Fabric of Resistance: Women’s Activism in Times of War

The rules of life in Russia have changed drastically since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022. The repressive apparatus has gotten faster. It has also gotten harsher. There is hardly any space left for criticizing the government, engaging in human rights work, or expressing feminist views. Russia is now experiencing an almost daily occurrence of politically motivated detentions, interrogations, raids, and arrests. Activists and ordinary people alike are affected. People are fired, detained, or imprisoned for making anti-war statements, participating in peaceful protests, or posting unpopular opinions online. At the time of writing, there are 3,861 individuals involved in politically motivated criminal cases in Russia. At the same time, society has become increasingly militarized. This is due to narratives promoted by the government, pro-state media, family policy, and the education system. This includes mandatory school lessons called Conversations About Important Things, which justify the war and are often taught by combat veterans. At the same time, there is control over the reproductive sphere.

In this context, grassroots women’s initiatives are particularly important. It is difficult to assess whether they represent a mass movement or have significant resources to bring about systemic change in the country. However, they continue to operate despite censorship, pressure, the threat of criminal prosecution, and a lack of funding.

We define grassroots women’s initiatives as non-governmental, non-hierarchical, and often informal collectives that work autonomously online or offline and locally or in networked ways. They are united by their focus on helping women, their attention to experiences of violence and rejection of the official state agenda, and their feminist or anti-war perspective, which may not always be explicitly stated. Due to the current conditions, these groups often have to use cautious wording and relatively safe modes of existence to stay under the radar of law enforcement. Yet they are designed to be understood by those who need to understand. These groups are not officially registered and receive no government funding. Often, they receive no funding at all. They work anonymously or semi-legally.

Some of these initiatives emerged long before the war as part of a slow, vulnerable, but living feminist movement in Russia. Others emerged after the invasion began, responding urgently to growing violence, lawlessness, and destruction. Unlike pro-government women’s activism, which focuses on demography, militarization, and support for “traditional values,” grassroots initiatives address the real problems women face in a nation at war.

How has the situation for these initiatives changed since 2022? What types of work do they use? What are the risks they face, and why is their experience important for the future of civil society in Russia? Our goal is not to provide a comprehensive overview, but rather to demonstrate how, despite the odds, communities in different regions of Russia continue to exist and evolve, protecting women and other vulnerable groups.

Response to the Invasion

An active feminist movement already existed in Russia before 2022. Feminist groups operated across the country. According to the Russian feminist organization Ona (She), in 2021 feminist events were held in 45 major cities outside of Moscow and St. Petersburg.

Campaigns in support of the Khachaturyan sisters, the push for a domestic violence law, and the case of Yulia Tsvetkova have been widely publicized. Feminists also opposed attempts to restrict access to abortion. In St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Chelyabinsk, and other cities, women held pickets and public campaigns under slogans like “My Body, My Choice” and “If you’re not the one giving birth, you don’t get to decide.” There were large-scale projects and NGOs dedicated to helping women involved, such as Nasiliu.net (No to Violence), the Consortium of Women’s Non-Governmental Organizations, and Syostry (Sisters). There were also smaller, local initiatives, such as Rebra Yevy (Eve’s Ribs) in St. Petersburg and a feminist group in the city of Astrakhan. Almost every regional university saw the emergence of feminist groups or public pages (e.g., FemKubanka at Kuban State University and FemIrGU at Irkutsk State University). These groups organized outreach events, book clubs, exhibitions, and festivals, such as Ne Vinovata (Not Guilty) and the Moscow FemFest.

Although the war radically changed working conditions, it did not mark the beginning; rather, it was a transformative moment for an already established field.

In the months following the invasion of Ukraine, anti-war protests in Russia were still public. Despite increasing repression, throughout the country picketing, street demonstrations, and the distribution of anti-war stickers and leaflets took place. Grassroots women’s initiatives were one of the few resilient forms of resistance, including both existing initiatives and those that emerged in response to current events. These initiatives took over coordinating actions, providing mutual aid and developing a language of resistance. Their work largely defined the face of the anti-war protest in Russia, particularly the aspects based on horizontality, decentralization, and vulnerability, as well as a striking resilience.

Feminists Against the War

The Feminist Anti-War Resistance (FAWR) emerged in late February 2022 in response to the war and increasing militarization. The network was based on pre-existing social connections between feminist activists across the country. On the second day of the invasion, female activists published the Feminist Anti-War Resistance Manifesto. The manifesto called on women to unite in the struggle for peace. Activists from around the world immediately translated the manifesto into 30 languages. FAWR launched an open-ended Women in Black campaign, during which women held solo pickets across the country demanding an end to the war. The movement’s members joined mass protests, organized their own, and handed out leaflets.

In April 2022, reports surfaced claiming that at least 5,000 civilians had perished in Mariupol and that bodies were being interred in front of residential buildings. In response, FAWR activists held the Mariupol-5000 memorial campaign, installing symbolic gravestones in residential yards across Russian cities. The event’s objective was to redirect public attention from the emotional militarism perpetuated by propaganda to the tragic fate of civilians. With the same goal in mind, for two years FAWR published a newspaper titled Zhenskaya Pravda. 

Meanwhile, female activists were establishing horizontal infrastructure by organizing mutual aid channels, compiling databases for legal and psychological support, creating digital security guides and templates for letters and petitions, as well as setting up secure, private chats for coordination. Members formed small, autonomous cells in Russia and abroad. They adapted materials to their local contexts and acted independently.

By the summer of 2022, repression had intensified, with mass arrests, interrogations, and searches becoming commonplace. Some FAWR activists were forced to leave the country, while others continued their work underground. By December 2022, the Russian government began to perceive feminist initiatives as an organized political force, then it labeled FAWR a foreign agent — a discriminatory status applied to organizations or individuals that according to the government receive foreign funding or are under foreign influence.

In April 2024, a year and a half later, FAWR was added to the list of “undesirable organizations.” The government declared that the initiative’s activities threatened the country’s constitutional order, defense capability, or security, effectively banning all FAWR work and support within Russia.

Today, FAWR is a broad, decentralized network of 22 active cells spanning from South Korea to the United States, as well as a community of individual female participants in- and outside Russia. This networked structure enables the movement to remain resilient and continue its work under censorship and repression. Activists come together for local protests, mutual aid, human rights advocacy, and publicity campaigns. A vivid example of this type of coordination is the #передано_из_россии (sent_from_russia) campaign, launched in March 2024. The campaign, which took place during the presidential elections, involved participants from various countries gathering outside of polling stations set up at local consulates and embassies. They held up posters with sayings from people inside Russia — words that those people could not safely say in public in their country. This protest style was also employed during the commemorations on May 8–9 and November 17 (following Alexey Navalny’s assassination), as well as during LGBT+ Pride marches. The campaign became a form of collective expression and a space for solidarity.

Movement of Relatives of the Mobilized Soldiers

When discussing women’s resistance at the start of the war, it is important to acknowledge the protests held by the wives and mothers of mobilized troops that began after Russia’s “partial mobilization of military reservists” that was declared in September 2022. These protests did not emerge as part of an organized feminist movement. Rather, they were spontaneous, grassroots efforts by women confronted with state violence in the most personal way: the conscription of their loved ones. Despite lacking resources, institutions, or any “oppositional” infrastructure, they succeeded in creating mutual aid groups, developing a language for public expression, and defending their right to solidarity. This has been one of the most notable examples of grassroots women’s activism to emerge during the war. Since the fall of 2022, women across the country have been organizing pickets, recording video appeals, and taking to the streets with demands to bring their loved ones home.

The protests in Dagestan and Yakutia were large scale, attracting up to 1,500 people, and were met with a harsh response from security forces. For example, on September 25, 2022, police and National Guard officers in Makhachkala dispersed a mostly female-led rally. Police used tear gas against protesters and forcibly dragged many of them into police vans. Nevertheless, women returned to the streets the following day, and the protest was suppressed once more. Human rights organizations reported that at least 250 people, including journalists covering the events, were detained in Makhachkala over the two days. In Yakutia, around 6,000 of a total male population of 400,000 were mobilized. Protesters spoke of the genocide of indigenous peoples and pointed out the faults in the draft office and the unequal distribution of draft notices across the country. Security forces from Moscow were dispatched to the region to suppress demonstrations.

During this period, protesting women drew attention to issues such as a lack of training for mobilized soldiers, uniform and medical supply shortages, an absence of combat zone rotation, forced contract signing, and unlawful mobilization. They also voiced concerns about conscripts being sent to the front line, calling for peace negotiations with Ukraine. The protests were fueled by concern for relatives who had been mobilized, as well as by the greater economic dependence of women on men in regions such as Dagestan, Kabardino-Balkaria, and Yakutia. The uneven and intense mobilization in these areas often left families without breadwinners or the means to survive.

On Mother’s Day in November 2022, FAWR together with the mothers of those who were mobilized launched a campaign demanding the withdrawal of troops from Ukraine and the return of the men. It gathered over 100,000 signatures in just a few days.

Over time, the spontaneous women’s protests began to take more organized forms. Independent initiatives that coordinated activists’ actions emerged, such as the Council of Mothers and Wives and Put’ Domoy (The Way Home). They published manifestos and petitions, and organized events and flash mobs. In November 2023, activists from The Way Home created a petition against “legalized slavery” and the “indefinite mobilization of military reservists.” They also held a flash mob where they placed stickers on cars that read “Vерните мужа, я Zа#балась” (FVck this, where’Z my husband?).

The authorities responded harshly to the protests. They denied permission for rallies, detained participants, blocked groups and posts on social media, and pressured men whose wives participated in the protests. Nevertheless, the women persisted. They organized weekly events, such as laying flowers at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier near the Kremlin and holding sit-ins outside the Ministry of Defense.

By early 2024, protest activity among the relatives of the mobilized had declined. The Council of Mothers and Wives and The Way Home were labeled as “foreign agents” and forced to cease public activity. In early 2025, Olga Tsukanova, founder of the Council of Mothers and Wives, was arrested for allegedly failing to comply with the obligations of being a “foreign agent.” As of now, she is still in pretrial detention and could face up to two years in prison.

However, self-organization expertise has not vanished. Many demobilization movement participants continue their efforts through less visible activities. These include supporting the families of mobilized men, engaging in human rights work, volunteering, and aiding other initiatives. Through personal experience, spontaneous solidarity, and mutual support, the groundwork is being laid for a resilient, grassroots women’s movement that can operate even within a closed, militarized, repressive regime.

Army of Beauties

The Army of Beauties is a women-led, grassroots initiative that emerged in 2022 founded by Nadine Geisler, whose real name is Nadezhda Rossinskaya, a photographer and florist from Belgorod. When the war began, she turned her apartment into a shelter for Ukrainian refugees, which she later transformed into a humanitarian aid center.

At that time, there were many volunteer groups in Belgorod, but most of them focused on assisting the military. By contrast, the Army of Beauties focused on assisting refugees and those remaining in areas affected by war. Despite operating without institutional support and under the constant threat of persecution, Geisler and her female comrades evacuated people from border regions, distributed humanitarian aid, and organized temporary housing.

The group’s activities did not go unnoticed by the authorities. In February 2024, Geisler was arrested and charged with high treason. In June 2025, she was sentenced to 22 years in a penal colony.

Local Initiatives

Since 2022, small feminist groups have either continued their work or emerged across various regions of Russia. Although these initiatives rarely receive media attention, they are an integral part of the resilient fabric of resistance. They are united not by a shared ideology but by a shared practice: protecting the vulnerable, working with trauma, and consistently opposing militarization and violence.

The feminist group Feminitiv.Kaliningrad operates in isolation of the Kaliningrad enclave region. Its members organize educational events, film screenings, and lectures. They also create safe spaces for discussing feminist issues, violence, reproductive rights, and mental health. The group offers free counseling sessions with volunteer psychologists on an individual basis. Despite their limited resources and ongoing risks, they support local solidarity protests and actively engage with younger audiences.

Women’s Solidarity grew out of the anarchist community in the city of Irkutsk. The activists host punk music concerts and investigate abuse cases in women’s penal colonies. They also collaborate with human rights organizations and crisis centers. They collaborate with initiatives led by the mothers of prisoners, provide legal assistance, distribute humanitarian aid, and engage in anti-militarist activities. Thanks to its horizontal structure and strong ties with other leftist and human rights organizations, the group remains active even under increasing pressure.

Feminist activists in Chelyabinsk organize discussion circles and themed meetups. They form a network of horizontal connections under the collective name Jenschina Mojet! (A Woman Can!) These groups are usually informal and function based on personal relationships, situational coordination, and mutual trust. They focus on providing mutual support, processing experiences of violence and trauma, and organizing discussions, feminist picnics, film screenings, and efforts to show solidarity.

The feminist media outlet Ogon’ (Fire) is active in Krasnodar. A small team of female activists produces content and organizes events to help build a safe, supportive community for women.

Such groups can adapt to changing conditions due to their decentralized format, horizontal connections, and lack of formal structure. Despite limited opportunities for public action, they continue their work through meaningful, albeit often invisible, practices of support and resistance in their everyday lives.

It’s important to note that grassroots women’s initiatives in Russia’s national republics operate under challenging conditions. Growing authoritarianism is compounded by traditional patriarchal pressure. Meanwhile, militarization intersects with systemic vulnerability and a lack of support infrastructure. Despite repression, female activists maintain their efforts, often working quietly without official status or public declarations. They focus on helping women, defending rights, and critically reflecting on their position in society.

Charity and educational feminist festivals are held annually in Bashkortostan. Local feminists support the Ufa Crisis Center, which helps women in situations of domestic violence (in particular, NGO "Opportunity"): they volunteer and collect donations to support them. For four years in a row, the "Femtuses" project existed in Ufa, within the framework of which feminists held more than 70 discussion meetings on women's gender issues.

The Femkyzlar initiative is engaged in feminist activism in Tatarstan. Activists carry out constant educational work on social networks, explore the intersections of feminism with Islam and create local knowledge in the face of censorship and stigmatization. The initiative also organizes festivals, lectures, digital promotions, and entertainment events for women.

The Ya–SVOBODA (I–Freedom) initiative in the republic of Buryatia continues its work, having originated from a human rights context. The group launched a campaign against street harassment in 2022, and is currently focused on establishing a women’s shelter in the city of Ulan-Ude. The project helps women and other allied groups cope with the aftermath of violence. It provides legal guidance, explains how to seek help, and offers resources for psychological recovery. It also consistently raises awareness of overlooked issues, ranging from domestic violence to gaps in legislation. In a region where the state neglects its social responsibilities, such actions become a form of political resistance.

Feminist activism rarely enters the public sphere in the North Caucasus, not because it does not exist, but because the risks are exceptionally high. Though not impossible, such efforts are extremely dangerous due to pressure from both the state and traditionalist environments. In this context, trust, flexibility, and horizontal networks are essential to enabling effective, targeted actions.

Alongside anonymous, underground efforts, some more structured initiatives do exist. The human rights group Marem supports women survivors of domestic violence in the national republics of Chechnya, Dagestan, Ingushetia, and Ossetia. The group provides legal and psychological counseling and, when necessary, helps evacuate women to safety.

According to local customs, children in the region are considered part of their father’s lineage. In cases of family separation, this often results in mothers not only losing custody but also being denied contact with their children. The Kavkaz bez Materi (Caucasus Without Mothers) research and educational project is working to address this issue.

Despite facing many obstacles, the SK SOS crisis group continues its extensive work defending the rights of LGBT+ individuals in the North Caucasus. Human rights defenders and activists founded the project in 2017 when reports of the mass persecution and killing of LGBT+ people in Chechnya emerged. The SK SOS program helps LGBT+ individuals escape regions where they face discrimination, violence, and life-threatening danger.

In Russia’s national republics, the feminist agenda is closely intertwined with decolonial thinking. Activists reject imposed roles, critically reassess cultural norms, and develop a language of resistance that is grounded in personal experience and local context. This has given rise to a unique form of women’s movement: one that is intersectional, resilient, and deeply embedded in the communities it serves.

Distributed Resistance

Since 2022, pressure on reproductive rights in Russia has intensified. Significant changes include attempts to restrict access to abortion, the introduction of amendments on the “protection of life before birth” to the State Duma, the passing of a law against “childfree propaganda,” and the increased involvement of the Russian Orthodox Church in healthcare matters. State propaganda no longer views women as individuals but rather as instruments of demographic policy. Amidst militarization and a patriarchal shift, digital grassroots women’s initiatives have become one of the few sustainable forms of resistance: horizontal, distributed, and often unnoticed yet highly effective.

In response to rising violence and encroachment on their bodily autonomy, women started creating support systems outside official channels. This is how the Emergency Contraception Storage Fund emerged. Its founder was previously interviewed by Posle. The project unites over 220 female volunteers from 80 cities across Russia, operating through a Telegram bot. Thanks to this system, dozens of women and girls, including survivors of sexual and reproductive violence, have been able to access emergency contraception, free of charge, anonymously, and quickly. This is resistance in its purest form, occurring at the level of bodily autonomy in a situation of legal and social isolation.

Another vital form of support was created by the activists behind the distributed initiative Poputchitsa (Female Travel Companion). What began as small Telegram groups has evolved into a comprehensive solidarity network, enabling women nationwide to support one another in getting home safely. They find travel companions, accompany strangers, share routes, and offer support through a bot and local chats. The initiative addresses issues of physical safety and a woman’s right to move freely around the city. It allows women to choose their routes and schedules without fear, manage their time, and live without limiting themselves because of the ever-growing threat of violence exacerbated by the war.

The Alliance of Women’s Initiatives operates at the intersection of the political and the social. It is one of the few public structures to launch a campaign in support of reproductive rights. The activists created a petition demanding reforms to the maternal care system, including increasing maternity payments, removing all restrictions on abortion in private clinics, preventing the Russian Orthodox Church from interfering with medicine, and resolving shortages of anesthesia and vaccines in maternity wards. Simultaneously, Alliance members launched a campaign to send mass letters to the State Duma and political party leaders. The letters demanded that the leaders reject a proposed amendment to the law “On the Fundamentals of Public Health Protection,” which proclaims the need to “protect life before birth.” In essence, this language paves the way for a total abortion ban and endangers pregnant women’s access to medical care. Their actions show that political resistance based on women’s experiences and everyday realities is possible even under harsh censorship.

The Right to Abortion project emerged in the context of the political assault on reproductive rights in Russia. The initiative provides legal and informational support to women who are facing obstacles in their efforts to obtain a medical termination of pregnancy. Activists gathered up-to-date information on how to carry out a legal abortion and launched a Telegram bot through which users can receive personalized legal consultations. This initiative is a direct response to mounting pressure from the state, the Church, and certain medical institutions. It serves both a practical and a political purpose: defending women’s fundamental bodily and legal rights.

Finally, Gribni:tsa is a feminist libertarian project that operates at the intersection of care, mutual aid, and political agency. It unites activists from various regions within a network that provides support and coordination. Participants exchange experiences, share resources, and organize collective protests. Gribni:tsa activists strongly emphasize implementing principles of horizontal interaction and consensus-based decision-making to nurture the internal dynamics of sustainable initiatives. One of the project’s practical tools is a handbook on organizing activist events in Russia. These events range from letter-writing evenings for political prisoners and local clean-up efforts to film and book discussions. Gribni:tsa demonstrates that even under conditions of isolation and pressure, resilient forms of collective action can be created without formal structures or public visibility.

Another major campaign demanding the long-overdue adoption of a law to combat domestic violence is currently underway across Russia. A petition has been launched on the Russian Public Initiative portal urging federal authorities to resume discussions on the law, which has been postponed and rejected numerous times over the years. The petition quickly gathered more than 100,000 verified signatures, which means that the relevant federal committee must now review the initiative.

To draw attention to the campaign, public pages of feminist groups across the country have shared photos of women holding handmade signs with handwritten messages such as “We need the law,” “This is violence, not family,” and “I refuse to stay silent.” These images come from large cities and small towns alike. Many of the participants’ faces are obscured, not for dramatic effect but for safety reasons. In the face of growing repression in Russia, even a symbolic act has become a risky gesture.

The need for such a law is especially urgent given the large-scale return of soldiers from the front lines. Thousands of women are facing increased violence while losing even the most basic means of protection. In the context of militarization and the collapse of social institutions, a law like this could serve as an essential barrier, albeit an imperfect one, between women and additional violence. This is no longer just a legislative initiative; it has become a matter of survival. Grassroots initiatives like these have formed the foundation of women’s resistance over the past three years. They have no hierarchy, legal status, or ability to be banned, yet they work because they are built on trust, solidarity, and lived experience.

The Resilience of the Vulnerable

Grassroots women’s initiatives survive not in spite of their vulnerability but because of it. Their lack of hierarchies, formal registration, public figures, and fixed membership makes them less susceptible to state violence. While traditional institutions that build resilience “by the book” break down, networks of care endure. These networks are based on horizontal connections, situational coordination, and personal trust.

This is not a strategic choice, but rather an adaptive survival mechanism. Initiatives emerge, vanish, shift formats, dissolve, regroup, and form new configurations. They do not build vertical structures; they take root in reality. Flexibility, invisibility, and minimal scale are not weaknesses, but rather sources of resilience.

However, such structures have their downside in terms of sustainability. The less visible an initiative is, the harder it is for it to be heard. Although anonymity offers protection from repression, it also leads to isolation from support. Emotional burnout, fear, and an inability to plan more than three months ahead are all inherent parts of this job. Although decentralization does not eliminate pressure, it helps prevent total disappearance. These initiatives do not grow or develop according to market or bureaucratic logic. They spread outward like mycelium: invisibly, in a network, and nonlinearly. This is what makes them resilient in conditions where mere survival is a form of resistance.

Feminist Alternatives

Grassroots women’s initiatives in Russia are responding to the consequences of war, such as increased violence, pressure on civil society, and a loss of basic safety. But they are also creating spaces in which different rules of interaction can be established. Their work is based on care, horizontal relationships, and consistent, daily mutual support rather than coercion and subordination.

In this framework, women are not objects of foreign policy or demographic statistics. Rather, they are autonomous figures who make decisions, organize aid, build connections, and create sustainable ways of living.

These initiatives are grounded in a feminist perspective that is expressed through practical work, not just ideological declarations. It is the daily work of engaging with vulnerability, both one’s own and that of others. It rejects fear and the weaponization of violence. It is a choice in favor of care and mutual aid, not an adherence to gender roles. Rather, it is a political strategy employed when other forms of action are blocked or criminalized.

When the state relies on war, submission, and bodily control, grassroots women’s initiatives provide an alternative foundation, however fragile it may be. Through care, mutual support, and horizontal ties, they find a way to not only survive but also to preserve a space in which they can remain human.

This is not a gesture of despair or an abstract ideal. Living differently is a real, repeatable choice. It is not about submitting, but supporting. It is not about fear; it is about working together. There is no other way to secure the future.

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