What do you think?
Rate this book
Living No Lie: A Russian Diary 2021 – 2024
LIVING NO LIE is the diary of a gay Russian volunteer for the Ukrainian war relief effort. It combines a personal account of living under an authoritarian regime in Putin’s Russia with the heart-rending stories of Ukrainian war refugees, in an attempt to find unity – and family – in the midst of global conflict.
The author directs all profits from the sale of this book to refugees of the war in Ukraine.
ADVANCE PRAISE from Michael Bronski (author, A Queer History of the United States, Professor of Practice in Media and Activism at Harvard):
"Artem Mozgovoy’s LIVING NO LIE: A Russian Diary 2021—2024 is a heart wrenching account of the author’s leaving Russia to live his life as an openly gay man. In his new homeland of Belgium, after war breaks out, he volunteers to work in a center for Ukrainian refugees.
This is a story of exile–from homeland, from family, from freedom, from humanity–and it strikes at the heart of who each of us is today in a world torn apart by hatred and fear. Mozgovoy’s clinical eye for the details of the material world–a decaying Soviet era building, a deserted dark street in Brussels–is matched by his enormous ability to convey the deepest, often most frightening emotions. His writing can shatter the soul.
To say this is a brilliant meditation on exile–which it is–ignores the cold blooded fact that the harsh realities with which his diary grapples are lived everyday by people trapped in the maelstrom of history."
Artem Mozgovoy is a prize-winning writer and journalist who fled his country when Russia began legalising its persecution of gay people. His autobiographical coming-of-age novel Spring in Siberia was out in 2023 with Red Hen Press (US) and endorsed by Ocean Vuong, Stephen Fry, and Edmund White.
The author directs all profits from the sale of this book to refugees of the war in Ukraine.
ADVANCE PRAISE from Michael Bronski (author, A Queer History of the United States, Professor of Practice in Media and Activism at Harvard):
"Artem Mozgovoy’s LIVING NO LIE: A Russian Diary 2021—2024 is a heart wrenching account of the author’s leaving Russia to live his life as an openly gay man. In his new homeland of Belgium, after war breaks out, he volunteers to work in a center for Ukrainian refugees.
This is a story of exile–from homeland, from family, from freedom, from humanity–and it strikes at the heart of who each of us is today in a world torn apart by hatred and fear. Mozgovoy’s clinical eye for the details of the material world–a decaying Soviet era building, a deserted dark street in Brussels–is matched by his enormous ability to convey the deepest, often most frightening emotions. His writing can shatter the soul.
To say this is a brilliant meditation on exile–which it is–ignores the cold blooded fact that the harsh realities with which his diary grapples are lived everyday by people trapped in the maelstrom of history."
Artem Mozgovoy is a prize-winning writer and journalist who fled his country when Russia began legalising its persecution of gay people. His autobiographical coming-of-age novel Spring in Siberia was out in 2023 with Red Hen Press (US) and endorsed by Ocean Vuong, Stephen Fry, and Edmund White.
498 pages, Paperback
Published September 30, 2024
1 person is currently reading
15 people want to read
About the author
Artem Mozgovoy
2 books32 followersArtem Mozgovoy is a prize-winning writer and journalist from Siberia who migrated to Europe in 2011 when Russia began legalising its persecution of gay people. He writes poetry and fiction in English and Russian, and lives in Brussels, Belgium.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
November 8, 2024
Living No Lie by Artem Mozgovoy is such a painful yet, at the same time, deeply human and important book. This diary is more than just an account of Russia’s war against Ukraine, it’s a story about resilience of truth in our today’s brave new world of falsehoods. For me, as a Ukrainian, reading about the war in my country through the eyes of a Russian author was a striking experience. Volunteering at a refugee center, endless escape stories and even more endless frightening news – all of it felt so familiar.
This book isn’t just about one person’s journey: here, Artem Mozgovoy tells the stories of those around him. He shares the experiences of both Ukrainians and Russians (and not only!) affected by the war, capturing two different realities. This book draws everyone who reads it into a deep, human connection with the people the author portrays.
For anyone wanting to understand the war beyond the headlines, Living No Lie is essential
This book isn’t just about one person’s journey: here, Artem Mozgovoy tells the stories of those around him. He shares the experiences of both Ukrainians and Russians (and not only!) affected by the war, capturing two different realities. This book draws everyone who reads it into a deep, human connection with the people the author portrays.
For anyone wanting to understand the war beyond the headlines, Living No Lie is essential
October 26, 2024
Artem Mozgovoy proves a unique insight into his relationships with family, friends and ex colleagues in Russia after Putin invades Ukraine and of his support of Ukrainian refugees in Brussels where he lives having had to leave his homeland after the introduction of increasing homophobic repressive laws. It is heartbreaking in so many ways - Artem's conflicts with family and old friends caught up in Russian propaganda but also his concern for them as well as for elderly Ukrainians arriving from Bucha just wanting to return home to plant their vegetables. But humanity breaks through and alliances are made. Artem is a natural diarist. Perceptive, lyrical and searingly honest.
October 27, 2024
Living No Lie: A Russian Diary 2021-2024 is a remarkably brave and compassionate book. It's an up-close and intimate account of one young gay Russian man's flight from discrimination and persecution in Putin's Russia to a hoped-for Edenic 'freedoms' in Western Europe. The realities of life as a refugee, first in Luxembourg and later in a Belgium flooded with refugees from the invasion of Ukraine and struggling with an underbelly of aggressive Islamist homophobic immigrant gangs soon cast a darkening shadow over the paradise he'd envisioned. Displacement, unemployment, discrimination and bureaucratic blockages at every turn fail, however, to break the spirit of this courageous and gifted young man. Adversity is turned on its head when he volunteers as a helper in a refugee centre for Ukrainians also fleeing the dictator's iron fist. Living No Lies is a minor contemporary triumph, already a prize-winner in the US, and following on so soon from Artem Mozgovoy's break-out novel Spring in Siberia. It's a must-read. A deeply moving and, at times,an unexpectedly funny book. I loved it. John Clanchy (Australian novelist)
January 3, 2025
Living No Lie: A Russian Diary 2021–2024 is an extraordinary piece of writing that bridges the personal and the political. The author, a gay Russian volunteer working for the Ukrainian war relief effort, offers a deeply human perspective on life under Putin’s authoritarian regime and the devastating human cost of the ongoing war.
What sets this book apart is its honesty. The emotions are raw, unvarnished, and deeply resonant. The author doesn’t attempt to embellish or romanticize his experiences. Instead, they lay bare the pain, confusion, and small glimmers of hope that come from navigating such fraught times. Through the lens of their own experiences, the author captures both the crushing weight of living in an oppressive society and the heartbreak of witnessing the suffering of war refugees.
What I found particularly fascinating was the way the author weaves together themes of identity, community, and resilience. Their search for unity and a sense of family—against a backdrop of division and destruction—is profoundly moving.
This book forces readers to confront uncomfortable truths while also inspiring a sense of shared humanity.
What sets this book apart is its honesty. The emotions are raw, unvarnished, and deeply resonant. The author doesn’t attempt to embellish or romanticize his experiences. Instead, they lay bare the pain, confusion, and small glimmers of hope that come from navigating such fraught times. Through the lens of their own experiences, the author captures both the crushing weight of living in an oppressive society and the heartbreak of witnessing the suffering of war refugees.
What I found particularly fascinating was the way the author weaves together themes of identity, community, and resilience. Their search for unity and a sense of family—against a backdrop of division and destruction—is profoundly moving.
This book forces readers to confront uncomfortable truths while also inspiring a sense of shared humanity.
October 26, 2024
Written with infinite empathy and a keen sense of perception, this book, which records major contemporary events through scenes from the shattered lives of ordinary people, is punctuated by delicately balanced moments of intense despair and fragile joy, inviting the reader to open their eyes - all their eyes, especially those we prefer to keep closed. It shows that history is not impersonal, instead it has faces and names, it is us - and it’s great time for us to be awake and aware.
January 28, 2026
We should all read this book it opens our minds and in a very personal and sometimes hilarious way it shows us that in a world of wars and chaos it is urgent that we keep our humanity
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews