Gender Aspects of the Old Age Category in the Russian Post-Reform Village

Abstract

This article discusses the economical and domestic roles of elderly women in the Russian peasant culture. We show why elderly women were frightening but at the same time cherished, and why babushki (grandmothers) are still the necessity in Russian everyday life. Old women in Russian families were co-organisers of the family routine and they sometimes had more power than their grown-up children. They were bringing young children up, thus giving free time to women of the fertile age, and they were treasuring traditions and legends. In the Russian post-reform village, it was elderly women who were forming public opinion, ensuring that the norms of morals and obligations would be followed by members of the family, peasant society, and they were organizing village festivals and other significant social events.