Today, one can assess the activities of Anna Politkovskaya, a famous journalist, writer, and human rights activist, in different ways. She devoted most of her journalistic reporting to coverage of events from the hot spots of the North Caucasus.
Journalism
Anna is Russian but was born in New York in 1958. Her parents Stepan and Raisa Mazepa were engaged in diplomatic work.
Anya received her higher education at the main metropolitan university at the Faculty of Journalism. Her future husband Alexander was a graduate of the same university. The girl began her professional career in the Izvestia diary and the Air Transport newspaper. This was followed by cooperation with the publishing house "Parity" and the association "ESCART". The weekly "Megapolis Express" published her reports until the beginning of the 90s. Following this, the journalist headed the section of incidents in Obshchaya Gazeta.
In 1999, Anna joined the staff of Novaya Gazeta. The special correspondent chose as the key direction of her work a story about what was happening on the territory of Chechnya, where she often went on business trips. Essays from the Caucasus were highly appreciated by colleagues and the Golden Pen of Russia award. This was followed by the "Good Deed - Good Heart" award and the "Golden Gong" diploma.
Journalism
Impressions from visiting the North Caucasus were reflected in her work. The first book “Journey to Hell. The Chechen Diary”was published in 2000. It was followed by the collections "The Second Chechen" and "Chechnya: the Shame of Russia". The works have been translated and published in dozens of countries. “Putin's Russia” and “Russia without Putin” aroused particular interest. In them, the author spoke about the leaders of the state without admiration, complained about the lack of freedom in Russia.
Public figure
Anna proved to be an active human rights activist. She supported the families of soldiers who died during the service, participated in court hearings, and helped victims of the terrorist act on Dubrovka. The journalist studied the issues of corruption in the highest military circles and among the command in Chechnya. Without hiding her emotions, she spoke out rather harshly about the current leadership of the country.
Personal life
Anna created a family with Alexander Politkovsky when she was a student at Moscow State University. The continuation of their love was the children: son Ilya and daughter Vera. The family union lasted more than twenty years, but, according to Alexander, the marriage ceased to exist in 2000, although there was no divorce. They looked at the profession differently, the husband considered himself a real reporter, and did not share his wife's passion for journalism: “this is either writing or something else”. The spouses' careers did not develop in the same way. At first, Anna was unlucky, in journalism her name became known only in the late 90s. The peak of Alexander's popularity, on the contrary, fell on the times of perestroika. All the time, spouses and colleagues supported each other.
Doom
On the evening of October 2006, surveillance cameras recorded how an unknown person shot Anna in the elevator of her house, leaving behind a weapon and cartridge cases from four shots. The possible contractual nature of the murder immediately aroused several speculations. According to one version, the customer of the crime was a security officer, according to another, Boris Berezovsky himself. The reason could be both the professional activity of the journalist, namely her investigation of the "Chechen issue", and personal motives. Since 2008, several court hearings have taken place, which named those responsible for the death of the journalist and assigned them various prison terms.
The high-profile murder of a journalist raised a wave of public opinion. Most of her colleagues admired the courageous Muscovite in the fight against corruption and human rights violations, and Anna's death was called "a blow to the conscience of journalism."There were also those who called her journalistic materials "children's fairy tales" based on rumors. Rallies were held in different regions demanding to find and punish those responsible. The head of state, commenting on the incident, said that the death of the journalist brought the authorities and Russia "more damage and damage than her publications."
