Originally we followed the advice of the Swedish publisher and released the text of this brochure in Swedish first. However, now we publish it in both Russian and English for free distribution and consumption. Please pay attention — if you decide to distribute the Russian version of this leaflet, make sure you follow our Safety Protocol.

It was written by our activists, so the authorship is collective, not named. The book contains direct speeches from anonymous FAR activists in Russia who continue their anti-war resistance, and a chapter on structure, regulations and the challenges of horizontality. Our manifesto, values, our speech at the Aachen Peace Prize, as well as the history and map of the movement are published in the booklet. It was very important to describe everything we have been doing for almost two years now: charity campaigns, refugee aid, psychological help and much more.

Since many of us communicate anonymously and in different working groups, it is sometimes very difficult to put everything together and look at FAR as a whole. We have tried to summarize and systematize what can be posted about us publicly. We do not exclude that the book will change over time — together with us.

Download the brochure in English, Russian, German, and Swedish:

Below, we are publishing several preview excerpts from the brochure.

War Begins at Home

Who we are and how we came to be

Feminist Anti-War Resistance was initiated by a group of Russian feminist activists on February 25, 2022, in response to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. FAR started with one emergency chat room, but has eventually turned into dozens of autonomous cells and groups in Russia and abroad. One can join our movement by agreeing and subscribing to the values, introduced in our major document — the Manifesto. We include activists from ethnic minorities and indigenous peoples, LGBTQ+ people, people with disabilities, people with migration and refugee experience, people who have experienced various forms of violence and discrimination. We are building mutual support networks with other anti-war movements and activist groups to unite and politicize more people who are ready to build a foundation for Russia’s future together. Russia that is free from dictatorship, repression, militarism, imperialism and violence. We strive to support Ukrainian women and Ukrainians in general, as well as their political demands, and actively participate in initiatives to help those affected by Russian aggression.

In December 2022, after the publication of an open anti-war letter by mothers and wives of mobilized people, our movement was recognized as a “foreign agent”. Many FAR activists in Russia have been arrested, tortured and searched, and many were forced to flee Russia to avoid criminal prosecution. In May 2023, Feminist Anti-War Resistance was awarded the Aachen Peace Prize. After a public vote, the prize money went to the Ukrainian women’s initiative “Martynka” and the Russian initiative “Vyvozhuk”, which evacuates political prisoners from Russia.

Our achievements

Here we list some of the results of Feminist Anti-War Resistance’s work during two years of full-scale invasion.

In December 2022, we initiated a fundraising campaign for a large industrial generator for a Ukrainian hospital. Through FAR cells, we raised 8.5 thousand euros. The generator was delivered to the hospital.

In May 2023, we were awarded the Aachen Peace Prize. After a public vote, we divided the cash equivalent of our prize between two initiatives: the Ukrainian initiative Martynka, which helps women, and the Russian initiative Vyvozhuk, which evacuates those persecuted for their anti-war stance.

On June 23, 2022, we gave a presentation in Geneva at the 50th Human Rights Session and described the repression faced by vulnerable groups in Russia for any dissent or taking an anti-war stance.

In a year and a half, we have helped 53 volunteer initiatives to help Ukrainian refugees and deported Ukrainians: every Tuesday we organize public fundraising support for one initiative. Thanks to our posts, we managed to raise more than 2 million rubles (about 20 thousand euros).

Since the first weeks of the full-scale war in Ukraine, an activist from the Czech FAR cell has organized Biblio.tečka, a library in Prague where Ukrainian refugees can borrow books for free. It now has 400 readers and 3,000 books (including in Ukrainian).

FAR activists are involved in investigating Russian war crimes as well as in organizing the evacuation of politically persecuted people from Russia. For security reasons, we cannot report on this in detail yet, but we hope that one day we will be able to elaborate on the dangerous and invisible work of this kind.

On Mother’s Day in November 2022, we initiated a petition and an open anti-war letter from mothers of Russian mobilized and conscript soldiers. In the petition, mothers and other relatives of mobilized and conscripted soldiers call on the Russian government to withdraw its troops from Ukraine and end the war. The petition collected more than 110,000 signatures and generated a huge public response. A spokesman for the Russian President was forced to comment on our petition. After the letter was published, FAR was recognized by the Ministry of Justice as a foreign agent movement.

After the explosion of the hydroelectric power plant and the flooding in Kakhovka, our cells collected 5,600 euros for the Rescue missions. We also gathered more than 1,600 signatures (including those of 16 international organizations) under an open letter calling on large international organizations to send aid to the Russian-occupied flooded left bank. We sent this letter to 7 different organizations and got confirmation that one of them, the Disaster Emergency Committee, sent volunteers from the organizations it supports. We launched the Ecocide in Ukraine project ecocideinukraine.org, where we collected links to documents on the environmental consequences of the dam explosion and flooding, supported with quotes from experts and made a letter and petition builder that people used to write letters and petitions to local authorities and eco-organizations demanding international coverage, attention and assistance. We managed to collect more than a thousand signatures on a petition to international organizations, which we subsequently lobbied in Greenpeace UK. Later this Greenpeace branch issued two detailed reports using our information as well.

Our psychological branch and hotline provided free consultations to more than 2,500 people, including both Russians who suffered for their anti-war stance and Ukrainians from the Russian-occupied territories.

FAR activists actively participated in the development of the text of the first report on human rights in the Russian Federation for the Human Rights Council, UN. The report described in detail the repression of Russian citizens and new repressive bills. Thanks to the report, the international community was able to learn in detail about the problems faced by Russians protesting in their country.

In a year and a half, we have published 31 issues of the underground anti-war samizdat newspaper «Zhenskaya Pravda» (Women’s Truth), which our activists and supporters print out for their mothers and grandmothers or distribute in Russian cities. The newspaper contains a lot of useful counter-propagandist information for Russian women, including contacts of helping organizations.

We organized an international exhibition dedicated to Russian women who have suffered for their anti-war stance. Many of these women are in prison or have been tortured, searched and pressured for their political opinion. Within the framework of the exhibition we raised money for political prisoners and organized solidarity evenings — discussions, evenings of letters to political prisoners and others. The exhibition was presented in two districts of Paris with the support of the Paris Municipality and will travel to other cities and countries. We were able to tell the stories of 17 Russian women and exhibit their portraits.

To continue our work, we need your support!
In 2024, the Russian authorities declared us an “undesirable organization.” This means that people in Russia are now prohibited from sharing our materials and donating to us. If what we do matters to you and you want to support us, you can subscribe to our Patreon.