Europe Solidaire Sans Frontières
«The woman behind the wheel is the driver,» says the propaganda of the Moscow region transport.
From the poster, a stern, old-fashioned cold wave-laden woman behind the wheel looks into the distance. The nostalgic font, heavily associated with the USSR, Rodchenko’s iconography, the tone of voice (...)
“Russians are dying out”, officials and parliamentarians tragically tell us from the rostrum. It would seem, indeed, that the birth rate is not rising, and that in April 2022 Russia recorded its lowest birth rate since 1943-1944. In January 2023, Russian President Vladimir V. Putin even (...)
What roles were traditionally assigned to women in times of war and political turmoil? How could we turn patriarchal myths against the dominant gender and political order? Feminist and researcher Asya Neverova on the history of the question and the re-appropriation strategy
The gender agenda, (...)
Addressing social and reproductive justice through a feminist lens could become a means to confront Putin’s regime and challenge Russian militarism
‘Gender’ in Russia’s current political sphere is gaining in significance as an issue of national security. It is no coincidence that a total ban on (...)
Social advertising in Russia has reached a new low. A banner on the fence of Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Novosibirsk simultaneously agitates against abortion and for war. A similar image had already appeared on billboards in 2017, but now it has been accompanied by an actual Z-wastika and a (...)
Russia’s war in Ukraine is intensifying. In response to victories on the battlefield won by Ukrainians this fall, Russia has responded by launching a wave of missile and drone attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure throughout the country. As a result, over 15,000 Ukrainian civilians (...)
How the Feminist Anti-War Resistance works
November 3—From the inside, FAS has four “helping” directing bodies: legal support on labour issues (“Anti-Foundation”), a psychological help unit, a unit for assisting Ukrainian refugees (deported and voluntary migrants), a unit for evacuation from the (...)
A female subscriber, whose close friend has been called up, joined a chat room of friends and relatives of the draftees. She sent us her observations and reflections on her experience of communicating with people united by common misfortune but who are in no hurry to change their position on (...)
Ever since Moscow’s mobilization drive to shore up Russian troops in Ukraine, a Russian feminist group has been helping men to avoid conscription. It’s become a political force to reckon with.
When Moscow announced its military mobilization drive on September 21, Liliya Vezhevatova almost (...)
How does a largely faceless and nameless group of Russian activists operate in Russia and beyond?
Within 48 hours of Vladimir Putin’s 24 February invasion of Ukraine, Russian feminists had mobilised to form the Feminist Anti-War Resistance (FAR).
“Feminism as a political force cannot be on the (...)
Protests against conscription to fight in Ukraine are particularly dramatic in many of the minority (non-Russian) areas of the Russian Federation. The Feminist Anti-war Resistance published one subscriber’s monologue about misogyny during the protests in Dagestan, Northern Caucasus.
“I am a (...)
On September 21, Vladimir Putin announced that Russia would officially begin conscripting people to fight in the country’s war against Ukraine. Contrary to what the bulk of media coverage has suggested, cisgender men aren’t the only people at risk of being sent to war. Some cisgender women and (...)
The return of the awarded title of “Mother Heroine” is another attempt by Russia to dress up the invasion of Ukraine in the uniform of the Great Patriotic War. What principles underlay the Soviet version of the order? What does its recovery say today? Gender studies researcher Sasha Talaver (...)
How does the government regulate the birth rate? Will the war in Ukraine lead to a ban on abortions? What is “gender backlash”? Anastasia Novkunskaya on reproductive policy and gender violence during militarization
Gender studies has often been attacked by the Russian conservative public as a (...)
The shrinking population of today’s Russia is a sure sign of the failure of its economic and political project. It is telling that neither the new week-long waiting period before an abortion, nor ‘traditional values’ propaganda, nor even ‘maternity capital’ (welfare payments to families to be used (...)
Russian feminists have been at the forefront of the opposition to Russian imperialism’s invasion of Ukraine. They issued a manifesto and launched Feminist Antiwar Resistance. At the start of the war, they helped organize protests. Faced with harsh repression, arrest, fines, and prison sentences, (...)
The Russian government and its propaganda forces justify the war in Ukraine with claims of the “Nazism” of Ukrainian authorities and average Ukrainians. They claim that the destruction of the Russian language and persecution of Russian speakers living in Ukraine as an example of Nazism in (...)
After Russia attacked Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, President Vladimir Putin imposed drastic laws that impose prison sentences of up to 15 years for those who call out the war and Russia’s crimes. In so doing, Russia has dismantled a varied and rich mediascape.
I have been researching independent (...)
The day after the start of the “special operation”, the Feminist Anti-War Resistance (FAS) appeared - a semi-partisan activist movement that launches anti-war actions and tries to break the information blockade in Russia. One of the founders of the FAS, Daria Serenko, continues the conversation (...)
In early March, Russian feminists joined forces and organised Feminist Anti-War Resistance (FAR), currently the most organised anti-war movement in Russia. Viktorya Kokoreva contacted a member of its coordination group, Russian feminist activist and historian Ella Rossman. They talked about the (...)
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