Between Horror and Hope

Natalia Kovyliaeva (Ph.D Candidate, University of Tartu) gave a lecture on "Between Horror and Hope: Feminist Anti-War Resistance and Opportunities for Mobilization in and Outside of Putin’s Russia" on Thursday, November 16, 2023 at 4:00 pm in 206 Ingraham Hall, 1155 Observatory Drive. About the lecture: Since the start of the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24th, 2022, the Russian feminist grassroots immediately reacted to this event and joined forces to protest against the war. On February 25th, a group of feminist activists published a manifesto, which outlined the anti-military and anti-Putin agenda of the Russian feminist grassroots movement and called for the international feminist movements to join the anti-war protest actions worldwide. As for today, they were able to attract supporters not only in Russia but received much international attention and support worldwide. Relying on the concepts of invisibility and opportunity structures, the upcoming discussion focuses on how the perceived notions of (in)visibility shaped the resistance opportunities for FAR's activists both in and outside Russia, including the transnational level of opportunities. The study relies on the extensively rich online data from the FAR channels on Telegram, Instagram, and Facebook and supporting materials such as newspaper interviews, Youtube interviews, documentary movies, and personal reflections of activists from the semi-structured online interviews. In general, the talk will demonstrate how marginalized and vulnerable groups may find a way to resist the dictatorial regime to spread their anti-war messages and gain a voice within a very hostile environment, build a transnational (online) network of feminist anti-war cells inside and outside of Russia, form new identities and agendas within the feminist grassroots movements and impact political agendas of other anti-war initiatives and organizations sharing similar goals and claims. About the speaker: Natalia Kovyliaeva is a Ph.D. candidate, Junior Fellow Researcher in Political Science at Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies, University of Tartu (Estonia). Her current dissertation project, titled "Gaining Voice: Feminist Grassroots Mobilizations in Putin's Russia," explores the emergence and development of the feminist grassroots movements and their tactics and strategies in Russia starting from the early 2000s. Natalia holds an MA in Political Science from Central European University (Budapest, Hungary) and an MA in International Relations from the Higher School of Economics (Moscow, Russia). Natalia has volunteered and interned for organisations such as the Sakharov Centre, EU-Russia Civil Society Forum, German-Russian Exchange, and Transparency International - Russia.