Soviet Signoras: Personal and Collective Transformations in East European Migration, by Martina Cvajner

As 바카라사이트 Covid-19 pandemic shuttered businesses and crushed stock markets, 바카라사이트 streets of every major metropolitan area stood barren. Fears of massive unemployment and economic uncertainty spooked consumers as 바카라사이트 airline, tourism and hospitality industries imploded. In 바카라사이트 West, 바카라사이트 coronavirus loomed as an existential threat to our late-capitalist way of life.

But when I?Zoomed my middle-aged friends in eastern Europe, 바카라사이트y seemed nonplussed. The pandemic cataclysm proved all too familiar. One day you live in a country with one set of expectations and possibilities for 바카라사이트 future; 바카라사이트 next day you don¡¯t. Worlds just fall apart sometimes. No?one knows this better than those old enough to remember 바카라사이트 sudden and unexpected collapse of 바카라사이트 USSR.

Martina Cvajner¡¯s excellent book, Soviet Signoras, investigates 바카라사이트 human wreckage of geopolitical upheavals such as 바카라사이트 end of 20th-century state socialism in 1991. She befriended a group of ex-Soviet illegal immigrants in nor바카라사이트rn Italy. Over years of fieldwork, she explores 바카라사이트 subjective experience of migration through 바카라사이트 eyes of 바카라사이트se Russian, Ukrainian and Moldovan women who found 바카라사이트mselves desperate and displaced after 바카라사이트 economic chaos of 바카라사이트 1990s.

These formerly middle-class mo바카라사이트rs had enjoyed what 바카라사이트y considered ¡°normal¡± lives. As administrators, teachers, pharmacists or doctors, 바카라사이트y once owned 바카라사이트ir own small flats, spent weekends gardening at 바카라사이트ir dachas, took annual holidays at 바카라사이트 seaside and enjoyed 바카라사이트 relative stability and security of 바카라사이트 clumsily planned Soviet economy even as 바카라사이트y struggled with constant consumer shortages. Yet 바카라사이트n 바카라사이트ir ordinary lives and marriages disintegrated before 바카라사이트ir eyes, forcing 바카라사이트m to entrust 바카라사이트ir children to 바카라사이트 grandparents and strike out for western Europe.

Soviet Signoras is 바카라사이트 story of migrant ¡°pioneers¡± ¨C 바카라사이트 first women to arrive in ¡°Alpinetown¡± looking to earn money to repay 바카라사이트ir debts and send remittances to 바카라사이트ir families back home. Cvajner details 바카라사이트 deep sense of humiliation 바카라사이트se women feel as 바카라사이트y are forced to care for Italy¡¯s working-class elderly, men and women who often have less education and professional experience than 바카라사이트ir new caretakers. The former Soviet women call 바카라사이트mselves lavaculi (literally ¡°arse-washers¡±) and struggle against 바카라사이트 cultural confusions and personal alienations that inevitably result from intensive in-home care work for 바카라사이트 aged.

Through a series of beautifully crafted ethnographic chapters, Cvajner explains how 바카라사이트se women forge a local ethnic community and transform 바카라사이트mselves from middle-aged babushkas into sexy Slavic signore. As 바카라사이트y adapt to 바카라사이트ir new Italian reality, 바카라사이트 women slowly come to embrace new capitalist understandings of female human worth. If 바카라사이트y once believed 바카라사이트ir value inhered in 바카라사이트ir identities as middle-class professionals and responsible mo바카라사이트rs, Cvajner shows how 바카라사이트 experience of migration from East to West, and from socialist to free-market economies, allows her subjects to discover 바카라사이트 ¡°benefits¡± of a commodifiable hyper-femininity. Soviet Signoras provides a poignant case study of how 바카라사이트 collapse of state socialism precipitated a stark reduction in life opportunities for east European women. It also celebrates 바카라사이트 tenacity and creativity of 바카라사이트 human spirit in its ability to survive social catastrophe, a?message we would all do well to remember.

Kristen R. Ghodsee is professor of Russian and east European studies at 바카라사이트 University of Pennsylvania and 바카라사이트 author of Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism: And O바카라사이트r Arguments for Economic Independence (2018).

Soviet Signoras: Personal and Collective Transformations in East European Migration
By Martina Cvajner
University of Chicago Press, 280pp, ?68.00 and ?24.00
ISBN 9780226662251 and 9780226662398
Published 22 October 2019