SAME RIVER, TWICE

A strategic attack on women.

“My great-aunt was not born mute,” writes Oksanen. But she never spoke again—“at least not in any meaningful way”—after she was raped during the Soviet occupation of Estonia in World War II. A Finnish Estonian novelist and playwright, Oksanen argues that her great-aunt’s rape shows how “Russia is up to its old tricks….Russia has made misogyny a central tool of state power.” In addition to employing rape as a war weapon—which, Oksanen notes, is common among juntas around the world seeking a “cost-effective weapon…to quash resistance”—Russia has systematically eliminated women’s political participation by “relaxing legislation related to sexual and domestic violence” and “reinforcing gender roles and hierarchies” in ways that pressure women to focus on raising families and running homes instead of participating in public life. Oksanen says the repression of women is essential to Russia’s ability to maintain power, particularly in its war in Ukraine. The destruction of private and public memory, she adds, is essential to the Russian government’s ability to maintain power. She writes, “The Soviet Union sought to erase the history of the territories it occupied, including visual documentation, and now Russia is doing the same in Ukraine.” The destruction of memory, coupled with “genocidal rape,” destroys Russia’s targets from the inside out. Oksanen’s prose resonates with clarity and conviction. She vividly draws connections between seemingly disparate systems, practices, and historical events to create a comprehensive portrait of power that reads like a revelation.

An exquisite feminist critique of Russia’s oppressive tactics.