Isabel Magkoeva (, born 20 January 1991) is a Russian political activist. She is an alumna of

Russian State University for the Humanities The Russian State University for the Humanities (RSUH; ), is a university in Moscow, Russia with over 25,000 students. It was created in 1991 as the result of the merger of the Moscow Urban University of the People (est. 1908) and the Moscow Sta ...

in 2010, a specialist in

oriental studies Oriental studies is the academic field that studies Near Eastern and Far Eastern societies and cultures, languages, peoples, history and archaeology. In recent years, the subject has often been turned into the newer terms of Middle Eastern studie ...

and

Japanese literature Japanese literature throughout most of its history has been influenced by cultural contact with neighboring Asian literatures, most notably China and its literature. Early texts were often written in pure Classical Chinese or , a Chinese-Japa ...

, and a prominent member of the

Russian Socialist Movement Russian Socialist Movement (RSD; ) was a left-wing to far left political organisation in Russia. It was created in 2011 by the merging of various left-wing, socialist, anti-capitalist and communist organisations. It is strongly critical of Preside ...

Activism

A former teenage model, Magkoeva became interested in left wing literature when she was in her late teens, and started participating in political events during the 2011–2012 Russian protests (including #OccupyAbay). She was one of the lead speakers on the third "March of Millions" rally in Moscow, one of the organizers of "School of Civic Journalism", a fundraiser for th
"6th of May Committee"
ref name="Vesti" /> (an organization in support of Russian political prisoners and detainees), and a participant of several actions in support of aforementioned prisoners. She also participated in numerous debates, some of which were aired on Rain TV.Debates on Rain TV
2 October 2012Debates on Rain TV
3 October 2012 During the Opposition Coordination Council elections, she ran as a candidate from the "New Left" block. Some journalists and political activists have compared her to the well-known Chilean activist

Camila Vallejo Camila Antonia Amaranta Vallejo Dowling (; born 28 April 1988) is a Chilean politician and former student leader, currently serving as the Ministry General Secretariat of Government (Chile), Minister General Secretariat of Government since 11 ...

Political views

In an interview. with "Moi Raion" (My District) newspaper, she described her views as "

socialist Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...

", but rejected the

Stalinist Stalinism (, ) is the totalitarian means of governing and Marxist–Leninist policies implemented in the Soviet Union (USSR) from 1927 to 1953 by dictator Joseph Stalin and in Soviet satellite states between 1944 and 1953. Stalinism in ...

ideology of the Russian "

old left The Old Left is an informal umbrella term used to describe the various left-wing political movements in the Western world prior to the 1960s. Many of these movements were Marxist movements that often took a more vanguardist approach to social ...

" as unacceptable for her. She views any government/state as an apparatus of monopolized violence and institutionalized inequality, and expresses positive opinions towards such

anarcho-communist Anarchist communism is a far-left political ideology and anarchist school of thought that advocates communism. It calls for the abolition of private real property but retention of personal property and collectively-owned items, goods, and ser ...

ideas as

decentralization Decentralization or decentralisation is the process by which the activities of an organization, particularly those related to planning and decision-making, are distributed or delegated away from a central, authoritative location or group and gi ...

direct democracy Direct democracy or pure democracy is a form of democracy in which the Election#Electorate, electorate directly decides on policy initiatives, without legislator, elected representatives as proxies, as opposed to the representative democracy m ...

and collective ownership of natural resources, but doesn't call for an immediate abolition of all government institutions, because it would make no sense so long as the root causes of exploitation and organized violence are still present. She also considers herself a

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...

, but admits that in the highly patriarchal Russian society such views are quite unpopular: ''"I'm all for

gender equality Gender equality, also known as sexual equality, gender egalitarianism, or equality of the sexes, is the state of equal ease of access to resources and opportunities regardless of gender, including economic participation and decision-making, an ...

and therefore a feminist, but... the root cause of

patriarchy Patriarchy is a social system in which positions of authority are primarily held by men. The term ''patriarchy'' is used both in anthropology to describe a family or clan controlled by the father or eldest male or group of males, and in fem ...

is employment inequality, and that's what should be uprooted in the first place. Statistically, women in Russia earn 40% less on average than men, every third woman is subject to

domestic violence Domestic violence is violence that occurs in a domestic setting, such as in a marriage Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes r ...

, and so on"''. According to her, she chose to join the RSD (

) because of its democratic, non-authoritarian operational structure and opposition to strong

leaderism The Russian political term leaderism (, ''vozhdism'') means "a policy directed at the affirmation/confirmation of one person in the role of an indisputable or infallible leader". Manifestations of ''vozhdism'' include clientelism, nepotism, tribal ...

(which distinguishes the RSD from the majority of "old" Russian left-wing movements).

References

External links

Isabel Magkoeva's page
at Opposition Coordination Council site.
Official Facebook page

Official Twitter account
{{DEFAULTSORT:Magkoeva, Isabel 1991 births Living people Marxist feminists Russian activists Russian feminists Russian Marxists Ossetian people Russian socialist feminists Ossetian women