This article analyses the labour activities of urban households in Russia during the period from 1965 to 1986. Labour strategies were oriented towards domestic labour and participation in subsidiary agriculture in order to compensate for the persistent shortage of food, consumer goods and services. In spite of the highest women's employment in world history, such a situation helped to preserve the traditional pattern of labour-sharing at home between family members and led to significant gender differences in the time spent on domestic labour. Towards the end of the period, the time spent by women on domestic work was shortened by the advent of home appliances, rather than by any redistribution of tasks between genders.