SOURCE: A review of Soviet Women: Walking the Tightrope, in American Spectator, Vol. 23, No. 7, July, 1990, pp. 40–41.

In the following mixed review of Soviet Women, Kristol criticizes the limited range of Soviet women interviewed for the book and Gray's lack of verification and counterbalancing research.

In his 1864 novel What Is to Be Done? the Russian utopian socialist N. G. Chernyshevsky set out to depict the ideal marriage between an enlightened “new man” and “new woman” of the future: husband and wife would occupy separate living quarters, shun all sexual contact, and confine their intercourse (social, that is) to a mutually agreed-upon “neutral” room.

If Soviet Women: Walking the Tightrope is any indication, the Russian dream has changed little over the years. The two main goals held in common by the women interviewed by Francine du Plessix Gray seem to be: (1) avoiding sex with Russian men, and (2) acquiring an apartment...