Editorial note

Julia Kachalova

The issue you have now in your hands is special for several reasons. 
      First, it’s an anniversary issue. Five years passed since the day when an unpretentious black-and-white magazine titled «Woman Plus…» first came out. All these years we were doing our best to improve both its looks and its contents. However, the aims of our periodical have not changed. 
      One of our main aims is all-round coverage of women’s problems not limited by a narrow sphere of commonplace topics. The other aim includes conceptualization and extension of Russian and foreign women’s movement experience. 
      We feel deeply grateful to you, our readers, for the support you have given us during these five years. Many of you are sure to remember our first shy steps… Thanks so much to numerous authors who volunteered to send us their work. And, of course, we are thankful to the donors of our magazine – they made possible both its edition and distribution. 
      The second reason for this issue that is somewhat unusual is that it is wholly devoted to a single theme – social differentiation and the standard of living of Russian citizens. This problem seems to be the most painful today and exists not only in a particular region of the country or among certain groups of people, but in society in general.
      In the course of many interviews with people representing various social and professional groups – civil servants and the unemployed, successful businessmen and those who service their businesses, small entrepreneurs and creative types – we tried to understand their feelings about their own life situations, find out their future possibilities, get to know what happened to make them successful and find out what is success itself for these people. We are publishing the interviews that seemed the most representative to us and help to understand why some become winners and others just complain about their unhappy lot.
      We would like to touch one more important point. According to our promise in the previous issue we have summed up the results of the women’s story competition «Personally speaking». We would like once more to give our thanks to all participants who sent their interesting works to our editorial office.
      Tatyana Katayeva’s story titled «My home is a home for the disabled» was specially noted by the jury. We will try to publish it in one of the following issues. The work of Olga Sergeyeva «Decent woman» was acknowledged as the best.
      A «decent woman» is a complete loser in her life. She has a loveless, cheerless, pointless life, «going with the current» without making a single effort to change anything, which is really a disgrace. And that is what Lidia Danilovna, the main character of the story finally comes to – a crushing disgrace. This «decent woman’s» fate is shockingly disgusting and miserable. But, alas, such a fate is not uncommon. One just has to look out of the window (or in the mirror?) to see an unsatisfied, insulted, desperate, embittered, blaming face of a «decent woman». This story is a warning and a call to everybody to think of the way we are spending our own unique life – is it not too mediocre? Read Olga Sergeyeva’s story on the last pages of this issue.
      A few facts about the author: Olga Pavlovna Sergeyeva lives in the town of Smolensk. She is 42, a qualified teacher and psychologist working in the German Culture Center as a counselor on the problems of non-profit organizations. She started writing two years ago. Her assets include stories and plays. Olga Sergeyeva covers women’s problems not only in «Decent woman» but also in the play «There shines a strange star…» which tells of «grown-up women’s» touching attempts to determine their fate.
      The editorial board of «Woman Plus…» congratulates Olga Sergeyeva on her victory in the competition and wishes her further success in her creative activities.