Lana Estemirova

A RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEK 'Powerful . . . a coming-of-age story with a twist' Guardian 'Heart-wrenching . . . We need accounts like this haunting, compelling book' Telegraph 'A profound and moving tribute . . . It is Lana's inside perspective on what it was like to grow up within this society that makes this such a unique and powerful book' Sunday Times 'Wonderfully brave, beautifully written and utterly authentic' TLS 'Haunting' Radio Times 'Please live' were the last words fifteen-year-old Lana said to her mother. Shortly afterwards Natalia Estemirova was kidnapped outside their apartment block in Grozny, Chechnya. On 15th July 2009, she was murdered for telling the truth. A mountainous sliver of land which creates a natural boundary between Europe and Asia, for centuries Chechnya had been a sharp bone in Russia's throat. Three years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, frustrated by the continued presence of the independence movement within Chechnya, Russia invaded. It was a war of extraordinary brutality. It turned Lana's mother, Natalia Estemirova, from a teacher into a human rights investigator. She became a dedicated member of Memorial, intent on exposing the kidnappings, bombings, torture and murders committed by Russian forces and Ramzan Kadyrov, the Kremlin-backed Chechen President. Natalia Estemirova's life, assassination, and the impunity that followed it, tell the story of Putin's Russia. This is Lana's story of growing up in a war. Of the intense bond between a mother and daughter, desperate to be together even though it was so much safer for Lana to live elsewhere, often for months at a time. It is a book both about being brave and about being ordinary in extraordinary times. It's the fulfilment of a promise Lana made at her mother's grave.

A RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEK 'Powerful . . . a coming-of-age story with a twist' Guardian'Heart-wrenching . . . We need accounts like this haunting, compelling book' Telegraph'Haunting' Radio Times'Please live' were the last words fifteen-year-old Lana said to her mother. Shortly afterwards Natalia Estemirova was kidnapped outside their apartment block in Grozny, Chechnya. On 15th July 2009, she was murdered for telling the truth. A mountainous sliver of land which creates a natural boundary between Europe and Asia, for centuries Chechnya had been a sharp bone in Russia's throat. Three years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, frustrated by the continued presence of the independence movement within Chechnya, Russia invaded.It was a war of extraordinary brutality. It turned Lana's mother, Natalia Estemirova, from a teacher into a human rights investigator. She became a dedicated member of Memorial, intent on exposing the kidnappings, bombings, torture and murders committed by Russian forces and Ramzan Kadyrov, the Kremlin-backed Chechen President. Natalia Estemirova's life, assassination, and the impunity that followed it, tell the story of Putin's Russia. This is Lana's story of growing up in a war. Of the intense bond between a mother and daughter, desperate to be together even though it was so much safer for Lana to live elsewhere, often for months at a time. It is a book both about being brave and about being ordinary in extraordinary times. It's the fulfilment of a promise Lana made at her mother's grave.

I december i år har det gått trettio år sedan Boris ­ Jeltsin ­ beordrade rysk trupp mot den tjetjenska ­ huvudstadenGroznyj för att kväsa den tjetjenska delrepublikens själv- ständighets­ ambitioner. Det blev inledningen på det första av de två Tjetjenien­ krigen, som skulle ­ prägla den ryska samhällsutvecklingen på djupet och spela en helt central roll i Vladimir ­ Putins väg till makten. I och med att kla- nen Kadyrov installerades i ledningen för delrepubliken ett par år in på 2000-talet övergick den öppna militära konflikten i någonting annat, som man med ett samtida språkbruk frestas att kalla för en »hybridfred«. Det trauma som de tjetjenska krigen innebar både för det tjetjenska samhället och det omgivande ryska har förblivit obearbe- tat och krigsförbrytarna i stort sett ostraffade. Lana Estemirova är dotter till den tjetjenska människorättsaktivisten Natalja Estemirova, som mördades den 15 juli 1999. I detta samtal med den ryske historikern och prosaisten Sergej Lebedev försöker hon frilägga hur krigen inte bara förändrade det tjetjenska samhället i grunden, utan också pekar fram mot den ryska invasionen av Ukraina och övergreppen mot civilbefolkningen i Butja, Mariupol, Izium och otaliga andra platser i Ukraina. Samtalet ägde rum i april 2023.