptions of their lives. How do factory workers, street vendors and rural workers view their jobs? How do the women who served in Afghanistan, migrants, politicians, political activists, soldiers' mothers and feminists portray their worlds. What strategies of coping have women devised to deal with no electricity in Armenia, with unwelcome sexual advances from fathers-in-law and with violence from partners in Russia? Why did women in Georgia travel on a peace train? How has war affected lives in the Caucasus and in Central Asia? This book explores strategies of coping and forms of adaptation, noting that women are agents, as well as victims.