This book examines which social mechanisms of hegemony and discrimination in relation to the gender-based violence in Eastern Europe are specific and which are universal. The historical angle of the book is particularly important, as it reveals a much broader scope of the circumstances and discourses, defining and shaping gender-based violence in Eastern Europe, than is sometimes still imagined in Western academic interpretations. The historical research of gender-based violence in Eastern Europe also reveals how deeply Western imperialism and understandings of ethnicity could impact the destinies of Eastern European women in times of crisis and military conflicts.