A Small Corner of Hell: Dispatches from Chechnya

by Anna Politkovskaya, Alexander Burry (Translator), Tatiana Tulchinsky (Translator)

The recent murder of Anna Politkovskaya is grim evidence of the danger faced by journalists passionately committed to writing the truth about wars and politics.  A longtime critic of the Russian government, particularly with regard to its policies in Chechnya, Politkovskaya was a special correspondent for the liberal Moscow newspaper Novaya gazeta.  Beginning in 1999, Politkovskaya authored numerous articles about the war in Chechnya, and she was the only journalist to have constant access to the region.

Politkovskaya's second book on the Chechen War,  A Small Corner of Hell, offers an insider's view of this ongoing conflict.  In this book, Politkovskaya focuses her attention on those caught in the crossfire.  She recounts the everyday horrors of living in the midst of war, examines how the Chechen war has damaged Russian society, and takes a hard look at the ways people on both sides profited from it.  Now available in paperback,  A Small Corner of Hell ensures that Politkovskaya's words will not be erased.         "[A Small Corner of Hell] skips harrowingly from year to year and place to place.  The arch-villains are the Russian death squads, venal and brutal, and the complacent, lying politicians and generals who profit from the illegal trade in booty, oil, and captives.  Her heroes are not the Chechen resistance—a gangsterish and ill-fed lot—but the long-suffering civilian population, whose natural grit and solidarity has gradually dissolved under the relentless brutality of daily life."—Economist
         "A personal, unblinking stare at the casualties of war."—Jonathan Kaplan, Los Angeles Times

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Russia, War, Politics, Journalism, Russian History

232 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Russian journalist and human rights activist well-known for her opposition to the Chechen conflict and Russian president Putin.

Politkovskaya made her name reporting from lawless Chechnya, where many journalists and humanitarian workers have been kidnapped or killed. She was arrested and subjected to mock execution by Russian military forces there, and she was poisoned on the way to Beslan, but survived and continued her reporting.

She authored several books about Chechen wars as well as Putin's Russia and received numerous prestigious international awards for her work.

She was shot dead in the elevator of her apartment building on.

Reviews

[Christine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Update: I suppose this review should be flagged because of the comment about Putin. I also think that if you read this, you will see the reasons why Poitkovskaya was targeted. Considering that, and it's importance to the life of the author, how can I really review this book?


Dobby the Elf's evil Twin Putin "blamed" the recent Russian protests on Sec. of State Clinton, who, according to him, give the protesters the secret code word.

Politkovskaya wouldn't be surprised about that. Take a look at what she says on page 117, "Because the time of Putin is the time of silence about what is important in our country".

Written before her murder, Politkovskaya's book details the effects of the Chechnya war (techincally, two wars) on civilians, army, and politicians. Guess who comes out ahead.

In an America were the nightly news gives sound bites and little if any real coverage, this book is a must read for anyone trying to understand Russia in the current time. Heartbreaking, an emotionally draining book to read, the book SHOULD BE READ. Not only it is the story of the young married couple, both with disabiilites, the wife a talented poet, living in a war zone but acting like any newlyweds nor the story of Angela a child who seeks shelter in a nursing home, it is the stories of those who do not make it, who came close but who don't. It is also another reason why the UN should be overhauled or something, anything to make it function better. We keep saying never again, but never again keeps happening. Possibly because we don't read books like this. I should have read this long before now, and I didn't. Don't make my mistake.

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

To read this book is haunting, especially in light of what happened to Politkovskaya for engaging in the kind of fearless journalism she did. The stories from Chechnya are horrific, not just because of the misery they so often focus on, but also for the fact that while this kind of thing goes on across the world the vast majority of our journalists in the US choose instead to focus on such endless bullshit. Yet, she does manage to insert some stories of hope through such horrible chaos. Politkovskaya was an amazingly courageous person, and this book should be read by everyone.

[William · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is absolutely nothing like David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest.

But I'm going to compare it, A Small Corner of Hell, to it, Infinite Jest, anyway. One is a fairly short, gritty, real, non-fiction book about a war (and the other is by Anna Politkovskaya, is how the joke would go...), and the other is a hugely long, fanciful, silly novel about...? But both of them get a lot of their character from the fact that they contain so much of what they contain. Politkovskaya's book is basically a collection of vignettes from the Chechen war (the Second Chechen War, that is). You don't learn much new from the fiftieth vignette that you didn't get from the first or second or tenth. But the fact that there are so many of them, just knowing that there are so many in this book and probably millions of others out there in the world, is what makes them more meaningful than any one or two of them would be alone. You could get basically the same information from an essay containing a few well-chosen vignettes, but it wouldn't be the same information simply because it would be less of the same thing. Likewise, if Infinite Jest was only a hundred pages long, it could have pretty much the same story and the same tone, but it's the fact that it is so monumental that makes it Infinite Jest, and why we still talk about it.

So what do you get from this preponderance of gritty, depressing vignettes? It wears on you. It depresses you and then depresses you more, because you know there is so much more of it. It is a thoroughly difficult and unpleasant read. At the same time, it is a well-done and important difficult and unpleasant read. You're better for reading it, even though you don't feel better. Politkovskaya gives you the real deal. I'd say she doesn't hold anything back, but actually she does hold some things back, but considering what she does give, you don't even want to know whatever she considers too much bad to print.

So good job, Ms. Politkovskaya. Your legacy is assured. It is an excellent and terrible book. It could get five stars for being well written and important and real, or it could get one star for being such an unpleasant way to spend several hours, or I could go the wishy-washy route and go somewhere in between. But she deserves the five stars for actually living through what I only have to read about. It's bad enough on paper.

[Scott]

iIt is hard to put into words, but there is something... debilitating? unsettling? upsetting? about reading account after account after detailed account of brutal, nightmarish crimes and violence. All true, I guess. occurring in a place I've never visited, which I know nothing about... What am I supposed to do with the images I have in my brain now? I certainly didn't ENJOY this competently written collection of... What? Newspaper articles? Polemics? Crime scene reports?

So, no pleasure for me. But have I - by reading this and finding out (in excruciating, dispiriting detail) about atrocities in Chechneya - ACCOMPLISHED anything? Am I ennobled? I don't necessarily feel better "informed," because that implies that I can now DO something about the horrors based on my new knowledge.

But - short of donating money (to whom?) or smuggling myself into Russia or Chechneya to fight ( fight WHOM? fight FOR whom?) - I can't DO anything. This monstrous information is not actionable. It's just inert, monstrous information, caught like a lump of food in the back of my throat.

I cannot deny that it is awful. The stupid, inhumane acts of cruelty relentlessly described in this book should never happen to anyone. Criticizing this book would be illiberal. Small-minded. This stuff is really happening, to real people... But I can't say that I feel glad, or empowered, to know about it. And now that I know about it, what am I supposed to do?

[Gremrien · Rating 5 out of 5]

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE READ IT RIGHT NOW if you haven’t already. (If you have — why didn’t you tell me?!)

Shocking, terrifying, and utterly bewildering — it’s already twenty years after this book was published, and yet people today are horrified by Bucha, Mariupol, etc., as if something “unprecedented” is happening. No, Russia has already done EXACTLY THE SAME THINGS with another nation and their cities, villages, bodies, dignity, lives. Everything is the same, FUCKING EVERYTHING.

Well, I can understand why the world overall has no clue about it — they did not have much access to this information at the time of the war in Chechnya and especially after it, as Russia effectively blocked and distorted this information in its own favor. I can even understand why we, Ukrainians, weren’t especially interested in this information although it was definitely more available for us — we had our own grave problems at the time and tried to stay afloat as a new country and build some future for themselves. However, Russians should have known all this. Russian intelligentsia and all the honest people of Russia were the primary target audience for this book and all the associated publications by Анна Политковская and her colleagues — and yet it looks like the horrors she describes never happened in the minds of all these decent Russian people. They are all looking now at the absolutely inhumane cruelties and petrifying crimes of Russian troops in Ukraine and cry “how horrible! we cannot believe that this is happening! we never expected this from our people!” Why? They did EXACTLY THE SAME THINGS during the war(s) in Chechnya. Profusely, wildly, most often with exactly the same methods and tools for terrorizing people and destroying their lives. They looted, raped, tortured, shitted everywhere and smeared their shit all over the places, razed to the ground cities and villages with men, women, and children, set booby traps at every corner, killed “every man from 13 to 60,” made people starve and die from wounds, “filtered” them in special “filtration camps,” etc., etc.

Everything described in the book looks twice as horrific today because you understand clearly that all these things were not some random violence (that some Russians most probably considered the result of “savagery” of the nation of Chechens and the “terroristic” character of the war from their side); no, all these things are very systematic, deliberate, and conscientious “strategy” of the Russian army in particular and Russian government overall. The strategy of colonization and pacification of the territories Russia believes “belong” to it always was and still is based on these “absolutely inhumane cruelties and petrifying crimes.”

And yeah, of course, you should read this book regardless of whether you are interested in Chechnya and that “old” war. It is very important exactly because it gives you an amazing perspective: there is nothing random or unprecedented in our current war in Ukraine, and the problems of “Bucha, Mariupol, etc.” are not problems of some particular crimes or “abuses of power.” The problem is not even Putin and his closest minions. No, the problem is RUSSIA. They behave like this not because Putin orders them to be inhumane morons, to loot, to rape, and to shit everywhere. They behave like this because that’s how they always behave when they want to capture new territories and make them “theirs.”

Reading such highly important and illuminating books, I usually save tons of quotes and then publish them here, being unable to leave something out. I will not quote a thing here, though. Just because every fucking word is extremely important, and if I wanted to quote something from the book, I would have just copy-pasted the whole book. Well, at least the first half of it, where Анна Политковская shows all these horrors of Russians “restoring the constitutional order” and what they did to the Chechen people. The second half of the book may look not so crucial for us now as it is more about “the politics and economics of the war,” and many of these names and facts are too specific for that time and place and/or make not much sense for people who are not closely familiar with Russian public figures and major events of Russian society. Still, all this is also essential if you want to understand the problem of the Chechnya war from a more informed point of view. However, even if you are not very interested in Chechnya overall, read at least the first half of the book — with the knowledge that all this is also happening right now in Ukraine, you would understand much more not only about Ukraine or Chechnya but, first of all, about Russia.

Besides, it is also a very well-written book: perfect humane and yet thorough, diligent, highly responsible journalism and just good writing. I loved the whole structure of the book, the subjects the author chose to discuss, and how it was written overall. Every short essay is a little diamond by itself, and all of them together make a wholesome multifaceted picture that leaves an immense impression. So yeah, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE READ IT RIGHT NOW. It is imperative to rediscover this book right now, because otherwise, the world would probably still think that something “bad” happened to Russia very recently that never happened before (some “fascism” and totalitarian government? oh really? how about the same shit 20 years ago when you all believed that Russia was still pretty much “democratic” and “normal”?).

*

There is only one problem with this book and Анна Политковская’s narrative about Chechnya and Chechen war(s). She never talks about it as “a war for independence of the nation.” She does not even consider the notion of Chechen people fighting for their FREEDOM FROM RUSSIA. If you know approximately nothing about Chechnya and the historical background of this war, you may be left under the impression that the war started because of some pretty legitimate concerns about “terrorism” in Chechnya but this “justified special military operation” just somehow went wrong at some point and gradually collapsed disastrously into an unbreakable chain of “senseless crimes and abuses.” She rarely calls Russian troops “Russian” and Chechen fighters “Chechen”: in this book Russians are most often “federals,” “federal troops,” etc., and Chechens are most often “peaceful civilians,” “locals” or “terrorists,” “militant fighters,” “insurgents,” etc. (i.e., “федералы” vs. “боевики/террористы/ополченцы”). She investigated a lot of absolutely illegitimate and criminal actions of Russians against Chechens but she still naively asks one of the leaders of the Chechen opposition, Ахмед Закаев, “о поиске некой компромиссной фигуры в качестве главы Чечни, которая могла бы устроить и большинство чеченцев, и Кремль” — to his honor, Ахмед Закаев answers to this “Никаких компромиссных фигур не будет. Есть президент, которого избрал народ.” So you can see even from this dialogue that she believes that the problem is in the stubbornness of Chechen “militant fighters” — not in the fact that Russia wants to conquer Chechnya and stop it from being an independent democratic nation. She does not even understand that there is no space for a “compromise” between one nation that wants to live and another that wants it to be dead.)

I don’t think that this is the result of (self-)censorship — after all, the whole book would be banned by Russia if they censored it at the time; it’s rather the reflection of her sincere personal mindset. She just DOES NOT SEE anything colonizing, racist, or genocidal toward Chechens. She believes it’s about politics, and fight for power, and multiplication of terror because of terror, and so on.

(Funny, she even provides some short historical information about the history of Chechnya and its colonization by Russia over centuries, but it looks like something very “normal” in her representation, while Chechnya’s declaration of independence in the 1990s and the following attempt to fight the invading Russian army look “abnormal,” like something definitely unhealthy and unpleasant. I wouldn’t judge the whole book severely because of it — I think she would reconsider this position retrospectively later if she stayed alive to these days and especially if she were witnessing our current war. But you should understand this “semantic nuance” if you read this book.)

*

The publication of the book in Russia in 2002 was a miracle. It was probably one of the last manifestations of that short period of “adjusting to pseudo-democracy” when such books and such journalism overall were still pretty much possible. As you know, Анна Политковская was killed shortly after this, in 2006. None of her other books were ever published in Russia (they were all published in Europe and USA). I don’t know what was the number of copies of this book in Russia then, but it looks like it was not very large, and when all of them were bought out, it was never republished. I have an impression that not many people even know about it, because I expected to find lots of discussions and reviews of the book (on Goodreads, etc.) but not many Russians probably even have read it and/or want to talk about it despite its free availability on the Internet (there are exclusively English-language reviews of the book on Goodreads, just a couple of reviews on the Russian Goodreads-like service LiveLib, and very little information elsewhere). I have listened to an audiobook (in Russian) and was very surprised when I heard at the end of the book that it was “recorded in 2016 in Kyiv.” In Kyiv! In 2016! It’s a pity, by the way, that we do not have a Ukrainian translation — I would encourage our publishers to find an opportunity to translate and publish this book in Ukraine (or even just republish the Russian text without translation — it’s this rare case when WE NEED such Russian books).

[Luke · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you're not a victim of terrorism, there are no rehabilitation centers, psychotherapists, or psychiatrists for you.

Between the year this work was first published and the year my own edition was, Anna Politkovskaya, fearless journalist, writer, and human rights activist, was shot dead in the elevator of her apartment block in Moscow. It would be hard to say whether every US person who calls themselves a Caucasian because that's what the White Powers That Be tell them to do would mourn such a tragedy or not. On the one hand, Russia is Russia, and one cannot expect such a country to treat their women any better than what Politkovskaya got. On the other hand, this work of hers draws a pretty strong correlation between the Islamophobia cultivated by Euro/Neo-Euro groups and the fulfillment of these so called 'Western' countries gluttony for oil, and it's not hard to see the US president as a mirror of Putin, Iraq as one of Chechnya, Politkovskaya's murderers as one of Lynndie England. The average person in the US is going to get quite pissy in reaction to such a statement, but nearly two and a half centuries after their country was founded and four centuries after the groundwork was laid for the founding through slavery and genocide, I am utterly done with the type that says Antifa are terrorists and that a Biden/Hitler ticket is better than Trump. So what if they don't biologically qualify as narcissists/sociopaths/psychopaths/whatever the fashionable dehumanizing word of the day is for neurotypicals looking for some quick and easy social justice points. People overcome their chemically-driven empathy every day: that makes their grasp on ethics suspect, not crazy.

What happens to businesses that lose billions? Very simple: they stop operating.
What happens to the Ministry of Defense if one of its subdivisions incurs billions in losses? The answer is surprising: absolutely nothing. Not only that, but its superiors cite its work as exemplary.

It'd be easy to let yourself be smacked in the face by this barely over 200 page pamphlet over and over and over and not derive anything from it besides West good, East bad, Russia a personal foe, and Chechnya complicated. Even Politkovskaya relies too much on European ethical guilds and Occidental systems of morality near the very end when it comes time for her to paint a picture of a future rising above the ashes of past and present. However, if one has read From the Ruins of Empire or something similar, and is also keeping up with the news of the oligarchical destabilization of a constitutionally sanctioned public communication utility (I'd think that qualify as terorrism, no?), this is just another piece of the puzzle. It doesn't hurt at all that this edition includes a wonderful introduction by Georgi Derluguian, who in the span of 25 pages not only cleared away the cobwebs of what bits of Chechnya awareness I've picked up from Wiki articles and the odd movie, but did so with full due paid to the standards of information literacy. Construction of authority, information creation as process, information as something of value, research as inquiry, scholarship as conversation, searching as strategic exploration: it's something I can say that I teach for a living, and it's what I watch out for in my reading whenever I have the brain energy to spare.

After the introduction comes civilian testimonies of Chechnya; the collective weight of these events against the backdrop of Russia; a presentation of the web of connections between war, resources, and politics; and a conclusion that tears away some lies, brings into the light some truths, but is little more than a stepping stone between one era and the next. Politkovskaya draws on portraits of war heroes, politicians, and those who are labeled terrorists and those who are not; anti-war philosophizings penned by a young Tolstoy serving on a military campaign; testimony upon testimony upon testimony of those who refuse to share their name and those who paid the ultimate price for telling their story; and her own experiences with participating in hostage negotiations as well as being tortured, poisoned, and subjected to a fake martial execution. It's tough stuff, and unlike the narratives that self-titled history buffs like to pass around with their cohorts, very little of it will have been pounded into the head of the average recipient of US style education. I'll admit to feeling my brain shut down at times, but it's not like I haven't heard the tale that is the lust for oil, the supremacy of white Christianity, the musical chairs of hopping in bed with one group during one decade and turning them into enemy no. 1 once the ball has dropped, West vs East, Capitalism vs Communism, and all that jazz before. White people in my country are getting upset about Trump cuddling with Putin in public, and it's like, you're starting to worry now? It's WWII over again: let the frog boil for as long as it likes, but once white colonies and settler states are the ones under fire, then it's time to play the good guy.

Yet both pillars of Putin's stability seems shaky: the high energy prices that benefited Russian cannot last forever, and the "antiterrorist campaign" in Chechnya is still far from over after three years.
-Georgi Derluguian, Introduction

Thirteen years after my edition was published, Putin's still in power, liberals are promising to keep Biden and Kamala accountable, and everyone who was protesting Obama's war crimes back when he was still in office have no illusions about anyone who demonizes any social justice action that isn't confined to the ballot box. Is it exhausting? For sure. Does it drive people to turn off their brains and hang on desperately to any bandwagon that doesn't require any sort of actual building of solidarity or combatant of institutionalized dehumanization? All the time. After reading this work, do I think the United States is in any position to judge Russia? To appeal to the Christians in the crowd for a moment, I believe there was something in the Bible about a beam in one's eye and all that, but it wouldn't hurt to see the similarities between the midnight executions of Chechen woman heads of villages and the case of Breonna Taylor. I encourage my fellow citizens to vote early (and perhaps forgo their mailbox for their local ballot box), socially distance, wear masks, and wash their hands, but my god, y'all realize that calling real human beings Russian psyops for refusing to ignore the implications of a politician's track record just cause they're not orange is depriving people who disagree with your views of state officials of their humanity, which is exactly what fascists do? I certainly learned a lot from this book, but on the level of compare and contrast with my own circumstances, not with any view of swooping and rescuing the poor liddle Chechnyans from the big mean Russians with my super US powers. All in all, do I think most others who read this text are going to put in the same amount of effort? In a word: nah.

Politically, what neoliberal market economists presented as their major virtue proved to be their biggest fault: the hard-nosed insistence that the economy must be left to the globally connected technical experts like themselves and certainly not to the soft-hearted humanistic intellectuals and common populace, whose demands of stable jobs and living wages endangered monetary stability.
-Georgi Derluguian, Introduction

There's nothing like a plague to test a society's true stability. It just depends on how many human sacrifices are required to effect change, or, perhaps, what type.

[Barbara Skuplik]

"Wherever cruelty is a norm of life, no one can expect compassion and mercy, not even the weakest".

This phrase sums up Anna Politkovskaya's raw, honest, and unflinching memoir recollecting her time in and around Chechnya. Politkovskaya immersed herself in the Chechen life, living among the people and experiencing their lives on a daily basis. Her love for the people is obvious, as is her outrage at the atrocities which took place during her stay. These people don't know peace, stability, a life free from fear, war, death and many of the other "luxuries" and freedoms we experience-- "freedoms" and "freedoms from" which should be a right, and not a privilege. Living in such a precarious and dangerous place clearly has taken its toll on the citizens, and the only way to cope is to numb yourself to the immeasurable death and destruction all around you.

I most enjoyed her recollections of the time spent with certain people and families, recurring throughout the book. The impunity with which the "government" (and I use that term losely) and militia (and Putin) operate are disgusting. Granted, Politkovskaya was an ardent anti-Putin activist, never shying away from voicing her opinion of him. The fact that he could come to power again is terrifying.

You can still see the consequences of these wars; the destruction and uncertainty that has damaged a new generation, and devastated the old is apparent and still salient. It has been brutally thrown upon them with no choice but to pick up the pieces and try to survive, move on, start over, and try to forget. The effects are evident, and sadly will most like remain so, for the chasm runs deep, the hurt is vast, and the memories are still fresh. Although there isn't what one can consider a "war" now, the remnants, retaliations, instability and a palpable sense of precariousness still dominate much of Chechen life.

I really liked her various interviews with militia and government leaders. Hearing many sides of the conflict, and hearing what they believe the solution is and what the outcome will be is fascinating.

Anna does a good job of illustrating the futility and frustration of trying to ameliorate the situation; anarchy reigns, there is no authority that all factions respect and listen to, there are no laws, no regimes, and corruption and terror seem to be the only "rules of law" the masses have agreed to live by; it is necessary if they want to survive.

I have followed this region for a long time, and though Politkovskaya paints a bleak picture, glimmers of hope are noticeable throughout. One can only hope that in time, stability, democracy, peace, and most of all, forgiveness become the defining features.

Anna was an extremely brave woman, ultimately paying for her outspokenness and willingness to speak the truth and criticize those "in power" with her life. Reading this book now in 2012 struck me as foreboding and relevant, especially since Putin is once again (or rather, as usual, once again) playing the puppeteer in a fake regime posing as democracy, propelling himself into controlling the country and surrounding areas once again.

I would have loved to see what Anna would have written on the war in Iraq, the genocide in Darfur, the Middle East, and especially the "Arab Spring" and currently the horrors in Syria. It is a loss to the journalistic community-- she gave a voice to the weakest, and painted an unflinching portrayal of life as is experienced by the people.

[Brett C · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sad book about the atrocities in Chechnya by the Russians. A Good book but a little on the biased side and anti-Russian view but still worth a read. This book, "Dirty War" by the same author, and "Allah's Mountains" are good and help you to form your own opinions about the on-going conflict in Chechnya.

[Raughley Nuzzi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading this book, it's no wonder that Putin had Politkovskaya killed. This active journalist paints horrifying pictures of the war in Chechnya thanks to her on-the-ground presence in the region and the personal interviews she was able to conduct. The stories in this book resonate with news coming out of Ukrainian towns and villages in 2024, shining a light on the warnings Politkovsaya gave at the turn of the century.

I expect that when the fighting and occupation in Ukraine have ended, there will be tragically familiar tales of the debauchery, corruption, and criminality of the Russian armed forces, as well as the complicity of the powerful Kremlin officials. We've already started to see this, and Dispatches from Chechnya provides a depressing reminder that all of this is part of Russia's and Putin's pattern of degeneracy.

[Erik Graff · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a collection of articles written by the martyred Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya about the conflict in Chechnya. Like her books about the modern Russian Federation and V. Putin, it makes for very depressing reading.

[Sleepy Boy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good reading on the Chechen conflict. As always the subject is searing.

[Alexandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Here, in the smoldering ruins of Grozny, there's nothing to see except suffering, your own and others'. Yet it is precisely here that life is the most real, even though it's almost like a cave, and the three-by-three patch in the kitchen resembles a stage. And for some reason you keep your comb in the refrigerator. There hasn't been any electricity or a few years now in the town of Ivanov. The refrigerator has turned into a closet, which is suitable only for keeping combs in."

Gruesome accounts of the purges in the second Chechen war. Clearly an anti-Russian work that is even more chilling considering the author's fate. I think anyone who likes Svetlana Alexievich's writing style should give this a read. Ample historical context is provided for readers not familiar with Chechnya.

[Berkeren Büyükeren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Edit (14th of July): The end and connecting the whole sequence to Nord-Ost siege changed my views about the book (previously 3 stars). I had tears in my eyes by the end, spectacular journalism. Rest in Power Anna Politkovskaya, you were a brilliant human being.

It’s a very solid and brave work, but doesn’t tell enough about the Chechen Wars’ timeline and important events. I didn’t learn much about Chechnya that much in the end, but more about the terrible tragedies that happened amidst the wars.

Makes you think about Ukraine, Palestine and the tragedies of the Yugoslav War.

[Bjørn André Haugland · Rating 2 out of 5]

Let me preface this by saying that this is an important book for anyone who wants to gain real, or at least journalistic and anecdotal, insight into the conflict in Chechnya. That said, if you want a read that is not horrifyingly sad and disturbing, and which you know ends in yet another tragedy (Politkovskaya was killed in 2006) you can safely steer clear of it. I rate it so lowly because this is the first book in a long while that has changed my mind repeatedly about wanting to read in the evening or not. I struggled to get through it, and ended up skipping parts of it because it was just too bleak. You will not come away unscathed from reading the stories collected here, but that doesn't mean that you shouldn't.

[Jeroen Nijs · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bad things happen in the world, and I believe you should not close your eyes to them. But boy, did this book make me want to close my eyes. The late Anna Politkovskaya reports from the Second Chechen War, and especially the first half of the book is incredibly difficult to read. It took me almost a week to get through the first 100 pages. In it, she travels through Chechnya to talk to (mostly civilian) eyewitnesses of the war. The violence and lawlessness on display is just stunning.

Still, I am glad I persevered, because the second half, which tries to explain the mechanisms behind the war, is fascinating. Her theory is that the war kept going because everyone, except the civilians, of course, profited from it.

Recommended, if you can stomach the first half.

[Tamara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not russophobic enough.

Книжка має цінність як збірка свідчень про воєнні злочини росіян (мародерство, вбивства, катування, зґвалтування – це ті традиції, які в Росії передаються з покоління в покоління, черговий доказ цього ми зараз спостерігаємо в Україні), але від деяких коментарів Політковської в мене починало сіпатися око. Звичайно, вона критикує Путіна й співчуває цивільним, які постраждали від війни, але "бідних російських солдатиків" чи навіть полковників, з якими вона потоваришувала, їй теж шкода; коли Політковська говорить про винуватців, то ставить знак дорівнює між "федералами" і "бойовиками", а борців за незалежність Ічкерії вона називає "агресивними неосвіченими селюками-маргіналами".

[Felix · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although well-written, this isn't a particularly easy read. Those looking for a conventional narrative history are going to come away disappointed. This book principally consists of testimonies of experiences from the Second Chechnyan War, with a particular focus on the often grotesque actions of the Federal Security Service. Some of these accounts are stomach-turning, and that's what makes this book sometimes difficult to read.

Of course, it is also true that when this book was first published (in 2002), the outcome of the Chechen conflict was far from clear. Now, we know much more about the outcome than Politkovskaya knew back then. Some of the limited sparks of optimism in the testimonies (especially from the local elites involved), now seem strange and misplaced.

[Trish]

Will finish this one day.

[Clara · Rating 5 out of 5]

4,5/5 Dieses Buch in dem Wissen, was der Autorin widerfahren ist, zu lesen ist einfach nur schlimm. Sie erzählt hier fast in Kurzgeschichten vom Leben während der Tschetschenienkriege und unterscheidet hierbei in „ordinary chechen life“ und „modern russian life“. Beide Seiten haben ihre unglaublich herzzerreißenden Geschichten, doch ein Part ist mir besonders im Gedächtnis geblieben, sodass ich ihn mit noch einmal herausschreiben musste: „[…] Chechnya is a zone where some people can do whatever they want and others have to accept it.“ Allein dieser Satz zeigt die Grausamkeit eines Krieges und ist auch heute, über 20 Jahre später noch sehr aktuell.

[Carter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Translation can be clunky sometimes, and the non-stop grimness means you'll need to take it in pieces even though it is so short. But it's an essential piece of work from Politkovskaya.

[Sasha Timovich · Rating 5 out of 5]

She was murdered for this, and then nothing changed.

[James Doto · Rating 4 out of 5]

RIP Anna Politkovskaya. The author of this book was murdered for what she uncovered in Chechnya during the late 1990s and early 2000s.

[Yulia Polyanskaya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Daunting imagery of how Russia conducts wars. Twenty years passed, and the means still haven’t changed even slightly.

[Sooz · Rating 4 out of 5]

you know seldom a day goes by that i do not acknowledge how privileged i am. how damn lucky i am to live in a safe place. a reasonably sane place. i don't think i am particularly naive .... but i have to admit i have been naive where Russia is concerned.

i was living under this illusion that with each passing year and with each new leader, Russia was moving further and further away from Stalin and all that his reign entailed .... i believed that with each new leader, the Russian people were progressing ... moving towards government accountability, personal freedom ... towards a more secure, sane place to live.

reading this book couldn't have been more timely. learning of Putin's despicable actions towards the Chechnyan people ... the government's media control and the military's corruption ... well, it makes the current demonstrations against Putin -and his party's election tapering- understandable. and it makes me realize how naive i have been.

this is an eye-opening account and very readable. not quite an oral history, but the author does tend to recount stories and through Anna Politkovskaya, we meet some amazing people ... like Vika and Sasha who deserve a whole book of their own.

Politkovskaya was considered a war criminal. a spy. anyone from the outside who knew of the conditions in the Chechnya villages was considered a spy. and of course she is a war criminal ... when the government under president Putkin has a minister responsible for "creating a proper image of the war" a journalist like Politkovskaya would be considered the very worst possible war criminal.

[Marta Peresada · Rating 2 out of 5]

Сама Політковська в передмові до книги пише, що її керівники посилали саме її писати репортажі з Чечні, а не військових журналістів, щоб показати людський вимір війни. І це вдалося - книга сповнена співчуттям до жертв війни серед цивільного населення. 
Але при цьому авторка не позбавлена російської імперіалістської оптики. Вона пише про Чечню так, ніби це завжди була просто область Росії - проблемна область але будь-які її претензії на окремішність навіть не розглядалось у книзі як щось варте згадки. Риторика демонізації чеченських бійців як суцільних терористів, співзвучне Кремлю, теж присутня. Але найбільше вразило те, що після детальних описів вбивств, катувань, мародерства та інших звірств з боку російських військових і спецслужбовців, авторка звинувачує польових командирів у втечі, якою вони за її словами "цинічно підставили під знищення ту частину свого народу, яка ніякої втечі собі дозволити не в змозі". Тобто свідомо чи ні вона визнає, що "терористи" мали б захищати населення Чечні від російської армії, армії "своїх", якщо вірити головній лінії книги, яка представляє Чечню просто російською територією.
Політковська писала сміливо, пройшла важкі умови для написання цих репортажів і допомагала окремим людям з евакуацією та гуманітарною допомогою. Але мені важко сприймати це невміння додати 2+2 з усвідомленням того, що є певний зв'язок між присутністю російської влади та армії і масовими вбивствами, катуваннями, згвалтуваннями і мародерством. Це дуже суперечлива позиція, коли ти фактично допомагаєш кільком десяткам людей, співчуваєш сотням, але твої базові ідеї підтримують приниження або навіть знищення мільйонів. 

[Dimitar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Haunting, captivating, repulsive, capable of extinguishing whatever little hope you have for humanity as a whole.

Politkovskaya manages to lay the foundation for what seems to be the age-old Soviet approach to building a state - terror, hunger for expansion, little regard to what human life is worth. It's ironic reading this book in 2023, a little bit over a year after Putin begun the so-called "special military operation" in Ukraine, and finding textbook examples of the practices of the Russian army, tried and tested in Chechnya.

The stories in this book will make you numb, but at least once in that state, they read just like fiction, at least for me; I guess my brain refused to accept such behaviour as something that a human being could do. I wonder if Politkovksaya was aware she was the harbringer (or maybe prophet would be a better word) of her own eventual death... I think she was very well aware of what's coming for her, seeing as not only her fellow journalists, but also anyone courages enough to stand up to the injustice, was faced with a great danger to their own life.

I hope one day we'll live in a day and age when we'll look back on Anna's accounts of war as a bitter memory of the past. I hope.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Politkovskaya's simple yet striking accounts really make the reader feel present, struggling right alongside the Chechen people during their "occupation" by the Russians. When you close the book, you leave for a moment the grandmother who was shot in her bed, the child who witnessed his father's kidnapping, the woman who was raped, the man who was tortured, the family who starved to death. But the human rights violations are real, and continuing, with little to no outside aid.

And the author was killed in 2006 for her courage in exposing the atrocities.

[Daniel Simmons · Rating 5 out of 5]

Last year's novel "A Constellation of Vital Phenomena" won plaudits for its portrayal of the Chechen war, and its author Anthony Marra said he based much of his narrative on Politkovskaya's journalistic accounts. Skip the novel, and come straight to the original reporting. This is probably the single most horrifying book I've ever read. But it's also astonishing, and clear-eyed, and absolutely necessary.

[Simona Fedele · Rating 5 out of 5]

E' un libro, questo, da assumere a piccole dosi e così si spiega come io abbia potuto impiegarci 6 giorni a leggere 280 pagine. D'altronde non si può fare altro quando si parla di tragedie umane. Un po' com'era successo con "Atti umani" di Han Kang, allo stesso modo sono contenta di aver letto il libro della Politkovskaya ma sono anche contenta di averlo finito.

[TC · Rating 5 out of 5]

Intense, interesting vignettes and commentary.