Karelian women’s network: a (feminist) women’s movement?

Scholars of Russian civil society have been almost unanimous in their declaration that Russian women’s organizations are engaged neither with political institutions nor with the majority of ordinary women. Furthermore, the argument goes, Russian civil society organizations for various reasons tend not to network with one another or act collectively, which renders Russian civil society fragmented and disintegrated (see, for example, Cook and Vinogradova 2006; Faul 2002; Kay 2000; Richter 2002; Salmenniemi 2008; Sperling 1999; Sundstrom 2002). In contrast to these previous studies, this article shows that the Karelian women’s organizations are tightly interconnected. They also make political claims. In fact, could these networked Karelian women’s organizations be considered a unified women’s movement?1