This is the second of two recent issues of The Citizen dealing with problems facing women in contemporary Russia. The first, "Violence in the home," dealt with the pressing issue of domestic violence. This week, on a more positive note, we discuss the activities of Lidia Anaikina, founder and president of the Institute of Modern Women and publisher of the magazine Sovremenaya Zhenshchina.

Women have historically not had an easy time of it in Russia. During the tsarist era, they were effectively second-class citizens (as they were in many other parts of the world at that time). They achieved some measure of equality during the Soviet era, but at the price of the repression felt by the general population and under the burden of double standards still hypocritically administered under the veil of egalitarian rhetoric.

Moreover, Russia never really experienced a "woman´s movement" in the way in which Western countries did (making some partial exceptions for people like Kollontai). After all, in the Soviet Union, the "woman question" had been declared solved, and so what point was there in a women´s movement at all? (Or so ran the official line of reasoning.) And, in any case, non-state-sponsored movements of all sorts were frowned upon by the powers-that-were.

It takes time for groups of people to begin to organize themselves around anything, be it a political ideology, grassroots movement or what-have-you. It would be naive in the extreme to expect such a movement to just burst into existence full-blown like Athena from the head of Zeus. It is surprising, and a tribute to the people of Russia, that such organizations and movements that do exist are able to function at all.

But, if Russian women wish to make some kind of change in the way in which society at large views and treats them, they must be willing to make that step. We hope that they do.