An Essay on Feminist Thinking in Russia: To Be Born a Feminist

This paper is based on one particular life history of a Russian feminist. It analyses a narrative biography interview with one of the leading Russian feminist thinkers, Olga Lipovskaya, who was a founder of the Petersburg Centre for Gender Issues and promoted gender equality in Russia. The study examines the current situation of Russian feminist thinking by contextualisation of this biography into a larger scale of political and cultural transformations that have occurred after the fall of the USSR. Firstly, I provide contextual details, in which feminism in its contemporary form in Russia is developing as a political and scientific practice. Secondly, the paper raises problems of the method of narrative interview. Finally, I find common points of this particular life history and the history of the country once known as Soviet Union.