From Barbie to the oligarchs wife: Reading fantasy femininity and globalisation in post-Soviet Russian womens magazines

This article shows how an analysis of fantasy femininity sheds light on how norms of gender, class and national identity reflect global and local cross-cultural currents in post-Soviet Russia. Drawing on a discourse analysis of women’s magazines and in-depth interviews with readers, it shows how, in the globalized post-Soviet cultural landscape, fantasy femininity represents both change and continuity. Feminine archetypes in women’s magazines, from fairytale princesses to Barbie dolls, reflect a wider post-Soviet cultural hybridisation, and show how Western women’s magazines have adapted to the Russian context. Furthermore, the article highlights readers’ ambiguous attitudes towards post-Soviet cultural trends linked to perceived Westernisation or globalisation, such as individualism, conspicuous consumption, and glamour

Assessment of Special Endurance of Athletes in Freestyle Wrestling at the Preparatory Stage of a Sports Cycle

We evaluated the special endurance (SE) of freestyle wrestlers with the help of complex tests of special working capacity, while simultaneously monitoring the change in levels of lactate concentration and LPO in the blood at the preparatory stage of the annual sport cycle. A total of 23 athletes with high sports qualification participated in the experiment. Athletes were tested in the field by "repeated marginal load" tests, including the operational test (OT) developed by the authors. The most noticeable shifts in the studied indicators were observed after the test load of OT, which indicates an increase in the glycolytic capacity of the athlete's body. Thus, our study shows the possibility of using our OT to analyze the anaerobic performance of elite athletes in freestyle wrestling