"Listen to Girls," an event organized by the Working Groups on Girls (Geneva and New York), March 4, l998, in connection with the 42nd Session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women, New York City. Sara Batterton, l8 years old , New York, United States Good afternoon and thank you all for being here today to "Listen to Girls." And thank you for all your efforts on behalf of girls of the world.

by Ludmila Karkhu Svetlana and I have known one another for a long time, since our student days at Leningrad University. Her friend and future husband, Herman, was in my class in the school of journalism, while Svetlana studied in the department of philology. Nice-looking, always tastefully dressed, she was elegant in any setting and at the same time surprised one by her modesty and desire not to stand out among others.

by Yevgenia Zimina To say that I love her, that's not much -- the opposite would be unnatural. Do I respect her? Of course I do. It would be truer to say that I am infinitely proud of her. It is thought that a person recalls the past through images. For me it is through sensations: the freshness of a New Year's tree, the tap-tap of a sewing machine, the aroma of shortening and cinnamon together with the smell of autumn campfires.

By Tatiana Yurasova Slavery is always difficult -- slavery in a foreign country doubly so. Especially for a woman. The village of Yvas was buried under the snows of Western Mordovia. It would seem a typical village if it weren't for the large number of barbed wire fences all around. One could say that Yvas specializes in prison camps: at one time, it could claim to be capital of the "Dobrovlaga." Nowadays, it is home to Prison #385.

by Colette Shulman I am a great supporter of the United Nations, but I do not go to meetings there to be inspired -- all too often the delegates speak "diplomatese," that peculiar language of governments the world over. Imagine then my surprise on hearing inside the UN building a wonderful and truly moving presentation by girls aged l3-l8 from 8 countries who had come to New York for the annual session of the Commission on the Status of Women.

by Colette Shulman In writing this article I went through palpable changes of mood -- not exactly a roller coaster, more like a ski slope descending gently and then steeply and ending on a barely perceptible upgrade. First came doubt and skepticism. What is the point of this exercise?

The editor of "Journal in a Journal" posed the following questions: 1. How did the Congress begin? 2. What has it accomplished? What are the main results of its internal work over the last five years? 3. How have the experiences of other Russian and international women's associations helped? 4. Why did you lose in the elections for the regional Duma? 5. Which feminist ideas does the governor of Murmansk accept and share? 6.

by Elena Cherkasova The idea of writing about women drivers came to me two years ago, when the press and television began paying attention to this subject. They even staged certain contests. Then it was all over, evidently due to their inability to find well-disposed, attractive women capable of displaying their charms and somehow joining in with the proposed zigzags.

an interview by Nadezhda Azhgikhina A Return to Normal Life is Possible for Those Serving Under Three Years in Prison -- an interview by Nadezhda Azhgikhina Larisa Shevchenko is a police lieutenant-colonel, has a degree in psychology, teaches in Kharkov at the University of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, and is one of a very few specialists in the entire Confederation of Independent States (former Soviet Union -- editor) on the psychology of women criminals.

Constructive Dialogue: The Freedom To Be Oneself by Zoya Khotkina, candidate of economics, director of the Russian summer school for gender studies [This is a condensed version of the article] The Russian summer school for gender studies is a model of a new alternative democratic form of education.

(guest editor -- Nadezhda Klebnikova) THE CONGRESS OF WOMEN IS FIVE YEARS OLD. WHAT NEXT? by Liubov Shtyleva, co-chair of the Congress of Women of the Kola Peninsula On March 2l, l998, an extraordinary fifth anniversary session of the Congress of Women of the Kola Peninsula took place in Murmansk.

Mariam Chamberlain has had a distinguished career as an economist working during the Second World War in government and afterwards in the university and in the Ford Foundation in New York City, where she provided much of the impetus for the initial funding to start women's studies at American colleges and universities.

by Ludmila Karkhu (This is a condensed version of the interview -- editors) For the first time in the sixty years of Monchegorsk's existence, research is being conducted there on the population's health and the reasons for its deterioration. Conducting this research is the Kirovsk-based scientific-research laboratory on complex hygiene problems -- the only one of its kind in the Russian Federation -- which also includes a clinic for the study of illnesses.

by Nadezhda Khlebnikova On the Strength of Ship Repair On the Murmansk ship repair market the firm "Armator" is an example of a small business with stability in its own niche, despite the fact that the huge factories of this powerful branch are left without orders. The Murmansk fleet prefers to dock and renovate its ships in Northern Norway -- the quality is higher and the parts are cheaper. They leave trivial repairs to their own mechanics.

By Evgeniia Zimina In 1981 M. V. Chechulina graduated from the Sverdlovsk State Medical Institute with a specialization in pediatrics. She came to the North in 1983 when her husband was assigned there, and since then she has worked as a pediatrician in a children's polyclinic. In 1996 she was elected as a deputy to the city council of Snezhnogorsk. Even as a student at the institute, participating in a student study circle, she was fascinated by the study of allergies.