In this book’s discussion of intervention into gender violence politics in Russia, I do not mean to discount the enormous efforts made by local activists. On the contrary, considering Russian resistance to feminism and its underdeveloped eco­nomic and democratic infrastructures, their accomplishments are astounding, even if not the broad-based, “sisterly” movements that Western feminist observ­ers […]

The central question of this book came from the more hopeful moment, asking whether foreign intervention in the name of women works. Looking at the period of intense foreign intervention, the book considers what happens when Western­ers bring attention to an issue ignored by a state such as Russia. Although we are still far from […]

In 2006, at the height of President Putin’s campaign to dominate nongovernmen­tal organizations (NGOs), the European Union sponsored a conference on Rus­sian civil society. On the surface, the event seemed woman-friendly, perhaps even feminist. Held in Finland—celebrating its first century of women suffrage and having a critical mass of women parliamentarians—the conference began with greetings […]