Cement presents an ambiguous, nuanced picture of life after the Revolution. One example is the change in the relationship between Gleb and Dasha. She has changed in the time he was at war, become a person who considered herself equal to all other people as a result of the communist ideology:

“It was not by fighting in the war, not by carrying a food-sack on her back and not by doing a woman’s daily chores that she had learned this. No—her spirit had been awakened and forged by the collective spirit of the workers…”

Although she says that she changed because of hardship, and witnessing her own strength in forging through it. Either way, her respect for herself demands an answering shift in his view of her, completely changing the dynamic of their relationship.

“It was not simply his wife standing before him now, but a human being who was equal to him in strength…”

This implies, of course, that before he (and other men) didn’t consider their wives exactly human, with the same rights as men. For Gleb, the change is unwelcome, although to us it looks like a sign of feminist progress. Either way, it’s clear that society was changing in ways that not all of the revolutionaries expected or sought—some positive and some devastating.