They are Russian women who have stood or still stand against their own country’s regime. Some even with weapons in hand. They have been on lists of hostile elements, foreign agents, terrorists, and extremists. Whether they were led into the resistance movement by a desire to equal men, we do not know. We do know that they wanted to maintain their honor and a clear conscience. Or quite simply, they were not indifferent.
Natalya GORBANEVSKAYA | Tatyana BAYEVA | Larisa BOGORAZ
Three of the eight: These women are primarily linked by their participation in the demonstration of the “eight brave ones” against the occupation of Czechoslovakia, which took place in Red Square on August 25, 1968.
Natalya Yevgenyevna Gorbanevskaya (1936–2013) was a Russian dissident, poet, and translator from Polish. For her dissident activities, she was later declared mentally ill and forcibly held in a psychiatric hospital. She was also the founder and first editor of the samizdat newsletter Chronicle of Current Events, which documented human rights violations in the USSR. After emigrating, she lived in France, but throughout her life, she remained committed to the legacy of resistance against totalitarianism and solidarity with Czechoslovakia.
Tatyana Alexandrovna Bayeva (1947–2025) was a Soviet dissident and the eighth and youngest participant in the demonstration. After the arrests, the others managed to convince investigators that she was at the scene by chance. Consequently, she was the only one to escape trial. Nevertheless, she faced interrogations and continued to be involved in the human rights movement. For a long time, she remained almost unknown to the public; the participants of the demonstration themselves did not disclose her name for her safety. In 2018, she received the Gratias Agit award in Prague, presented by the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs, along with other protest participants.
Larisa Iosifovna Bogoraz (1929–2004) was a philologist, writer, and one of the leading figures of the Soviet human rights movement. She was drawn to dissent partly by the persecution of her husband, writer Yuli Daniel. She was among the main organizers of the protest and, after her arrest, was sentenced to four years of exile in Siberia. Upon her return, she continued to defend political prisoners, participated in the distribution of samizdat, and became one of the moral symbols of resistance against the Soviet regime. Regarding the demonstration, she said they “wanted to show the world that even in the Soviet Union there are people who think differently.” She remained an active human rights advocate until her death.
Nina LITVINOVA: a tireless fighter for political prisoners
Nina Mikhailovna Litvinova (1945–2026) was a scientist, dissident, and human rights activist. She was also the sister of Pavel Litvinov, the last living member of the brave group that participated in the 1968 protest against the occupation of Czechoslovakia by Warsaw Pact troops.
By profession, she was a marine biologist and oceanographer. She was not a publicly known political figure or a professional activist; she spent most of her life in scientific work. Contemporaries describe her as a person who avoided publicity.
Since the 1960s, she was involved in supporting individuals persecuted for political reasons and their families. During the Soviet era, she helped maintain contact with imprisoned and exiled dissidents and participated in organizing practical aid. After the collapse of the USSR, she continued her civic and human rights activities, particularly in supporting political prisoners.
Ms. Nina de facto was killed by the current Russian regime. This brave woman left this world voluntarily on May 12, 2026. In her suicide note, she wrote that she could no longer go on living—because of the war against Ukraine, the repressions in Russia, and the suffering of people imprisoned for resisting the war. She wrote that she felt helpless because she could not effectively help political prisoners.
The farewell to Nina Litvinova likely brought together most of the true contemporary Russian elite that the regime has not yet managed to drive out or eliminate.
Viktoria IVLEVA: A Russian woman who did not choose silence. She chose Ukraine.
Viktoria Ivleva is a Russian photographer, journalist, and volunteer. She made her mark on the history of documentary photography with images from a place almost no one else reached: inside the destroyed fourth block of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. For her report from inside the Chernobyl reactor, she received a World Press Photo award in 1992.
After 2014, she was among those Russian journalists and public figures who openly and consistently supported Ukraine. It was not just words. She helped civilians from Donbas, delivered humanitarian aid, participated in evacuations, and wrote about people whose lives were torn apart by the Russian war.
She protested in Pushkin Square in Moscow for the release of Ukrainian director Oleg Sentsov and bought food for captured Ukrainian sailors held in Lefortovo prison. In 2021, she described the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian war as her “deepest pain.” She said that fighting a close neighbor and friend is a tragedy. And that if Russia had a normal government, the first thing it would do would be to stop the war, fall to its knees before the Ukrainians for what it has done to them, pay reparations, and ask for forgiveness. She also emphasized that it is “so obvious that Ukraine is weaker and it is their country.”
She faced consequences for her stances. In November 2021, she was detained by police in Moscow for a lone protest in Pushkin Square in support of the Russian human rights organization Memorial. Subsequently, she was fined 150,000 rubles and found guilty of violating public assembly laws.
After the start of the full-scale invasion, she traveled to Bakhmut as a volunteer, helping with the evacuation of residents, and only then did photographs and reports emerge from those experiences.
Her story is powerful precisely because of its contrast. She once photographed the aftermath of the largest nuclear disaster of the 20th century. Today, she documents the aftermath of another disaster – the Russian war against Ukraine.
ZIRKA: from a Parisian fashion house to a paramedic course
Zirka is an officer of the Freedom of Russia Legion, a paramedic, and a combat medicine instructor.
A Russian woman who lived in Paris before the war, graduated from the Sorbonne, and was involved in the development and production of luxury synthetic lace for the haute couture segment at one of the most famous fashion houses. After defending her dissertation, she planned to pursue a doctorate, but the war broke out. Despite a successful professional career, Zirka left Paris and joined the ranks of Russian volunteers fighting on the side of Ukraine. Her decision was fundamentally influenced by reports of the events in Bucha.
“We all remember the moment we learned about Bucha. Everyone. We all remember the minute, where we were sitting, what we were doing,” Zirka says. “I wrote to the Ukrainian embassy, to the military committee, simply – please take me into the Armed Forces of Ukraine. And they said: you must understand, that is not possible. I replied: I don’t understand anything, I’m saying, can I just come and die for your country, please? Thank you.”
Her communication skills and experience de facto predestined her to soon become one of the media faces of the Legion. Along with several fellow fighters, she appears in the podcast Odboj FM (Resistance FM) on the Rospartizan channel. This channel addresses Russians, informs them about the Legion’s activities, and calls on hesitant fellow citizens to cooperate with the underground and join the Legion itself.
As part of the Ukrainian project I Want to Live, she also participates in interviews with captured Russian soldiers.
Oksana Volzhina: a Russian volunteer who found her home in Ukraine
Oksana Borisovna Volzhina was born in 1979 in Moscow. She has lived for many years in Ukraine, which she considers her home. She is a volunteer, public figure, and the founder and director of the private school 7Fields in the Kyiv region.
After the start of the full-scale Russian invasion in February 2022, she took her three sons abroad and handed them over to her ex-husband. However, as early as February 28, 2022, she returned to the Kyiv region to help people affected by the war. Initially, she collected humanitarian aid and accompanied foreign journalists to Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia; later, she became involved in evacuating civilians from the most dangerous areas.
Her call sign is PUMA. Under this name, she participated in evacuations from Bakhmut, Avdiivka, and Oleshky. From Bakhmut, she helped transport children and families who had survived for long months in basements without water, heat, or basic conditions. After the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam, she also joined the rescue of people from flooded Oleshky on the occupied left bank of the Dnieper.
Volzhina has also long been dedicated to children from frontline areas. The 7Fields school, which she founded in 2017 in the village of Semypolky in the Kyiv region, became a place of assistance for young displaced persons, children affected by the war, and children who lost their parents after the war began. It provides children with a safe environment, education, and psychological support.
Oksana Volzhina is also a singer. she is involved in music, singing in both Russian and Ukrainian, and has published original songs on YouTube, such as “Пісня без слів”, “Песня без слов” (Song Without Words), or “После бала” (After the Ball). Music is another part of her public work and personal expression of her relationship with Ukraine.
Within the Caucasian Union, she serves as a representative of its leadership for relations with Russian and Russian-speaking anti-Putin communities. Her role consists of connecting the Caucasian anti-colonial movement with Russian democratic and anti-Putin circles. As a woman born in Moscow who took the side of Ukraine, she helps create a bridge between the Ukrainian, Caucasian, and Russian anti-regime environments.
Oksana Volzhina combines several roles: she is a volunteer, a member of an evacuation team, a school founder, a singer, and a public figure. Her story shows a Russian citizen who decided to act against Russian aggression through concrete help – saving children, supporting civilians, and cooperating with movements that reject Russian imperialism.
Karina STAROSTINA: keeping watch at the site of Boris Nemtsov's murder
Karina Starostina is one of those patient heroes who every day, for eleven years now, has kept watch at the unofficial memorial commemorating the murder of Boris Nemtsov. So that people do not forget. Not just the man, but also the hopes that this charismatic politician, deputy prime minister, governor of Nizhny Novgorod, and opponent of Vladimir Putin brought to millions of people in Russia – and the four shots to the back that ended his life at this very spot.
Every day, the “duty shift” from the civil initiative Nemtsov Bridge brings fresh flowers here, and when regime henchmen destroy the memorial with brute force or water jets, which happens often, the “duty shift” puts it back in order. When foreigners come, there is someone here to explain what happened and who Boris Yefimovich was.
Ms. Karina (like everyone else from the Nemtsov Bridge) does not limit herself to “duty” on the bridge. She has attended more than forty court hearings related to the 2012 protests to support the accused. Because of this, she lost her job at the children’s library where she had worked her whole life. She protested against the annexation of Crimea. She participates in the reading of names organized by Memorial. She writes moving posts for the Nemtsov Bridge website and her social media, and she certainly does not forget the suffering Ukrainians.
If anyone refuses to sit idly by, it is Ms. Karina.
Irina Krynina: Ukrainian intelligence helped her get from Krasnoyarsk to Kyiv
Irina Krynina comes from Krasnoyarsk, Russia. Before the full-scale Russian invasion, she lived in Russia with her partner Yevgeny and two daughters from her first marriage. When her partner was drafted into the Russian army after the 2022 mobilization and was captured by Ukrainians in the summer of 2023, Irina first sought help from Russian authorities. However, when she faced FSB interrogations instead of help, she decided to contact Ukrainian intelligence and leave for Ukraine. She arrived in Kyiv with her children as part of the “We Will Return a Husband to His Wife” program. She wanted to try to achieve his return.
Her personal journey turned into public work. Krynina remained in Ukraine and, together with other Russian women, founded the civil movement Our Way Out / Наш выход. The movement helps relatives of Russian soldiers find out if their loved ones are in Ukrainian captivity, how to obtain confirmation of their status, and how to proceed with Russian authorities, military units, or the prosecutor’s office.
Her work relies on information that the Russian state often fails to provide to families. Krynina explains to relatives how to use the Ukrainian state project “I Want to Find” / “Хочу найти”, how to file an application, how to prove that a person is a prisoner of war, how to attempt contact, and how to increase the chance that a name will be included on exchange lists. Part of her work also involves video calls and interviews with Russian prisoners, which may be the only proof for families that their loved one is alive and in captivity.
Today, Irina Krynina acts as a coordinator and one of the faces of the Our Way Out movement. Her story began with an effort to find and save her own partner, but gradually transformed into work for hundreds of other families. She helps people to whom the Russian state provides no information, while showing one of the few ways Russian relatives of soldiers can get a truthful report about those who disappeared in the war against Ukraine.
Her goal is an “all-for-all” exchange.
CHAYKA: an IT student who now commands attack drone operators
Chayka is a Russian volunteer in the Freedom of Russia Legion fighting on the side of Ukraine. She commands attack drone operators in the “Groza” company.
When the war began, she was studying computer science in Moscow. She immediately joined the protests and soon began helping Ukrainians in Russia as a volunteer. Eventually, she decided to join the Freedom of Russia Legion. She left the country through a fairly complex process and, despite all complications, achieved her goal. Her family remained behind. They know she left to help in Ukraine, but they have no idea she is serving as a soldier. Chayka considers this safer for them.
Along with Zirka, she helps raise awareness about the Freedom of Russia Legion and the possibilities of joining the resistance movement. In our interview, she sent this message about herself and her fellow fighters to the West:
“I would like them, first of all, to remember that we exist. And that we are not an exception among Russians. I keep repeating this, at least about myself, that I am the same as my peers in Russia. We stood together, desperate and completely unable to stop the war. I was just lucky that circumstances led me to the Legion; some are less lucky and have less strength to do something against Putin’s regime. But they are against it too.”
Valeriya NOVODVORSKAYA: she foresaw Russia's return to imperial aggression
Valeriya Ilyinichna Novodvorskaya (1950–2014): an exceptional figure of the Russian dissent and democratic opposition. As one of the very few Russian public figures, she openly condemned both the first and second Chechen wars, long supported Ukraine and Georgia, and warned against Vladimir Putin, the return of Stalinism, and Russian aggressive imperialism.
In 1969, she was arrested for distributing leaflets condemning the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia and was subsequently forcibly placed in a psychiatric hospital. After her release, she continued her opposition activities and, during the Perestroika period, co-founded the Democratic Union, the first openly opposition political party in the Soviet Union.
From the beginning of Vladimir Putin’s rule, she took a clearly critical stance toward him. She warned of the growing influence of the security services, the restriction of civil liberties, and the return of imperial policy. She described Putin’s regime as authoritarian and repeatedly pointed out the dangers she believed it posed to Russia and its neighbors.
She supported Ukraine for a long time. She rejected the idea that the country should belong to the Russian sphere of influence, supported its European orientation, and after 2014 sharply criticized the annexation of Crimea and the support for separatist forces in Donbas. She was one of the most prominent Russian voices defending the right of Ukraine, Georgia, Chechnya, and other countries to independence and the free choice of their own future.
Although she never held a significant state office, she became a symbol of consistent resistance to both Soviet and post-Soviet authoritarianism. She died on July 12, 2014, in Moscow.
RESISTANCE MOVEMENT MONITORING | PATRON
Together, we are making the resistance movement against the Russian regime visible.
Let us push this topic into the public debate. Let us defy the Russian regime as well as our own prejudices. When we talk and write about them—and when there are many of us—propaganda will have a harder time. And that is already something. Every bit counts.
