How did political decisions in the Soviet period, along with film and literature, influence private life? In what circumstances did everyday life readily respond to legislation? How did language adapt itself to changes in societal circumstances? Finally, how can we characterize freedom when it is sanctioned from above and arises against a background of a society dominated by its political system?

Natalia Lebina examines the Soviet society into which Nikita Khrushchev introduced a key series of reforms in terms of gender roles. She investigates male-female relationships at a time when the totalitarian models of marriage and the family unit, parental roles, and sexual conduct, had begun to break down. The author focuses her attention on the juncture of public and private (intimate) spheres — how relationships are begun and maintained, contraception, fashion in conditions of limited supply, divorce procedures and extramarital relations.