Around noon on a chilly day in early March – International Women's Day, 1996 – a group of women gathers in Moscow's Pushkin Square. They are there for a demonstration: Women in Black Against Violence. The women mill around, waiting for the protest march to begin; they plan to walk to the Nikitskie Gates, a few blocks away. More women trickle into the square in twos and threes. Soon, the group has expanded to about sixty. A few stand silently, dressed in black, holding a banner reading “Women in Black Against Violence.” Two young women hold a large blue banner with white felt letters, spelling out a slogan strange and unfamiliar to Russian passersby: “There are no free men without free women. Amazons: Women Smashing Stereotypes!” The “O” letters are drawn as woman-symbols, a little cross beneath each one. Representatives of the “Sisters” Rape Crisis Center circulate, handing out business cards and leaflets advertising their services for victims of rape. One woman holds a poster decrying Soviet agitprop about International Women's Day. It is a three-frame cartoon. In the first frame, dated “March 7th,” a man is shown threatening a woman with his first. The second frame, “March 8th,” shows him presenting her with a bouquet of flowers. The third frame, “March 9th,” simply repeats the image from the first frame. In a similar vein, a middle-aged woman carries a poster reading, “We demand the adoption of a law against domestic violence.”