Product Description

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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #166987 in Books
• Published on: 2007-04-13
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 232 pages

Review
"[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 "The silencing of a voice so commonsensical and so courageous should make the new.... Her work mattered worldwide because it was true democracy in action: because, unlike so many politicians in her own country and elsewhere, she genuinely put her life at risk to speak for the little people whose interests are all too often ignored." - Evening Standard (UK) "Anna Politkovskaya... dedicated her career to covering what other parts of the Russian media either ignored or misreported. She told the stories of people, in Chechnya and the Caucasus, who had experienced the horrors and privations of two brutal wars, and a 'peace' that was just as cruel." - Times (UK)"

About the Author
Anna Politkovskaya (1958 - 2006) received the Golden Pen Award from the Russian Union of Journalists in 2000, the Courage in Journalism Award from the International Women's Media Foundation, and the Prize for Journalism and Democracy from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.

Customer Reviews

Hidden truths
Having read widely about the Chechen conflict it was clear that Anna Politkovskaya was a dissenting voice that the Russians did not want to hear ... hey, they ended up killing her for her outspoken attacks on Putin and his cronies. To hear the real story of the Chechen conflict go no futher than this wonderfully lucid account of what modern warfare does to the ordinary people on both sides. There are heartbreaking accounts of the destruction of Grozny and the impact this had on the elderly and very young, accounts of the inept way in which the Russian authorities deal with the dead, wounded and missing on their own side ... there is literally one pathology department in the entire Russian army that deals with literally thousands of bodies being returned every year.
Propaganda? I think not, but with so little being allowed out and the current state of affairs with Putin and the Russian Federation where else could we get information? Anna was a beacon of hope in this dark and inhuman conflict and should have been celebrated as such. This book reveals why so little was made of her murder. The more people that read this the better.