In this paper, we are going to look at the transformations of the Russian family models which have been entailed and affected by the strengthening of the neoliberalism and neo-traditionalism. We claim that neoliberal and neotraditional turn has influenced all types of families in Russia including those which have always been placed at margins by the State and the wider society. Based on our empirical data, we argue that the neoliberal turn has led to the re-discription and re-definition of the family both by the conventional or normative forms of family-related unions and by the marginalised and nonconventional ones.
In this paper, we analyse families that are on the border of the societally accepted model: families of mothers implementing attachment parenting and lesbian families. Lesbian families were never legal and/or accepted by Russian society. Nevertheless, they successfully survived through Soviet times, liberal period and recent neoliberal turn, including more conservative neotraditional ideology that came to force in 2013. But the analysis reveals that their family structure, everyday strategies have transformed profoundly during the political, legislative and ideological changes: they re-articulated their kinship with fathers and donors of their children, transformed „families of choice“ by including grandparents and other relatives into care relations and changed their practices to more save for children.
In the meantime, the case of the attachment-parenting mothers shows how the implementation of the radical forms of intensive othering challenges the conventional form of heterosexual mothering and the kinship relatedness — namely extended mothering. It also exhibits the essentialization of maternal care for children and nuclearisation of a family. The attachments mothers (re)define family: it is no longer a multigenerational kin unit for them but a heterosexual couple with children, which historically was never conventional on the level of everyday practices.
In our work, we are aiming to show how the family and parenting structures of groups that are on the borders of society transforming at the joining point of different political courses, ideologies and temporalities.

Anna Avdeeva is Doctoral Candidate in Gender Studies, University of Helsinki, and member of research project „Contrasting and Re-Imagining the Margins of Kinship“ (CoreKin) funded by Academy of Finland. Her current research is devoted to attachment parenting in Russia. She has been doing research on parenting and gender for already 7 years.

Alisa Zhabenko is Doctoral Candidate in Gender Studies, University of helsinki and member of research project „Contrastinf and Re-imagine the Margins of Kinship“ (CoreKin) funded by Academy of Finland. Her current research is on lesbian mothering practices in Russia from Last-Soviet period to contemporary times.

Anna Avdeeva
anna.avdeeva@helsinki.fi
Doctoral candidate, Gender Studies, Helsinki University