New Forms of Gender Activism in Contemporary Russia

• In Event: Everyday Activism in Russia, Central and Eastern Europe

Abstract

This paper draws upon recent field interviews, and reflects upon historical comparisons based on research on feminist activism that the authors have conducted over the past twenty-five years in Russia. In the paper we focus on examining how activism has changed in Russia in the post-Soviet period, as well as enduring patterns, and articulate potential explanations for the changes the authors and the activists themselves observe about feminist organizing. One pattern we explore, shared with other civil society movements in Russia and throughout the post-Communist region, is a shift from a trend of professionalization into formal NGOs in the 1990s and early 2000s, to one of more informal organizing recently, often assisted by use of social media platforms.

Authors

• Valerie Sperling, Clark University

• Lisa McIntosh Sundstrom, University of British Columbia