Using qualitative methods, the studies in this volume highlight certain aspects of the dynamics of poverty in eight countries of the former Soviet Union and the interactions of poverty with gender, age, and ethnicity. They deepen understanding of how poor people in these countries experience and cope with the shock of sudden poverty, worsening living conditions, and loss of services resulting from the shift from socialism to the free market system. They examine particularly the plight of women, children, and rural populations. Most country chapters include information on educational access and quality. Chapters are: (1) "A Window on Social Reality: Qualitative Methods in Poverty Research"; (2) "From Soviet Expectations to Post-Soviet Realities: Poverty during the Transition"; (3)"Poverty Shock: The Impact of Rapid Economic Change on the Women of the Kyrgyz Republic" (Kathleen Kuehnast); (4) "Between Civil War and Land Reform: Among the Poorest of the Poor in Tajikistan" (Elizabeth Gomart); (5) "Standing on a Knife's Edge: Doing Business in Uzbekistan" (Elizabeth Gomart); (6) "When the Lights Went Out: Poverty in Armenia" (Nora Dudwick); (7) "No Way Back: Social Exclusion among the Poorest in Armenia" (includes an appendix, "Losing Ground: The Education and Health Sectors in Armenia") (Elizabeth Gomart); (8) "No Guests at Our Table: Social Fragmentation in Georgia" (Nora Dudwick); (9) "'Children Have Become a Luxury': Everyday Dilemmas of Poverty in Ukraine" (Catherine Wanner, Nora Dudwick); (10) "After the Return: The Struggle of the Crimean Tatars To Reintegrate" (Elizabeth Gomart); (11) "Eating from One Pot: Survival Strategies in Moldova's Collapsing Rural Economy" (Hermine G. De Soto, Nora Dudwick); and (12) "Prosperity and Despair: Riga and the Other Latvia" (Institute of Philosophy and Sociology of Riga, Nora Dudwick). (Contains references, an index, photographs, author profiles, and lists of researchers in each country.) (SV)