Russia's feminist paradise proved anything but — even before Vladimir Putin

To read Julia Ioffe’s new book, “Motherland: A Feminist History of Modern Russia, from Revolution to Autocracy” is to take a rambling ride — or a crash course if this is new territory — through the last century of Russian history as the ghosts of grandmothers past whisper in your ear.

Ioffe, a Russian-born journalist, came to America with her family in 1990 at age 7. When she returned in 2009, the country she remembered was long gone. Ioffe’s sister becomes the fourth generation of women doctors in her family. But in Moscow, Ioffe meets women from similar backgrounds “obsessed” with lassoing wealthy men, regardless of their character. Even the educated former wife of an oligarch’s son is defined by her ex, as she grudgingly admires the skills of the young woman who snagged him next. “Ever