One of Russia's worst days

October 7th, 2006 was a clear, almost warm Saturday afternoon. For a worker from Novaya Gazeta, it was a day of getting the Monday edition ready. So it was that I was conducting this and keeping a column free at Anya's request, material about torture in Chechnya. Anya was always precise and obligatory, and if for some objective reason she was late on an article, she always called. But on that day…

Lunchtime came and went, then it was 4:05 pm and still no text message or call to the office. I then called. It rang a long time. But how they seem alarmingly short when people are just busy! But I had a soothing thought: maybe Anya was still at the hospital with her mother (we knew she was going to go there) and just had just turned the ringer off to avoid being disturbed.

If only our lives were subject to normal, human logic!

And then the terrible news — such news gets broadcast instantaneously. And somehow you just know it, when it is the truth.

At 4:04 pm Anya was no more.

So, only the killer would have heard my call. A ruthless monster, who shot her first in the thigh in order to make her feel the pain (we found this out from the investigators).

The beast did not answer the phone. He fled the scene and is yet to appear before a court of law, as well as someone else, perhaps an even more terrible monster, the one who paid for it all. But this is today's pain, but back then… At the time it seemed that everything had collapsed, everything that held up the world: the last foundations, the relationship between good and evil, something so that you could still believe in humanity.

And it was necessary to put out the Monday edition, even though I never wanted to ever produce another edition. But I just had to do that last edition.

And, of course, very soon a shell-shocked crowd of reporters flooded into the editorial office. We do not know the answer to one of their main question: was the killing of Politkovskaya a birthday gift to President at time?

Putin at that time said: «Politkovskaya's murder has done us even more damage than her articles.» Well, or something similar. I have no desire to check the punctuation, it is not a classic, but many remember the essence of his speech.

More and more years will pass, but people will remember that Fearless Anya, the name given to streets and squares in European capitals (only not in Moscow) was killed during the years of the Putin-Kadyrov governments.

And so, history was made before our eyes. But the newspaper 'Novaya Gazeta' on October 9th, 2006, was produced through a salty mist in these eyes.

Here is what I was able to write in that edition, and what I am write right now.

"She was beautiful. And over the years, she became even more so. Do you know why? We first obtain our face from God as a blank and the rest you do to it yourself, in the way that you live. Some say that in maturity the face begins to expose the soul. Her soul was beautiful.

She was feminine. She was able to laugh gracefully at a good joke, and cry at injustice. But she perceived someone else's injustice as her personal enemy, and she would fight it as long as she possibly could.

She was amazingly brave, much braver than those many, many machos in their armored jeeps and surrounded by bodyguards.

She was threatened; they tried to intimidate her, and arranged surveillance and conducted searches. She was arrested in Chechnya and «our» own paratroopers threatened to shoot her. She was poisoned when she flew to Beslan. Somehow she still muddled through, and even though she was never healthy again afterwards, even stronger than before did her conscience hurt.

Many people, even well wishers here at 'Novaya Gazeta', often said: «Well, your Politkovskaya is just too much.» Not too much! She always wrote the truth. It is another matter if this truth was often so terrible that the minds of many refused to accept it. From this, like a defensive reaction, come this «too much».

Maybe now they (and you) have finally understood that there was nothing in her articles that was «too much»?

Comments (4)

1. Cостоялась акция памяти Политковской Written by Светлана Губарева , on 08-10-2010 07:37 На траурное мероприятие пришли правозащитники, коллеги Политковской из «Новой газеты», политики и актеры. Среди участников митинга — лидер «Объединенного гражданского фронта» Гарри Каспаров, один из лидеров движения «Солидарность» Борис Немцов, главред «Новой газеты» Дмитрий Муратов, правозащитник Сергей Ковалев, а также артисты Александр Филиппенко и Лия Ахеджакова. Заместитель главного редактора «Новой газеты» Олег Хлебников выступил с предложением назвать именем Политковской Лесную улицу, на которой жила журналистка. По его мнению, Политковской также необходимо установить памятник. Lenta.ru Report

2. Нас — убивают! Written by Валерий Патрушев , on 08-10-2010 18:51 Плачут ветра над страной, завывают… Нас — убивают! Нас убивают снова и снова - Пулей и словом. Нас убивают трусливою дрожью, Сказанной ложью. Нас убивают благими порывами, Подлыми взрывами. Кто там при новости страшной зевает? Нас — убивают! Душка-ведущий, нельзя не влюбится, Вторит убийцам. Ярый политик, что в споре неистов, Пахнет убийством. Полночь глухая ли, солнце сияет - Нас убивают! Слышите, слышите, слышите стоны? Нас — миллионы. Кто там ворчит, что, мол, так не бывает? Нас — убивают. Вы, на костях наших сытно живущие, Вы — власть имущие, Стон в ваших душах не откликается? Вам не икается? Кровь, что на улицы волнами плещется, Вам не мерещится? Кто очарован кровавою сказкой - Нефтью кавказской? Иль не тревожат вас толпы покойников - Спите спокойненько? Что ж, не по вам ещё вдовы рыдают - Нас убивают! (2010) Report

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