Blending the journalistic rigor of Masha Gessen with the call to action of We Should All Be Feminists, a startling denunciation of Vladimir Putin’s war on women that reveals how modern Russia’s history of weaponizing sexual violence against women is part of the Russian leader’s strategy to retain political influence and domination.
On March 22, 2023, the Swedish Academy organized a conference on threats to freedom of expression and democracy, featuring a roster of stellar speakers, including Arundhati Roy, Timothy Snyder, and Sofi Oksanen. Oksanen’s address—“Putin''s War on Women”—generated such interest that the acclaimed Finnish writer used it as the basis for a larger, in-depth look at Putin’s threat to women. The result is Same River Twice, a devastating expose that builds on the themes and arguments introduced in Oksanen’s urgent and incisive speech.
During the Soviet occu
