Customer Reviews

A Russian Diary: A Journalist's Final Account of Life, Corruption, and Death in Putin's Russia

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For those who care about Russia, it is hard to put this book down. It is a compelling read. However, one cannot help read "A Russian Diary" without an overwhelming sense of sadness. We know how the story ends. The last entry in the diary was made in August 2006, and soon thereafter Anna Politkovskaya's life ends, murdered by unknown assailants in Moscow.

The profound nature of this loss comes across on every page of this book, as Ms. Politkovskaya carefully and without flinching describes contemporary Russian society, warts and all, as perhaps no other journalist left living can. This book brings the reader a first-hand look into the tragedies of Dubrovka Theater and the school siege at Beslan. And also chronicles the seemingly endless war in Chechnya. She asks hard questions of the Russian government and its apparent failure to manage these matters.

As great of a loss as the death of Anna Politkovskaya is, her dairy is a reminder of perhaps the greatest tragedy and missed opportunity in the last quarter of a century. With the fall of the Soviet Union, Russia had the opportunity once and forever to move into the family of democratic states. This book documents that although there are elections, this has not really happened, not even close. What we have now is a tightly controlled state governed by an intelligence oligarchy with a fondness for the Soviet past, which has restricted rather than expanded civil liberties and workers' rights. These restrictions have been justified in the name of protecting national security and the promotion of state controlled capitalism. "A Russian Diary" documents how the Russian people are languishing with a government seemingly disinclined to tackle the serious social welfare problems that are besetting the country.

This book is commentary on the Russian government, but it also asks tough questions of Americans and Western Europeans. What could they have done differently to nudge Russia toward a democratic direction? Is it too late? Are we destined to regress into a more perverse version of the Cold War, with a Russian government mistrusting the West once again, but now empowered by oil and gas revenues?

I hope that is not the case both for Russia and the West. However, without Anna Politkoyskaya alive to point out the deficiencies in the Russian government and the shortcomings of the West, the unthinkable becomes possible.

A Russian Diary: A Journalists' Final Account of Life, Corruption and Death in Putin's Russia - By Anna Politkovskaya

It's fashionable these days to describe a book as "important.' While most aren't, Anna Politkovskaya's "A Russian Diary" is. As one of Russia's most influential journalists until her assassination, presumably by the KGB, Politovskaya chronicled dissident protests, suspicious fires and "accidents" and other examples of Putin's heavy-handed regime
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Some of her most impassioned writing came from Chechnya, which she characterized as "a small corner of hell." She wrote of the tragedy at Beslan, where dozens of school children were murdered. To this day, some of the victims have not been identified, because the tragedy was not a priority of the regime.

And she documents Putin's systematic retrenchment and repeal of many of the reforms enacted by his predecessors, Gorbachev and Yeltsin. Clearly, in the words of chess champion-turned-politician Kasparov, "Russia is a police state."

She writes: "What speed! The President has already signed the law abolishing the election of governors. It has been our fastest ever passage of a law, and all so that from January 1 Putin should not have to discuss matters with the governors or worry that they might be uncooperative. A Tsar should have serfs, not partners."

Like the KGB defector Alexander Litvenko, who was poisoned in London with radioactive polonium (again presumably by the KGB) , Politikovskaya paid a terrible price for her honesty.
She was murdered in Moscow on October 7, 2006-- Vladimir Putin's birthday.
ADDEMDUM 5-1-2010: There seems to be an orchestrated effort among some reviewers to discredit Politkovskya's contributions. That would be consistent with the "old" KGB's disinformation campaigns, which continue despite the demise of the Soviet Union.

Anna Politkovskaya's "Russian Diary" is a gold mine of information and provides unparalleled insights into Putin's Neo-Soviet Russia.

Many believe that Politkovskaya was murdered for her indepth investigative reporting into all aspects of Putin's regime. In this book she makes it clear that Russia is rapidly sliding into a dark and deep abyss.

Politkovskaya reveals the rampant corruption prevalent in the Russian government and its total disregard for the Russian population, human rights, and basic democratic principles.

"Russian Diary" is a first-hand account of the growing power of Russia's criminal community and its alliance with Vladimir Putin, the rampant greed and lawlessness of the new Russian business elite, the unbridled brutality of the Russian security services, and the gross incompetence of the Russian military.

Politkovskaya believed that Russia was headed for another major war in the Caucasus against the mountain peoples it has been terrorizing and murdering for the last decade.

This is a sad and depressing story that is all too familiar to those with firsthand knowledge of the Soviet Union and Russia.

the forward starts off "(she) could have left russia--remember that as you read these journals." what comes across initially as anna's relentless account of putin's rise to autocratic dominance is more of an alarming and disheartening account of russia's systematic devolution where democracy, freedom of press and the semblance of a worthy society were fleetingly promised as they were taken away. incredible heart-wrenching accounts of the moscow theater and beslan school massacres as well as the two chechen wars.

This is a riveting account of a life constantly in peril. The translation is equally outstanding, conveying both the "conversationalism" of a "diary" and the formality of the more essential elements.

A must read for anyone who wants to understand the "new" Russia. One hopes others will have the courage to take up Ms. Politkovskaya's crusade in exposing the corruption so rampant in Putin's (and now Medvedev's)Russia.

A "must read" for anyone truly interested in the political climate in today's Russia. A combination of the author's knowledge, her writing skill, and her predictable, tragic end make this book a "thriller" to read as well as an accurate compass in describing the unfortunate direction in which the "New Russia" is headed today.

I want to make sure that I give the author the due respect that she truly deserves. Her voice serves as a transcript for an era which many of us will look back at with more questions than answers. She stood firm and cast an uncompromising eye on a burgeoning 21st century Russia often calling out discrepancies and hypocrisies at great risk to her own safety. Her murder is undeniably linked to those unscrupulous individuals and entities that she has brought to the public forefront. The world is greatly indebted to her courageous efforts for reminding us that regardless of Bush's soul piercing moment, Putin is still a man with many skeletons in his closet.
The rating however that I have given her book is connected more with its lack of cohesion. It continuously jumps from one event to another and often makes some rather spurious connections. Her linking friendly fire incidents, presidential has-been candidates, and other subjects to a corrupt government are stretches at the least and often times appear as chasing ghosts. Her voice and tone has the seriousness of Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn, but lacks the depth of material to cover the length of the book. I appreciate all that she has done as a journalist but this book could have served as a set of two or three shorter works due to its seriousness and its tough nature. I am admittedly new to her work, but am familiar with the significance of her life's work. My dilemma is not with her thought provoking ideas, just the way that they are carried in this book. I would have preferred shorter works where her thoughts on individual subjects could have been better flushed, thus eliminating their semblance to conjecture at times. She has helped remind us that Russian democracy continues to be as Richard Lugar once said: "Despite elections and the experience of post-Soviet personal freedoms by the Russian people, the fate of democracy in Russia is perhaps more ambiguous now than at any time since the collapse of the Communist system."

On 7 October 2006, the journalist Anna Politkovskaya was assassinated. She was shot dead in the elevator of her apartment building in an apparent contract killing. It is very important, I think, to bear this ending in mind while you read A Russian Diary.

Politkovskaya is not objective. This is not a personal diary. You will not find charming anecdotes about her personal life interspersed among the political commentary. She often sounds like that friend you had at college who would not stop ranting about her conspiracy theories and the fact that the world is going to heck in a handbasket. Except that she ends up dead for her ideas. A good reminder not to confuse Russia with the West.

Politkovskaya is angry, passionate. She refuses to stop caring. She refuses to be objective, because objectivity comes too close to numbness. This is a partial book (in several senses)-- think of it as an act of witness. She writes her rage at what Russia has become day by day.

She is very smart, and often funny-- albeit in a dark way. I had the feeling I would like her. And I hate how her story ended. It isn't an easy book to read. I still think as many as possible *should* read it. Decide for yourself.

As a person who has worked in Russia since 1988 till now I have seen many changes and many era's. I have also a Masters Degree in Russian History. The truth is always frightening, what Politskaya writes is the truth and she paid for it with his life, I have witnessed some of what she writes but as my Business is still in Russia it's better to stay quiet. A frightening expose in 2007!! May she live on in memory.