Popular Medical Discourses on Birth Control in the Soviet Union during the Cold War: Shifting Responsibilities and Relational Values

‘Two children to make ends meet’: the ideal family size, parental responsibilities and costs of children on two sides of the Iron Curtain during the post-war fertility decline

“…Finally, the post-war decades were significant for the re-legalisation of abortion (1955), which was available on demand to any woman and was frequently practised as a birth control method (Popov & David, 1999). Besides abortion, however, men and women were limited to methods with extensive failure rates, such as withdrawal, vaginal douches, the rhythm method or Soviet-made condoms (Hilevych & Sato, 2018), which were known for their poor quality (Popov & David, 1999;Remennick, 1991).…”

Gender Norms, Sexuality and Post-socialist Identity: Does Migration Matter?

“…Past research has identified a link between socialist state demographic policy and individual sexual behavior (David 1982;Hilevych and Sato 2018;Ignaciuk 2019). This association has been found to shape the gender identities of several generations of Soviet women (Rotkirch 2000;Zdravomyslova 2005;Temkina and Zdravomyslova 2015): the Soviet 'silent generation ' (born 1920-1945), and the late Soviet 'generation of personalization ' (birth years 1945-1965).…”

“…As early as the 1960s, attempts to introduce the first features of sex education and gain control over childbirth took place in the form of the medicalization of the public discourse (Hilevych and Sato 2018), yet policy discussions avoided the verbalization of sex and sexuality. While the state rhetoric continued to try to address women and show them models of proper social behavior, the factual sexual revolution was already underway.…”

Entrance into parenthood at the onset of low fertility in Ukraine: The role of family relationships and perceived security

“…unofficially became one of those measures. Although legalised due to the ideological premise of incorporating women into the labour market, abortion was discouraged, especially in relation to first pregnancy, as it was suggested that it could lead to permanent infertility (Hilevych and Sato 2018). This rhetoric was combined with a limited availability of other effective birth control methods, as well as knowledge of these methods (Hilevych 2015).…”

“…Additionally, the informants often expressed that they felt opposed to the very notion of 'planning' a first birth and claimed that it was not an appropriate term to describe their reproductive decisions. Indeed, as the ideology of family planning in its direct sense was not introduced and was even condemned in the Soviet context (Hilevych and Sato 2018), this rationalising was legitimate for that period. At the same time, having an unplanned or spontaneous first birth conversely implies that there was a very clear understanding of the 'right' timing for reproductive events.…”