The struggle for alternative gender orders in Russia: from Vera Pavlovna’s dreams to the feminist anti-war resistance

The lecture will explore the history of gender equality ideas in Russia, from the Russian Empire to the Russian Federation – from liberal 19th-century views on women's education and divorce, the gender equality of the 1920s, Soviet dissident feminists up to the current feminist protests against the Russian war on Ukraine. Re-examining historical documents and feminist thinkers from an intersectional and decolonial perspective, the lecture will also highlight the tensions and contradictions in these ideas, practices and activisms.