Learning, Performance, Fatigue and Regret: Tales of Motherhood on Russian Social Media in the 2010s–2020s

The essay examines changes in the conceptualisation and practice of motherhood in Russia from the 1990s up to the 2020s. From the 1990s, a mother’s obligations towards a child rose sharply in comparison to the Soviet era. Motherhood has become individualised and isolating, while expectations of maternal work have intensified. In the relatively affluent 2000s, a Western model of ‘intensive mothering’ became popular among women who could afford not to work, but this dropped out of favour in the more straitened 2010s, as women were forced to return to work. However, by this point, right-wing ideologists were promoting ‘traditional values’, according to which women’s role was primarily caring for others. This research demonstrates, drawing on a special interest motherhood group, #Shchastyematerinstva, on the Russian social media website VKontakte, that motherhood is now, for many Russian women, a heavy and unwelcome burden.