A new wave of feminist activism is spreading across Russia, breaking boundaries both online and off. These initiatives tackle all kinds of topics; some provide help for victims of domestic violence, others offer self-education and try to spread positive images of women in the public sphere. From Moscow Femfest, an acclaimed feminist festival launched in 2017, to the Eve’s Ribs community hub and domestic violence centre Nasiliu.net, Russia’s feminist infrastructure is growing – in Moscow and St Petersburg, at least.
Outside the major cities, however, there are much fewer organisations and projects working on a feminist agenda. According to Nasiliu.net, Russia has 207 officially registered organisations that provide legal and psychological assistance to women, 14 of which are located in Moscow and 25 in St Petersburg. But some regions have no aid organisations at all. The Russian feminist association ‘She’ says that feminist events are held in 45 towns or cities (not including these two cities).
openDemocracy spoke to the founders of independent feminist projects in four Russian regions – from the Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad to Tatarstan and Buryatia in Siberia – about their work, the practical difficulties they face and how they’re changing the country.
Dasha Yakovleva, co-founder
Feminitiv was set up in December 2018. Officially, we provide “information and consulting services” – lectures, film screenings, online and offline meetings – and we’re active on Instagram, where we share useful content.
We also provide free psychological assistance for women, girls and LGBTQ+ persons, online or in person, and we also run support groups moderated by our psychologists. Online consultations are also open for girls from other regions.
Feminitiv is financed by grants from partners. The money is spent on employees’ salaries, our projects and the office costs. We have a team of six, and we work with specialists on a freelance basis – for example, a lawyer and a clinical psychologist, who advise on complex cases. We also have an online chat with 75 participants, run by volunteers.
At the moment, Feminitiv is registered as an individual entrepreneur (under my name). We wanted to set up as an NGO, but over the past six months it has become clear that obtaining NGO status will only complicate our work and risk us being seen as a “foreign agent”.
I know from acquaintances that the authorities have increased their attention towards us, but there have been no serious complaints so far. Perhaps this is because our rhetoric is rather soft. It’s a point of principle for us to avoid self-censorship and to continue publicising our position, but we are very careful.
For example, the Eve’s Ribs organisation in St Petersburg has a very strong activist, even political, position. We try to be careful; our PR manager checks the wording on our statements a hundred times. We are careful with words, with LGBTQ+ symbols. It’s important for us to maintain a safe space for the community.
Kaliningrad is a region with a strong FSB [Russia’s security service] and military presence. Employees of international NGOs have told me they would not carry out any projects in Kaliningrad because “the FSB there is angry”. This is partly because Kaliningrad is isolated geographically – on the edge of the Baltic, sandwiched between Lithuania and Poland.
