Summary information

Study title

Sexual Autobiographies from St. Petersburg 1996

Creator

Haavio-Mannila, Elina (University of Helsinki. Department of Sociology)

Roos, J.P. (University of Helsinki. Department of Social Policy)

Rotkirch, Anna (University of Helsinki. Department of Social Policy)

Study number / PID

FSD2549 (FSD)

urn:nbn:fi:fsd:T-FSD2549 (URN)

10.60686/t-fsd2549 (DOI)

Data access

Restricted

Series

Individual datasets

Individual datasets that do not belong to any series.

Abstract

This qualitative dataset contains love biographies written by citizens of Saint Petersburg (Russia), received through a biography writing competition conducted by the research project "Mosaic life. Upbringing, gender and sexuality in Finland, the Baltic countries and St. Petersburg". The St. Petersburg writing competion was titled "Sex, love and sexuality in your life", and was conducted by the University of Helsinki (Finland) together with the Institute of Sociology in St. Petersburg. The competition announcement was published in the newspapers "Vechernii Peterburg" and "Chas Pik" and, in addition, leaflets were dsitributed in various academic institutions and women's organizations in the area. In the announcement, the researchers specified what kind of issues they were interested in, and instructed participants to write authentically and honestly about their life, as if they were writing to a close friend. The dataset consists of 43 biographies translated from Russian into Finnish. Similar competitions were held in Finland and Estonia (see FSD2545). The biographies describe people's concepts of love, family life, childhood and adulthood, whether sex was talked about at home and school, sexual experiences over the lifetime, importance of sex in the participants' lives, factors influencing their love and sexual life, marriages and other love relationships, experiences of loneliness, combining love and work, and unusual subcultures. The writing instructions also included a couple of questions related to pornography and prostitution. The dataset is only available in Finnish.

Social sciencesSocial behaviour and attitudesFamily life and marriage

Family lifeInterpersonal attractionInterpersonal relationsLife eventsLovePartnerships (personal)Sexual awarenessSexual behaviourSubcultures

Data collection period

1996

Country

Russia

Time dimension

Cross-section

Analysis unit

Individual

Media unit: Text

Universe

Men and women living in St. Petersburg

Sampling procedure

Non-probability: Availability

Kind of data

Qualitative

Data collection mode

Self-administered writings and/or diaries

Publisher

Finnish Social Science Data Archive

Publication year

2010

Terms of data access

The dataset is (B) available for research, teaching and study.

Rotkirch, Anna (1998): "I'm a typical woman - a variation on the norm'". Depictions of exemplary Soviet family life in autobiographies from St Petersburg. Paper presented at the Comparative Women's History Workshop, Department of History, University of Minnesota, April 7.
Haavio-Mannila, Elina & Rotkirch, Anna (1998). Generational and Gender Differences in sexual Life in St. Petersburg and Urban Finland. Yearbook of Population Research in Finland XXXIV, 133-160. Helsinki: The Population Research Institute.
Haavio-Mannila, Elina & Roos, J.P. & Rotkirch, Anna (1998). Types of Love and Male Infidelity in Finnish, Estonian and Russian Autobiographies. Paper presented at the 14th World Congress of International Sociological Association, Montreal, July 26 - August 1.
Haavio-Mannila, Elina & Roos, J.P. (1999). Love stories in sexual autobiographies. Teoksessa Ruthellen Josselson and Amia Lieblich (eds) Making Meaning of Narratives. Narrative Studies on Lives 6. Sage, 239-282.
Haavio-Mannila, Elina & Roos, J.P. & Rotkirch, Anna (1999). Rakkaustyylit suomalaisissa, virolaisissa ja pietarilaisissa seksuaalielämäkerroissa. Teoksessa Juha Kinnunen, Pirkko Meriläinen, Katri Vehviläinen-Julkunen ja Tiina Nyberg (toim.) Terveystieteiden monialainen tutkimus ja yliopistokoulutus. Kuopion yliopiston julkaisuja E. Yhteiskuntatieteet 74, 143-157.
Haavio-Mannila, Elina (1999). Kaukorakkaus intohimona ja riippuvuutena Virossa, Pietarissa ja Suomessa. Teoksessa Sari Näre (toim.) Tunteiden sosiologiaa I, Elämyksiä ja läheisyyttä. Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura, Tietolipas 156, 66-103.