Labor strategies and values of men and women from different classes and generations are studied using intersectional analysis methodology to demonstrate certain dimensions of the social hierarchies affecting the Russian gender order reproduction and change. Pattern of ‘working mother’ retains its normative character for all categories of young women, even if material resources of their families allow them to practice only maternal function. Young men are forced to be agents for change because methods of Soviet-time masculinity assertion have now lost their significance. However, the class differences among young men become quite outspoken.