A Russian Diary

Anna Politkovskaya, a courageous Russian journalist, completed this raw and intimate diary just before her assassination in 2006. It chronicles life in Russia from the 2003 parliamentary elections through the devastating summer of 2005, including the Beslan school siege. Politkovskaya fearlessly exposes the truth about Vladimir Putin's Russia, detailing a society gripped by cynicism, corruption, and dwindling freedoms. Her unflinching account captures both the horror and absurdity of the era, from interviewing a Chechen warlord to recording the grief of a mother who lost a child in Beslan.