In the annals of Industrialization, the Soviet experience is unique in its whirlwind rapidity. The vast transformations that shook Europe over the centuries--proletarianization, industrialization, urbanization--were telescoped into a mere decade. The working class grew at an unprecedented rate, changing in size and social composition, and in no other country of the world did women constitute such a significant part of the working class in so short a time. Women at the Gates is the story of a world remade when women entered the waged labor force in unprecedented numbers.
