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The Women’s Movement in Russia

What does Russian feminism (as the basis for a social movement) look like?

By Zoya Khotkina, Ph.D., Moscow Centre for Gender Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences, Russia

The women’s movement in contemporary Russia exists as the social, cultural, and political activity of women’s groups and organisations, aimed at bringing together the interests of various social strata of women and bringing about a change in the system of gender relations. The Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation has officially registered over 600 women’s organisations. The women’s movement in Russia is one of the most active parts of the Third Section Movement, encompassing approximately 10% of the most active NGOs.

To understand the originality of the contemporary Russian women’s movement, and to distinguish it from Western feminism, it is essential to give at least a brief overview of its historical roots. I shall present only the main theses on this issue and shall state a few historical fact and instances.

Thesis one

Russian feminism (as a theory) and women’s movement (as practice) were not “imported” to Russia from the West; rather than that, they had a deep historical tradition, dating back to the mid-19th century. This means that Russian feminism is over one hundred and fifty years old, rather than fifteen, as argued by some Russian and Western specialists. Russia has had two great waves of feminism:

the first wave – from the mid-19th century until 1930 and
the second wave – from the late 1980s to the present.

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