Same River, Twice: Putin's War on Women

Into the Same River. Putin's War Against Women
Review of the Varrak hardcover edition (April 11, 2024) translated into Estonian by Ave Leek from the Finnish language original "Samaan virtaan: Putinin sota naisia vastaan" (October 4, 2023).

No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river. - quote from Heraclitus (c535-c475 BCE), used as the epigraph for "Into the Same River. Putin's War Against Women" by Sofi Oksanen.

I'm writing this review in English although I read the Estonian edition. Oksanen did say on X (formerly Twitter) that an English translation was in the works, but at the Salomonsson Literary Agency no publisher is yet listed, so publication may be several months away. See below under Links for an show more extended English language excerpt though, which begins at the sub-chapter 1.2 section in the book format.

Although centering on the current Ukrainian War, Oksanen's premise extends not only to Russia's subjugation of women, and by extension to all minorities of races and genders which it sees as questioning its patriarchal, imperial colonial rule and aspirations. Oksanen's own family history of her mixed Finnish-Estonian parentage comes into play as she reveals that it was the imprisonment and rape of a great-aunt on her Estonian side during the Russian communist invasion which inspired her to begin writing the currently unfinished Estonian Quartet, with the work Puhdistus (Finnish 2008) translated into English as Purge (2010) representing a striking back.

Oksanen provides documentation and links to the various sources which document Russia's war crimes in the Ukrainian conflict. Extensive footnotes with url addresses link to the source material of articles and studies. Individual cases (often with protected identities) provide horrendous personal accounts. The Estonian cover design emphasizes the brutality with a collage of ripped paper cutouts of a bruised woman's face as if tied together with red string. This better signals the book content than the more prettified blue and yellow floral design of the original Finnish edition. Although even there the image of flames indicates the trauma.

The lead title and the epigraph is a bit of an enigma. I didn't notice it being discussed further in the book. I would interpret it as Russia proceeding as it has always done, i.e. stepping into what it thinks is the same river. But it doesn't realize that it is not the same river and that the world is not going to continue to accept its terrorism and territorial claims as it might once have done. The hope being that Ukraine will remain free and that Russia's ingrained regime of terror (which goes back as far as Catherine the Great, Ivan the Terrible, etc.) and threat to free, independent countries on its borders will end one day.

Trivia and Links
See review excerpts and translation updates (in English) at the Salomonsson Agency here.

An early excerpt in English was published online at UpNorth.eu which you can read at Putin's War Against Women, October 24, 2022. show less