Experience Shared and Divided: Encyclopedias for Boys and Girls in Former Readers’ Commentary

This study explores the reception of Russian-language “encyclopedias for girls and boys,” a gender-segregated nonfiction genre that delineates conservative views of femininity and masculinity, serving as a form of sex education and behavioral guidance. This genre can be viewed as part of a broader “cultural backlash” following the fall of communism, analogous to trends in the West that fuel right-wing populism, albeit stemming from different historical contexts. This research investigates the interplay between the normative subjects constructed by these gendered encyclopedias and the agency of readers who may resist these prescribed ideologies. Utilizing qualitative methodology, the study analyzes internet comments from past readers, employing Maria Nikolajeva’s concept of the “identification fallacy” to understand the impact of these texts. Findings suggest that while these books create a shared communicative space for a generation of readers, regardless of gender, the intended imposition of conservative values is often met with irony and skepticism in adulthood, indicating a more nuanced impact on identity formation than the genre’s didactic nature presupposes. Along with reader reception, the social life (bytovanie) of these texts is also reconstructed: from practices of acquisition to transfer and censorship.