Smolny Beyond Borders

A Liberal Arts Initiative

Exhibition "In Russia, women against war, risking their lives"

The traditional International Women’s day in paternalistic discourse suggests the association of women with fragile and beautiful flowers. However, it is the fight against the war that  suggests more rough metaphors. On 28th of February Memorial France opened an exhibition with self-explanatory title: In Russia women protesting against the war risk their lives. The title is proved by 15 stories of women from different region of Russia, and one of them is Smolny College graduate, Sasha Skochilenko, who was arrested on the 11th of April 2022 and detained on the charges of replacing store price tags with the number of civilian casualties and is still kept in prison. We stand up for Sasha and other political prisoners who continue to oppose the war despite the risks they face.

Sasha Skolichenko’s mother at the opening of the exhibition