This final thesis analyses the heroines of Lyudmilla Petrushevskaya’s literary works The Time: Night and Our Circle. The main goal of this thesis was to survey the author’s method in constructing main female characters, or more precisely to explore to what extent motherhood affects their development, their life choices, relationships with others, etc. The results showed that both heroines are selfless mothers who put their children first, regardless of the consequences. For example, the narrator of the story Our Circle, who is also the main character, sacrifices everything she has to grant her son a better life after her death. Furthermore, Anna Andrianovna, the heroine of The Time: Night, although aware of her daughter’s unacceptable and insulting behavior towards her, or the actions of her son Andrei, who after his release from prison steals all the money she managed to save, still takes in and cares for the grandson that her daughter dismissed, and grants her son a roof over his head. Despite of everything these female characters have suffered because of their children, and everything that they lost along the way, the endings of both novels give the clear indication that they do not regret a single thing and that for them, being a mother is a priority.