The book continues the publication cycle of the Center for Social Policy and Gender Studies. It contains articles by Russian and foreign authors on the history of various forms of social protection and assistance in the USSR (Russia) in the 1940-1980s. The focus of the authors is "contradictions in the creation and reform of the infrastructure of institutions and organizations of care and control, the efforts of the authorities to construct anomalies and deviations, attract the public to erect boundaries between "their own" and "others," rationing and streamlining social identities, practices and relationships in everyday life."