A Russian Diary: A Journalist's Final Account of Life, Corruption, and Death in Putin's Russia, is a book written by Anna Politkovskaya and published by Random House in May 2007 discussing Russia under Vladimir Putin. Scott Simon wrote the foreword and Arch Tait translated the writing into English. [1] Harvill Secker published the United Kingdom edition. [2] In some versions Jon Snow, the main news anchor for the United Kingdom's Channel 4, wrote the foreword. [3]
Published after the author's death, it extracts from her notebook and other writings and gives her account of the period from December 2003 to August 2005, including what she described as "the death of Russian parliamentary democracy", the Beslan school hostage crisis, and the "winter and summer of discontent" from January to August 2005. [4] Because she was murdered "while translation was being completed, final editing had to go ahead without her help", wrote Tait in a note to the book. [5]
According to Viv Groskop of The Guardian , A Russian Diary has a stronger emphasis on politics compared to A Dirty War and Putin's Russia , and therefore is "less moving and immediate". [6] It does not focus on Politkovskaya's personal life. [2]
According to the book, Russia under Vladimir Putin reverted into an authoritarian society centered around the ruler. [7]
The book has three parts. The initial section covers the 2003 Russian legislative election and the 2004 Russian presidential election. The following section discusses the insurgency of the Second Chechen War, the Beslan school siege and its consequences, and other events in the second Putin term. She recalled a meeting with Ramzan Kadyrov, Head of the Chechen Republic. The last section describes 2005 pensioner protests. [2]
Robert Legvold of Foreign Affairs wrote, "The tragedies generated by the Chechen war are what she knew best and wrote, knifelike, about". [8]
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Bridget Kendall wrote that the translation was "admirably readable". [2]
Andrew Meier wrote in The New York Times that Politskaya's "insightful black humor" is a positive while he criticized elements of the translation and editing, citing references to Russia-related terms unexplained in the text and use of specific British English terms. [9]
"Who killed Anna and who lay beyond her killer remains unknown", wrote Snow in his foreword to the book's UK edition. "Her murder robbed too many of us of absolutely vital sources of information and contact", he concluded, "Yet it may, ultimately, be seen to have at least helped prepare the way for the unmasking of the dark forces at the heart of Russia's current being. I must confess that I finished reading A Russian Diary feeling that it should be taken up and dropped from the air in vast quantities throughout the length and breadth of Mother Russia, for all her people to read." [10]
Kirkus Reviews stated that the diary entries in the book "may lack total journalistic objectivity, but Politkovskaya more than justifies her bias with this emotional portrait of the dangerous lives of the Russian people." [11]
Publishers Weekly stated that it was "A rare and intelligent memoir-if an entirely depressing one". [1]
Ivan Petrovich Rybkin is a Russian politician. He was Chairman of Russia's State Duma in 1994–96 and Secretary of the Security Council in 1996–98. He ran for the Russian presidency in 2004, before dropping out after allegedly being kidnapped and drugged by Russian state Federal Security Service (FSB) officers.
Ramzan Akhmadovich Kadyrov is a Russian politician who currently serves as the Head of the Chechen Republic. He was formerly affiliated to the Chechen Independence movement, through his father who was the separatist appointed mufti of Chechnya. He is a colonel general in the Russian military.
The Beslan school siege was a terrorist attack that started on 1 September 2004, lasted three days, involved the imprisonment of more than 1,100 people as hostages and ended with the deaths of 333 people, 186 of them children, as well as 31 of the attackers. It is considered to be the deadliest school shooting in history.
Novaya Gazeta is an independent Russian newspaper known for its critical and investigative coverage of Russian political and social affairs. It is published in Moscow, in regions within Russia, and in some foreign countries. The print edition is published on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays; English-language articles on the website are published on a weekly basis in the form of the Russia, Explained newsletter.
Anna Stepanovna Politkovskaya was a Russian journalist and human rights activist, who reported on political events in Russia, in particular, the Second Chechen War (1999–2005).
Artyom Genrikhovich Borovik was a Russian investigative journalist and media magnate. He was the son of a Soviet journalist, Genrikh Borovik, who worked for many years as a foreign correspondent in the U.S.
The 141st Special Motorized Regiment, also known as the Kadyrovites and the Kadyrovtsy, after Akhmad-Khadzhi Kadyrov, is a paramilitary organization in Chechnya, Russia, that serves as the protection of the Head of the Chechen Republic. The term Kadyrovtsy is commonly used in Chechnya to refer to any armed, ethnically-Chechen men under the control of Head of the Chechen Republic Ramzan Kadyrov - although nominally they are under the umbrella of the National Guard of Russia.
On 7 October 2006, Russian journalist, writer and human rights activist Anna Politkovskaya was shot dead in the elevator of her apartment block in central Moscow. She was known for her opposition to the Chechen conflict and for criticism of Vladimir Putin. She authored several books about the Chechen wars, as well as Putin's Russia, and received several international awards for her work. Her murder, believed to be a contract killing, sparked a strong international reaction. Three Chechens were arrested for the murder, but were acquitted. The verdict was overturned by the Supreme Court of Russia and new trials were held. In total, six people were convicted of charges related to her death.
Alexander Valterovich "Sasha" Litvinenko was a British-naturalised Russian defector and former officer of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) who specialised in tackling organized crime. A prominent critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, he advised British intelligence and coined the term "mafia state".
Putin's Russia is a political commentary book by the Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya about life in Russia under Vladimir Putin.
Sergei Nikolayevich Yushenkov was a liberal Russian politician. He was assassinated on 17 April 2003, just hours after registering his political party to participate in the December 2003 parliamentary elections.
Blowing Up Russia: Terror from Within is a book written by Alexander Litvinenko and Yuri Felshtinsky. The authors describe the Russian apartment bombings as a false flag operation that was guided by the Russian Federal Security Service to justify the Second Chechen War and bring Vladimir Putin to power. The story was initially printed by Yuri Shchekochikhin in a special issue of Novaya Gazeta in August 2001 and published as a book in 2002. In Russia the book was prohibited because it divulged state secrets, and it was included in the Federal List of Extremist Materials. However, it was published in more than twenty other countries and translated into twenty languages.
Since the start of the Second Chechen War in 1999, Russian federal authorities are alleged to have implemented a plan to use legal and extralegal methods to limit media access to the conflict region.
The Komsomolskoye massacre occurred following the Battle of Komsomolskoye during the Second Chechen War in March 2000. A prominent feature in the incident was the fate of a group of about 72 Chechen combatants who had surrendered on 20 March on a Russian public promise of amnesty, but had almost all either died or "disappeared" shortly after they were detained.
Death of a Dissident: The Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko and the Return of the KGB is a book written by Alexander Goldfarb and Marina Litvinenko about the life and death of her husband, former FSB officer Alexander Litvinenko who was poisoned by the radioactive element polonium in London in November 2006.
The assassination of Anna Politkovskaya, the Russian journalist, writer, and recipient of numerous international awards, took place on Saturday, 7 October 2006. She was found shot dead in the elevator of her apartment block in central Moscow. Her murder, viewed as a contract killing, sparked a strong international reaction.
Anatoly Pozdnyakov was a Russian general, alternatively identified as a Lieutenant General and Major General, and aide to Chief of the General Staff Anatoly Kvashnin.
Viv Groskop is a British journalist, writer and comedian. She has written for publications including The Guardian, Evening Standard, The Observer, Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday and Red magazine. She writes on arts, books, popular culture and current affairs, identifying as a feminist. Groskop is a stand-up comedian, MC and improviser who was a finalist in Funny Women 2012 and semi-finalist in So You Think You're Funny 2012. She is an agony aunt for The Pool and host of the Mint Velvet clothing podcast "We are Women".
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Ant in a Glass Jar: Chechen Diaries 1994–2004 (Russian: "Муравей в стеклянной банке. Чеченские дневники 1994–2004" is a 2014 documentary book that is an author's diary about the years spent in Chechnya from 1994 until 2004. It was written by Polina Zherebtsova, while she was 9–19 years old.