The deeply researched and partly imagined story of the fearless,
internationally recognized journalist who was assassinated for believing
that 'words can save lives.'
Say No to Fear, part of the They Said No series of histories, tells
the story of Anna Politkovskaya's courageous life narrated from the
perspective of her longtime mentor and friend, the dissident writer
Vassily Pachoutinsev. From their first meeting when she was a young
literature student writing about poet Marina Tsvetaeva to her rise as an
internationally recognized journalist, through Vassily we see Anna
develop from junior reporter, to covering social issues after the fall
of the Soviet Union, to becoming a fearless defender of human rights.
Throughout the author brings the history to life by including key
conversations that might have happened between them at pivotal moments
in Politkovskaya's life.
A scathing critic of the second Chechen war, Politkovskaya published
most of her political work while working at the Novaya Gazeta, a
newspaper at the forefront of the fight for free expression in Russia.
For their outspokenness several members of its staff were murdered,
presumably silenced by Russia's Vladimir Putin and Chechen leader Ramzan
Kadyrov. Even after a poisoning attack and a mock execution,
Politkovskaya persisted, adamant in her fight for her children's and
grandchildren's world, critiquing the situation in Chechnya and Putin
until her assassination in 2006.
The narrator, Pachoutinsev, explains how her legacy lives on, inspiring
those in pursuit of justice and the truth both in Russia and abroad.
