Russia: I Dreamed I Was a Marxist In My Maidenform Bra

Once upon a Stalinist time, Masha the Machinist was supposed to get maximum uplift just by doing her bit for the Five-Year Plan. Her unharnessed figure, unrouged cheeks and unwaved hair were the model for Soviet womanhood. Feminine adornments were considered decadent. But under Nikita Khrushchev's rule, glamour has become one of the Marxist virtues; the party line has caught up with the hemline. At a Moscow fashion show this summer, 9,000 people a day enviously ogled the sleek styles that so far only the mannequins were wearing. The counters of GUM, Moscow's...