Memorial and Natalya Estemirova

Continuing our exploration of Adam Hochschild's The Unquiet Ghost: Russians Remember Stalin, you can learn more about the human rights organization Memorial at their website and virtual museum which notably includes artwork made by imprisoned artists.

Bringing Memorial's story up to the present day, we must call attention to Memorial activist Natalya Estemirova who was assasinated this summer while working to document human rights abuses in Chechnya. Amnesty USA covers the case here. David Remnick has a last interview on the New Yorker site. The Voices of Genocide series from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum offers a podcast interview with one of Estemirova's Memorial colleagues. Most important of all, you can take action here.

The Committee to Protect Journalists has released a new report just this week Anatomy of Injustice: The Unsolved Killings of Journalists in Russia featuring Natalya Estemirova's friend Anna Politkovskaya (Putin's Russia) among others. Here's a teaser for the report:


Anatomy of Injustice from Dana Chivvis on Vimeo.

The New York Times takes a look at the report here. Note that there has been some good news on the Politkovskaya case earlier this month (AIUSA press release, NYT).

Our June Author: Daniel Alarcon

Our June author, Daniel Alarcon, has made my job easy this month with his own website. Check out the links page for interviews, readings and short stories.

From The Elegant Variation, we learn about the imagined setting for Lost City Radio,

When I was on tour last, for War by Candlelight, I always found myself saying, “If Peru was an invented country, and Lima an invented city, many people would still recognize it,” and I guess I sort of followed my own advice. I invented a country, a city, drew upon my experiences in Lima, upon my travels in West Africa, upon texts I read about Chechnya (the incomparable Anna Politkovskaya, RIP), or Beirut, or Mumbai.

Also, be sure to check out that interview for the author's experiences in Peru with a family looking for the disappeared.

From the LA Weekly, we learn more about the real life inspiration for the book,

Alarcón began collecting material during a trip to Lima in 1999 to research the life of his uncle Javier, a leftist professor who was “disappeared” 10 years earlier during the violent Shining Path guerrilla war that over two decades claimed 69,000 lives. His uncle’s life is the basis for the character Rey, a university botanist who ventures into the jungle and gradually becomes involved in a guerrilla movement. During his time in Lima, Alarcón was an avid fan of a radio show called Buscapersonas, or “People Finder.”

The weekly also has much about the Alarcon's complex identity, as do these essays in Washington Post and Salon.

Our March Author: Anna Politkovskaya

A final set of links for Anna Politkovskaya's Putin's Russia:

The Guardian has an interview and an article in which she explains what keeps her going,

Why am I going on at such length about this? Only in order to explain that people in Chechnya are afraid for me, and I find that very touching. They fear for me more than I fear for myself, and that is how I survive.

Open Source has an audio interview with some of Politkovskaya's journalist colleagues following her death. (BBC Woman's Hour has an interview from the time of the publication of Putin's Russia, but the BBC's A/V set-up and I don't get along.)

Radio Free Europe has a transcript of Politkovskaya's last interview, two days before her death and this site has her last article.

If you are still curious, check out this list of links.

International Women's Day Action - Chechnya

We have so many actions to call attention to on International Women's Day that we are going to have to spread them out over more than one day. But let's start with one that relates to our selection this month, Anna Politkovskaya's Putin's Russia. Urge Russian President Putin to stop violence against women in Chechnya,

Since 1999, female civilians have particularly suffered due to the armed conflict in Chechnya, as Russian federal forces have committed rape, torture, disappearances, and killings. Chechen armed groups have also indiscriminately attacked civilians, including women and girls. In a climate of impunity, women and girls are routinely denied justice. Act now and urge President Putin to prosecute all allegations of violence against women.

Some examples:

"Madina": Madina (not her real name) is 24 years old. In April 2004 she was detained by Russian Federal forces and taken, blindfolded, to the main Russian military base in Khankala, Chechnya. She was tortured dailiy with electric shocks, the wires connected to her bra. She was stripped, threatened with rape and repeatedly beaten. After two weeks she was told a mistake had been made and was released.

"Aset": Russian federal forces detained Aset (not a her real name) at a checkpoint in June 2003 and accused her of wanting to be a suicide bomber. According to relatives, she was chained to a bed and gang-raped every night, and was unable to stand or walk when released six days later. Aset has four children. Her husband was reportedly killed at their home by Russian forces in April 2003.

And more here. Send a message now!

Novaya Gazeta

Continuing our exploration of Anna Politkovskaya and Putin's Russia:

Some of our more linguistically talented Readers may want to check out the online version of Novaya Gazeta, the newspaper Politkovskaya wrote for. The rest of us can make due with this interview with ther editor,

I know that our newspaper can be found everywhere in Chechnya, it is sold and photocopied. People from Chechnya queue up for Politkovskaya But I tell her: You are not a Chechen Joan of Arc. You can’t save the entire Chechen people.

This year I have sent her on an assignment to Chechnya only twice. That’s all I would let her do. But in my absence she “extorted” a signature from my deputy Sergei Sokolov. Then she calls me from there and says with malicious glee: “I’m in Chechnya”

But that’s Politkovskaya. I once said to her: “That’s not a car you parked just now, it’s a broomstick.”

For March: Putin's Russia

For our March 18 meeting, we have selected the late journalist Anna Politkovskaya's, Putin's Russia. Be sure to participate in the Holiday Card Action offering condolences to her family and friends. (Note: This book will be available in paper on December 26.)

Hailed as “a lone voice crying out in a moral wilderness” (New Statesman), Anna Politkovskaya made her name with her fearless reporting on the war in Chechnya. Now she turns her steely gaze on the multiple threats to Russian stability, among them President Putin himself.

Putin’s Russia depicts a far-reaching state of decay. Politkovskaya describes an army in which soldiers die from malnutrition, parents must pay bribes to recover their dead sons’ bodies, and conscripts are even hired out as slaves. She exposes rampant corruption in business, government, and the judiciary, where everything from store permits to bus routes to court appointments is for sale. And she offers a scathing condemnation of the ongoing war in Chechnya, where kidnappings, extrajudicial killings, rape, and torture are begetting terrorism rather than fighting it.

Sounding an urgent alarm, Putin’s Russia is both a gripping portrayal of a country in crisis and the testament of a great and intrepid reporter.

Anna Politkovskaya

We came close to reading Anna Politkovskaya's account of the war in Chechnya, The Dirty War. And its still not too late for us to read her latest, Putin's Russia. Now comes news of her brutal death, so I'll take this moment to note this article on the Chechen conflict she wrote for Amnesty Magazine and AI's concern for her safety in this report. Would that we could have done more. She was certainly brave and relentless to the very end, reportedly at work Saturday finishing an article for the about torturers in the government of Ramzan A. Kadyrov, the pro-Kremlin premier of Chechnya.

Update: Amnesty press release here. Second update: Amnesty expresses concern for other Russian journalists here and you can take action on behalf of one of them here.

Tags: Russia Chechnya Politkovskaya