If the mysterious Russian soul is traditionally supposed to be understood by reading imperishable Russian literature, perhaps the best way to understand the feelings of Russian women in wartime is to read popular romantic fiction.

The Russian romance novel changes along with society. It was only after the collapse of the Soviet Union that the genre burst onto Russian bookshelves and then quickly blended with the workplace novel, detective fiction, the eternal Cinderella story and specifically Russian traditions.

Later, it was joined by the enormous industry of popadanki: modern women who find themselves transported into another time or world, where they have the chance to begin life again using the knowledge and experience acquired in their previous lives.

At first, the central fantasy of the popadanka consisted largely of precisely that fantasy. The heroine finds herself in a world whose rules are stacked against her, but makes a place for herself through her knowledge, character or luck.  Part of the appeal lay in the high-status man — a king, prince, duke, mage, werewolf, dragon or vampire — who nearly always appeared.

But recently, Russian-language online literature has seen the particularly noticeable emergence of a more specific variety of this man: a general, commander-in-chief, head of the secret service, investigator or inquisitor — a person whose power extends not only over the heroine but over the surrounding society as well.

A typical extract would go something like this:

General Ratmirov entered the room without removing his black uniform. Tall and broad-shouldered, with a silver scar at his temple and the cold gray eyes of a man accustomed to giving orders, he silenced even the old clock on the mantelpiece with a single glance. His cruelty was legendary: enemies of the Empire whispered his name, subordinates snapped to attention, and traitors, people said, he could sense before they even managed to sell themselves to foreign intelligence.

Only little Lidochka was unafraid of him. She quietly placed a homemade blueberry pie on the table, adjusted her lace collar and looked at the general with that special feminine gaze that made something ache painfully in the hero’s chest for the first time in twenty years of service. Lidochka knew that beneath the icy armor of the stern security man lay a tormented soul. All it needed was patience, tenderness and true love. And today, she was also planning to tell him that she was expecting their fourth child.

Russia's Censorship Laws Are Killing Its Pop Culture

If you look at what the world looks like for real Russian women today, what you will find is depressing. Russian women are losing control over their bodies and their way of life. I do not know whether Rosstat can be trusted, but even it cannot manage to put an attractive gloss on the situation.

Russian women are certainly well established in the workplace and some have even made it into management positions. But they earn noticeably less than men and shoulder most of the unpaid second shift of domestic labor at home. They have made far less progress toward political power: women remain few in number in the State Duma and their share has barely changed in recent years.

At the same time, the Russian state is intruding ever more actively into women’s reproductive lives. Abortion formally remains legal, but there are fewer places where it can be obtained as administrative restrictions pile up in some regions. Russia is not unique in this........

© The Moscow Times