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Una guerra sucia (OTROS NO FICCIÓN)
Anna Politkovskaia es la única periodista rusa que ha surcado el territorio checheno desde el principio de la guerra, y la única en dar testimonio en su país de las atrocidades que se cometieron. Una guerra sucia recoge los reportajes publicados por Politkovskaia en el semanario Novaïa Gazeta entre finales de agosto de 1999 y abril de 2000. Unos reportajes que constituyen el libro de la guerra; la desproveen de toda lógica, esbozan el retrato despiadado y trágico de un ejército ruso a la deriva, dirigiéndose hacia el odio racista contra los chechenos.
A través de sus investigaciones, Anna Politkovskaia llega a la conclusión que las autoridades rusas quieren instaurar en Chechenia un régimen militar brutal, transformando los pueblos en guetos y conseguir así que la república independentista se convierta en una reserva para los indios del siglo XXI, es decir, para los chechenos, condenados a extinguirse.
A través de sus investigaciones, Anna Politkovskaia llega a la conclusión que las autoridades rusas quieren instaurar en Chechenia un régimen militar brutal, transformando los pueblos en guetos y conseguir así que la república independentista se convierta en una reserva para los indios del siglo XXI, es decir, para los chechenos, condenados a extinguirse.
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First published January 1, 2000
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About the author
Anna Politkovskaya
11 books284 followersRussian journalist and human rights activist well-known for her opposition to the Chechen conflict and Russian president Putin.
Politkovskaya made her name reporting from lawless Chechnya, where many journalists and humanitarian workers have been kidnapped or killed. She was arrested and subjected to mock execution by Russian military forces there, and she was poisoned on the way to Beslan, but survived and continued her reporting.
She authored several books about Chechen wars as well as Putin's Russia and received numerous prestigious international awards for her work.
She was shot dead in the elevator of her apartment building on.
Politkovskaya made her name reporting from lawless Chechnya, where many journalists and humanitarian workers have been kidnapped or killed. She was arrested and subjected to mock execution by Russian military forces there, and she was poisoned on the way to Beslan, but survived and continued her reporting.
She authored several books about Chechen wars as well as Putin's Russia and received numerous prestigious international awards for her work.
She was shot dead in the elevator of her apartment building on.
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May 26, 2022
Anna Politkovskaya was murdered next to her own apartment in Moscow in 2006. Needless to say, her killers were never found. She was reporting on the Chechen war and human rights abuses in Russia. She was warned many times about the dangers to her life. But she refused to give up her reporting. During Beslan terrorist attack in 2004 when hundreds of school children were hold hostages, she flow there. She wanted to talk to the hostage takers. She was convinced she could help and safe lives. But she was poisoned on the plane and never made it there. The school was stormed and bombed by the Russians. Before the storm,
"they detonated an explosive and fired tube-launched "flame thrower" projectiles that were actually thermobaric incendiary devices to the roof of the gym where the hostages were held.... When the smoldering ruines of the school were investigated, it turned out that 317 hostages were killed, 186 of them where primary school age children. Most were killed when the burning gym roof fell in on them and incinerated them." (from the book "Inferno in Chechnya" p 190, that I am not allowed to link apparently!)."
The terrorists of course where destroyed as well. But that was the price. Politkovskaya could make the difference. They did not let her. But she continued to do what she was convince the right thing until the last day of her life..
This is the collection of her dispatches from Chechen War in 1999 - early 00s. Through them, one can see how her gaze hardens. It starts with the investigation of on-going trade with the bodies of Russian soldiers with help of the authorities. And it ends with the report of a massacre of civilian population in Novye Aldy. In meantime she reports from the refugee camps in Ingushetia, tells the about "love and fascism" in Moscow referring to numerous stories of groundless detention of the people originally from Caucasus and the struggle of their loved ones. There is also an interview with Kadyrov-dad alive then who quips: "The ordinary man does not need freedom."
It is a difficult read for obvious reasons. But I think it is necessary one to understand the war between Russia and Ukraine now. It helps to see the roots of the current war or rather that many horrors we see in the news now have been already performed 20 years ago. Nothing fundamentally changed since then. And the world let Russia get away with it then. Only side who took lessons from this fact was the Russian side, it seems. They understood they could terrorise other countries and they would.
"It's quite evident that the new war in the Caucasus also caught Russian society off-guard. Where are the human rights activists? The intelligentsia, the conscience of the nation? Where has all that army of socially active people gone? Why do we not hear their voices raised in defence of the victims of the war? Or at least in support of. the truth. There is a war going on, but those taking part continue to be officially described as no more than "participants of an anti-terrorist operation. ... The minds of the majority are becoming rapidly and totally militarised: they talk of "wiping out", "crushing" and "smashing" the enemy, while the minority, faced with military euphoria, lapse into a state of apathy."
Politkovskaya writes this in 1999. So what has changed? Only one thing that now this questions would probably not even make sense for those people who are inside Russia.
I was reading those articles by her. I obviously read the news and have personal connection to the current situation. But naturally I've developed a certain mechanisms of physiological self-defence within the last 3 months. So I've managed to look at many facts in this book from more analytical than emotional point of view. And only at one point I felt my self-defence was totally broken:
a fragment from essay "My homeland" by 11 year old refugee boy living in a camp in Ingushetia:
"I have only one homeland. Grozny. It was the most beautiful city in all the world. But my beautiful city was destroyed by Russia and together with it, all Chechnya and the people living there. The people that Russia hand yet managed to destroy went to Ingushetia, as I did. But I miss my home. I so terribly want to go home although I know already that my house has been bombed to pieces. All the same, I want to go...Why do I want to live at home? SO I can have the right to do what I want, and no one would tell me off. Leave us alone, Russia. We've already fed up with you!"
"they detonated an explosive and fired tube-launched "flame thrower" projectiles that were actually thermobaric incendiary devices to the roof of the gym where the hostages were held.... When the smoldering ruines of the school were investigated, it turned out that 317 hostages were killed, 186 of them where primary school age children. Most were killed when the burning gym roof fell in on them and incinerated them." (from the book "Inferno in Chechnya" p 190, that I am not allowed to link apparently!)."
The terrorists of course where destroyed as well. But that was the price. Politkovskaya could make the difference. They did not let her. But she continued to do what she was convince the right thing until the last day of her life..
This is the collection of her dispatches from Chechen War in 1999 - early 00s. Through them, one can see how her gaze hardens. It starts with the investigation of on-going trade with the bodies of Russian soldiers with help of the authorities. And it ends with the report of a massacre of civilian population in Novye Aldy. In meantime she reports from the refugee camps in Ingushetia, tells the about "love and fascism" in Moscow referring to numerous stories of groundless detention of the people originally from Caucasus and the struggle of their loved ones. There is also an interview with Kadyrov-dad alive then who quips: "The ordinary man does not need freedom."
It is a difficult read for obvious reasons. But I think it is necessary one to understand the war between Russia and Ukraine now. It helps to see the roots of the current war or rather that many horrors we see in the news now have been already performed 20 years ago. Nothing fundamentally changed since then. And the world let Russia get away with it then. Only side who took lessons from this fact was the Russian side, it seems. They understood they could terrorise other countries and they would.
"It's quite evident that the new war in the Caucasus also caught Russian society off-guard. Where are the human rights activists? The intelligentsia, the conscience of the nation? Where has all that army of socially active people gone? Why do we not hear their voices raised in defence of the victims of the war? Or at least in support of. the truth. There is a war going on, but those taking part continue to be officially described as no more than "participants of an anti-terrorist operation. ... The minds of the majority are becoming rapidly and totally militarised: they talk of "wiping out", "crushing" and "smashing" the enemy, while the minority, faced with military euphoria, lapse into a state of apathy."
Politkovskaya writes this in 1999. So what has changed? Only one thing that now this questions would probably not even make sense for those people who are inside Russia.
I was reading those articles by her. I obviously read the news and have personal connection to the current situation. But naturally I've developed a certain mechanisms of physiological self-defence within the last 3 months. So I've managed to look at many facts in this book from more analytical than emotional point of view. And only at one point I felt my self-defence was totally broken:
a fragment from essay "My homeland" by 11 year old refugee boy living in a camp in Ingushetia:
"I have only one homeland. Grozny. It was the most beautiful city in all the world. But my beautiful city was destroyed by Russia and together with it, all Chechnya and the people living there. The people that Russia hand yet managed to destroy went to Ingushetia, as I did. But I miss my home. I so terribly want to go home although I know already that my house has been bombed to pieces. All the same, I want to go...Why do I want to live at home? SO I can have the right to do what I want, and no one would tell me off. Leave us alone, Russia. We've already fed up with you!"
June 7, 2015
I read this book a few years before Anna Politkovskaya was murdered and I was astonished at the time by her passionate need to pursue the truth of the Chechen war without favoring either side. She was as contemptuous of both sides as she was sympathetic to those who were forced -in whatever way - to become part of the brutality for which both sides were responsible. She wrote from, and for, the human level. Her aim was to be a reporter, someone who saw a situation and told us what she saw. Too honest an approach, too troubling for those in power, too vivid in her descriptions of how war works on the human mind and body. Someone decided she was too much of a nuisance, too bothered by death. So she too had to die.
March 26, 2018
"Invidio chi non sa niente di tutto questo!"
Così dice Anna Politkovskaya, russa, giornalista, Donna, che si è immolata in nome di una verità che non poteva ignorare, che apre i suoi occhi sull'orrore delle due guerre cecene (e non solo), che era lì per contrattare con i terroristi nel teatro Dubroskaia, che scrive nero su bianco i "Motivi per cui non amo Putin".
È difficile riuscire a dare un giudizio su un lavoro del genere. È difficile anche capire fino in fondo se tutto questo ha un senso oppure no, dato che oggi è il 26 Marzo 2018 e otto giorni fa Putin è stato rieletto per la quarta volta presidente, quando è ormai palese che c'è lui dietro la morte di tanti uomini e donne che raccontavano la loro Russia, un paese che sempre più si allontana dalla trasparenza per ritornare all'idea zarista di governo, dove la comunicazione è controllata tanto che se una personalità, un giornale, un canale televisivo esce dal coro viene violentemente richiamato all'ordine dal Cremlino con tutte le conseguenze che ciò comporta.... Perché allora rinunciare alla propria vita? Probabilmente perché a volte semplicemente non si riesce a smettere di essere sé stessi, si continua a fare ciò che sappiamo fare, si continua a dire ciò che si crede. Anna era una giornalista russa sovrastata dal suo senso di responsabilità quindi scriveva della Russia.
Dice Anna Politkovskaya: Sono ancora viva, ma non è forse al prezzo della vita altrui? Non li ho forse spinti io verso il fuoco dei mitra militari? Involontariamente, certo, ma ho giocato loro un pessimo tiro.... Cosa fare? Devo continuare perché la loro morte non sia, in fin dei conti, inutile? Ma niente potrà togliermi il senso di colpa che ho nei confronti di coloro che hanno sacrificato la vita per il mio lavoro, per la mia resistenza al tipo di giornalismo che si sta instaurando in Russia grazie alla guerra "alla Putin"....
Una lezione per ricordarci di quanto grande e quanto meschino possa essere l'uomo, a ciascuno il compito di trovarvi il proprio senso.
Voto: 7,5
Così dice Anna Politkovskaya, russa, giornalista, Donna, che si è immolata in nome di una verità che non poteva ignorare, che apre i suoi occhi sull'orrore delle due guerre cecene (e non solo), che era lì per contrattare con i terroristi nel teatro Dubroskaia, che scrive nero su bianco i "Motivi per cui non amo Putin".
È difficile riuscire a dare un giudizio su un lavoro del genere. È difficile anche capire fino in fondo se tutto questo ha un senso oppure no, dato che oggi è il 26 Marzo 2018 e otto giorni fa Putin è stato rieletto per la quarta volta presidente, quando è ormai palese che c'è lui dietro la morte di tanti uomini e donne che raccontavano la loro Russia, un paese che sempre più si allontana dalla trasparenza per ritornare all'idea zarista di governo, dove la comunicazione è controllata tanto che se una personalità, un giornale, un canale televisivo esce dal coro viene violentemente richiamato all'ordine dal Cremlino con tutte le conseguenze che ciò comporta.... Perché allora rinunciare alla propria vita? Probabilmente perché a volte semplicemente non si riesce a smettere di essere sé stessi, si continua a fare ciò che sappiamo fare, si continua a dire ciò che si crede. Anna era una giornalista russa sovrastata dal suo senso di responsabilità quindi scriveva della Russia.
Dice Anna Politkovskaya: Sono ancora viva, ma non è forse al prezzo della vita altrui? Non li ho forse spinti io verso il fuoco dei mitra militari? Involontariamente, certo, ma ho giocato loro un pessimo tiro.... Cosa fare? Devo continuare perché la loro morte non sia, in fin dei conti, inutile? Ma niente potrà togliermi il senso di colpa che ho nei confronti di coloro che hanno sacrificato la vita per il mio lavoro, per la mia resistenza al tipo di giornalismo che si sta instaurando in Russia grazie alla guerra "alla Putin"....
Una lezione per ricordarci di quanto grande e quanto meschino possa essere l'uomo, a ciascuno il compito di trovarvi il proprio senso.
Voto: 7,5
November 20, 2017
I have a Bachelor degree in Journalism and Communication and I remember Anna Politkovskaya's biography very well. I grew fond of her work and writing style as I went through numerous reads on investigative journalism. Her research and articles were helpful and insightful not only to me, but to every student who aspired to be a great investigative journalist.
Anna's life and experiences are a work study in itself, let alone her investigations. It is unbelievable that in 2002 there was an actual war followed by enormous atrocities, that was happening right under Europe's nose. While reading the book I felt like I was going through WW1 or at least WW2, but when Anna was mentioning elevators, phones, buildings with more than five floors, jeans, personal cars and motorcycles I couldn't bring myself to grasp the fact that these almost-Medieval-like barbarisms were happening only 15 years ago.
I have a Masters degree in International Relations and Diplomacy and my dissertation's keyword was 'Russianness'. Exactly, Russia doesn't mean anything, but 'Russianness' does. Anna discerns it throughout her entire work and now I regret a little for not using her book as a reference for my thesis. What about it though? When Russia begins to lose balance in her status, then starts seeking it from over the fence. Why? Cause she cannot find anything within the facades.
Though I have heard frequently that Anna is an anti-Russian, as it may seem from her work, I do think that she loved her country more than anyone could love a country, but not in anyone's way. We are all almost intuitively entitled to patriotism towards our country due to nationalistic propaganda (in modern terms: Foreign Policy), nation's image-branding-process and so on. It is different when it comes to feeling a part of a certain nation in a more human level.
I recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn about a different image of Russia, see how one huge country wages war to a weak country in order to become great in people's small minds.
Anna's life and experiences are a work study in itself, let alone her investigations. It is unbelievable that in 2002 there was an actual war followed by enormous atrocities, that was happening right under Europe's nose. While reading the book I felt like I was going through WW1 or at least WW2, but when Anna was mentioning elevators, phones, buildings with more than five floors, jeans, personal cars and motorcycles I couldn't bring myself to grasp the fact that these almost-Medieval-like barbarisms were happening only 15 years ago.
I have a Masters degree in International Relations and Diplomacy and my dissertation's keyword was 'Russianness'. Exactly, Russia doesn't mean anything, but 'Russianness' does. Anna discerns it throughout her entire work and now I regret a little for not using her book as a reference for my thesis. What about it though? When Russia begins to lose balance in her status, then starts seeking it from over the fence. Why? Cause she cannot find anything within the facades.
Though I have heard frequently that Anna is an anti-Russian, as it may seem from her work, I do think that she loved her country more than anyone could love a country, but not in anyone's way. We are all almost intuitively entitled to patriotism towards our country due to nationalistic propaganda (in modern terms: Foreign Policy), nation's image-branding-process and so on. It is different when it comes to feeling a part of a certain nation in a more human level.
I recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn about a different image of Russia, see how one huge country wages war to a weak country in order to become great in people's small minds.
August 14, 2025
Eine Empfehlung für jeden, der sich ein Bild vom Tschetschenienkrieg machen möchte.
Der Schreibstil von Anna Politkowskaja ist sehr angenehm und fesselnd. Trotz der Komplexität des Themas kann man der Darstellung stets gut folgen.
Es handelt sich um einen Krieg, den man heutzutage kaum noch kennt, der jedoch damals von großer Bedeutung für den Zerfall der Sowjetunion und den Aufbau des heutigen Russlands war. Die Autorin zeigt auf, wie Machtspielereien und Machtdemonstrationen wichtiger waren als Menschenrechte. Sie beschreibt, dass es in diesem Krieg keine Rolle spielte, wer Feind und wer Freund war – es gab Krieg um des Krieges willen, und das bringt sie hervorragend zum Ausdruck.
Der Schreibstil von Anna Politkowskaja ist sehr angenehm und fesselnd. Trotz der Komplexität des Themas kann man der Darstellung stets gut folgen.
Es handelt sich um einen Krieg, den man heutzutage kaum noch kennt, der jedoch damals von großer Bedeutung für den Zerfall der Sowjetunion und den Aufbau des heutigen Russlands war. Die Autorin zeigt auf, wie Machtspielereien und Machtdemonstrationen wichtiger waren als Menschenrechte. Sie beschreibt, dass es in diesem Krieg keine Rolle spielte, wer Feind und wer Freund war – es gab Krieg um des Krieges willen, und das bringt sie hervorragend zum Ausdruck.
March 26, 2018
Difficile è commentare quest'opera. Non si può non considerare che Anna Politkovskaya è morta per averla scritta ed era perfettamente cosciente che questo sarebbe potuto accadere così come era consapevole che più di una persona era stata uccisa per il solo fatto di aver accettato di parlare con lei.
"Cecenia, il disonore russo" è un'opera di denuncia: narra senza mezzi termini cosa accade da anni in Cecenia e il perché questo stia accadendo. Sviscera le dinamiche di questo genocidio che sta avvenendo sotto gli occhi e l'indifferenza dell'Europa, le forze in campo e gli interessi che ci sono dietro.
Anna Politkovskaya scrive poi nero su bianco le molte e valide ragioni per cui non ama Putin e viene uccisa (casualmente) proprio il giorno del compleanno del Presidente. Nessuno ovviamente verrà incriminato per questo assassinio.
è un libro che non ho amato leggere: non si può amare leggere di corpi bruciati e di donne violentate, ma è un libro che sono contenta di aver letto.
"Cecenia, il disonore russo" è un'opera di denuncia: narra senza mezzi termini cosa accade da anni in Cecenia e il perché questo stia accadendo. Sviscera le dinamiche di questo genocidio che sta avvenendo sotto gli occhi e l'indifferenza dell'Europa, le forze in campo e gli interessi che ci sono dietro.
Anna Politkovskaya scrive poi nero su bianco le molte e valide ragioni per cui non ama Putin e viene uccisa (casualmente) proprio il giorno del compleanno del Presidente. Nessuno ovviamente verrà incriminato per questo assassinio.
è un libro che non ho amato leggere: non si può amare leggere di corpi bruciati e di donne violentate, ma è un libro che sono contenta di aver letto.
April 5, 2017
Anyone tempted to say that heroes no longer exist need look no further than opposition Russian journalists to be proven wrong. Although there are many heroes and martyrs amongst that group, the name Anna Politkovskaya is particularly sacred. A furious truth-teller, Politkovskay always had the courage of her convictions, descending into chaos, corruption, and the hell of the Second Chechen War in order to shine the light of her reporting on the deserving and undeserving alike. Her murder, about which doubts still linger, was a tragedy, but it is heartening to see that even in death she could not be silenced. "A Dirty War" is a collection of her articles on the Second Chechen War, here translated into English and provided with an introduction, maps, and notes to help orient the reader.
"A Dirty War" is neither an exhaustive historical overview, nor the kind of "balanced" reporting American readers have come to expect from their own journalists. Politkovskaya was writing about contemporary issues for a Russian audience and expected them to be familiar with the cultural context of Russia in the late 1990s/early 2000s. The maps and notes will aid readers less familiar with the topic to keep track, but this is not a textbook survey of the situation and the players, so if you are looking for an introductory text on the Chechen wars, this is probably not the book for you. And American readers, used to the the fearful faux objectivity of much mainstream American news, may be taken aback by Politkovskaya's overt presence within the text. She has no fear of taking a position and making it clear, even if it means contradicting herself: the first article, "Grave Robbers," slams the agencies responsible for identifying the bodies of soldiers killed in action during the First Chechen War for incompetence and profiteering, while the second article, "Land of the Unknown Soldiers," written after she had interviewed those in charge of the process, sympathetically lays out all the obstacles facing them. American readers may find the strident outrage that is so evident in Politkovskaya's writing to be refreshing, or they may find it off-putting, but in either case they will find it striking.
Although Politkovskaya has no problem in staking a position and defending it, she does not shy away from presenting the voices of all sides of the issue. "A Dirty War" includes interviews with refugees, ordinary citizens, Chechen leaders, Russian functionaries, Russian soldiers of all ranks, including a surprisingly sympathetic interview with General Shamanov, and Chechen separatist fighters. The overall picture is of people drowning in confusion and incompetence, both their own and others'. Refugees are trapped in camps without food, water, or heating for months, but attempts to restore Grozny to habitability are stymied by looters who strip the water and sewage stations of parts, rendering them inoperable. OMON [kind of like American SWAT teams] troops are forced to live off meager supplies of spoiled meat as they man checkpoints. Doctors and the families of the wounded have to go barter on the black market for anesthetic to perform operations. Even the higher-ups are not immune to the soul-sucking nature of the conflict: Shamanov, after issuing a number of platitudes about the need to do the dirty work that no one else will, is last shown sitting by himself at a function honoring paratroopers, so lonely and depressed that "It was painful to look at him." No one reading this can be left with the impression that war, particularly this war, is a glorious business.
Politkovskaya was in the business of revealing the ills of society, not necessarily curing them, and so there's more here to infuriate the reader then to inspire them. Or rather, Politkovskaya wanted to inspire her readers by infuriating them into action. A number of the articles contain direct appeals to the readers to take specific actions to help Politkovskaya and her colleagues at Novaya Gazeta in their attempts to do at least a little good for the most wretched of the people she encounters. Although now, the better part of two decades after these events have taken place, and more than a decade after Politkovskaya's murder, there is not much that we can do about anything depicted in the book, we can still bear witness. And while "A Dirty War" may have much in it that is indeed dirty, not to mention depressing, it is also a testament to unrelenting heroism, not just Politkovskaya's, but that of the many doctors, teachers, volunteers, and others who stepped forward at great personal discomfort and risk in order to help out people whom their government and the world at large had abandoned. "A Dirty War" may leave you appalled at the depths to which humans can sink, but it will also leave you astounded at the heights of altruism and courage to which they can rise.
"A Dirty War" is neither an exhaustive historical overview, nor the kind of "balanced" reporting American readers have come to expect from their own journalists. Politkovskaya was writing about contemporary issues for a Russian audience and expected them to be familiar with the cultural context of Russia in the late 1990s/early 2000s. The maps and notes will aid readers less familiar with the topic to keep track, but this is not a textbook survey of the situation and the players, so if you are looking for an introductory text on the Chechen wars, this is probably not the book for you. And American readers, used to the the fearful faux objectivity of much mainstream American news, may be taken aback by Politkovskaya's overt presence within the text. She has no fear of taking a position and making it clear, even if it means contradicting herself: the first article, "Grave Robbers," slams the agencies responsible for identifying the bodies of soldiers killed in action during the First Chechen War for incompetence and profiteering, while the second article, "Land of the Unknown Soldiers," written after she had interviewed those in charge of the process, sympathetically lays out all the obstacles facing them. American readers may find the strident outrage that is so evident in Politkovskaya's writing to be refreshing, or they may find it off-putting, but in either case they will find it striking.
Although Politkovskaya has no problem in staking a position and defending it, she does not shy away from presenting the voices of all sides of the issue. "A Dirty War" includes interviews with refugees, ordinary citizens, Chechen leaders, Russian functionaries, Russian soldiers of all ranks, including a surprisingly sympathetic interview with General Shamanov, and Chechen separatist fighters. The overall picture is of people drowning in confusion and incompetence, both their own and others'. Refugees are trapped in camps without food, water, or heating for months, but attempts to restore Grozny to habitability are stymied by looters who strip the water and sewage stations of parts, rendering them inoperable. OMON [kind of like American SWAT teams] troops are forced to live off meager supplies of spoiled meat as they man checkpoints. Doctors and the families of the wounded have to go barter on the black market for anesthetic to perform operations. Even the higher-ups are not immune to the soul-sucking nature of the conflict: Shamanov, after issuing a number of platitudes about the need to do the dirty work that no one else will, is last shown sitting by himself at a function honoring paratroopers, so lonely and depressed that "It was painful to look at him." No one reading this can be left with the impression that war, particularly this war, is a glorious business.
Politkovskaya was in the business of revealing the ills of society, not necessarily curing them, and so there's more here to infuriate the reader then to inspire them. Or rather, Politkovskaya wanted to inspire her readers by infuriating them into action. A number of the articles contain direct appeals to the readers to take specific actions to help Politkovskaya and her colleagues at Novaya Gazeta in their attempts to do at least a little good for the most wretched of the people she encounters. Although now, the better part of two decades after these events have taken place, and more than a decade after Politkovskaya's murder, there is not much that we can do about anything depicted in the book, we can still bear witness. And while "A Dirty War" may have much in it that is indeed dirty, not to mention depressing, it is also a testament to unrelenting heroism, not just Politkovskaya's, but that of the many doctors, teachers, volunteers, and others who stepped forward at great personal discomfort and risk in order to help out people whom their government and the world at large had abandoned. "A Dirty War" may leave you appalled at the depths to which humans can sink, but it will also leave you astounded at the heights of altruism and courage to which they can rise.
September 6, 2017
This was my first real exposure to Politkovskaya's work. And after reading "Nothing is True and Everything is Possible" and "The Sky Wept Fire" just before this, it's difficult to rate a book about how much I "liked" it. Politkovskaya's prose is brutal, mirroring her subject matter. I would rate this as a "must read" for anyone wanting to understand Moscow's relationship with Chechnya and the Chechens.
August 2, 2017
Un testo assolutamente da leggere! Mi ha chiarito una situazione di cui non si sente mai parlare, pur essendo gravissima. Volevo capire qualcosa sulla Russia post comunismo e devo dire che questo libro ha soddisfatto in pieno le mie aspettative. Ovviamente leggerò anche gli altri della Politkovskajia. Riguardo il valore dell'autrice ho una sola parola: incommensurabile!
May 2, 2010
Eerie to read now, my original review of this published in the San Francisco Chronicle in 2002:
The amazing thing is not that Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya was ultimately forced into exile in Vienna after a series of particularly emphatic and believable death threats last September.
No, the amazing thing is that Politkovskaya was able to plug away as long as she did with her fearless, heartbreaking articles in Russia's Novaya Gazeta on the human calamity unfolding in Chechnya. Many of those articles, reported from 1999 to early 2001 during the second Chechen war, have now been collected in this disturbing volume, "A Dirty War," translated with refreshing immediacy and clarity by John Crowfoot.
Politkovskaya calls herself a reporter, because in fact she gets out there and risks her life and finds out what's going on. But she does not slow down in her writing in some pointless show of what American reporters like to call "objectivity." She tells it like it is, again and again, in a way that few short of Mencken and Orwell have before her.
"A real war has its own bitter and proud symbols," she writes in a dispatch from July 24, 2000. "Like May 1945. . . . This war has nothing. We don't even know if it's a real war or not. We already know that there will never be a victory. It's like some crazy, broken merry-go-round dangling little zinc coffins instead of horses."
There will never be a victory, Politkovskaya believes, because even as Russian military forces have devastated the capital of Grozny and largely subdued Chechen separatist fighters, they have burned into young Chechens an ever-greater sense of separateness from Russia, as well as a hunger for revenge.
The power of the book comes in the way it combines a sober grasp of the big picture, so at odds with the official line pumped out by Vladimir Putin's press machine, with an energetic exploration of the human particulars. Learning of the pathetic residents of a Grozny home for the elderly, for example, many of whom are half-mad with hunger and privation, no reader can see the annihilation of Grozny in quite the same light again.
But it would grow tiresome to focus only on the terrible price exacted on the Chechen people. There are many victims in this surrealistic cauldron of profiteering, corruption and often pointless violence, and that includes young,
poorly trained Russian soldiers. Often these young men are not even given adequate rations, instead facing a choice between nearly starving or getting sick eating spoiled tins of meat. Why? Because of greedy businessmen making an extra buck by cutting corners at every opportunity, even in supplying food for scared young men facing death.
Politkovskaya's passion can at times make her fall in love with the power of her own observations, as when she watches a general at a ceremonial dinner and remarks that he looked so lonely, it was "painful" to watch. Maybe he was just bored? Or had heartburn?
But her balanced moral imagination and restless pursuit of telling details gives her tales a way of lingering in the mind. This is especially true in her accounts of Chechen schoolchildren trying to carry on in the midst of humiliating circumstances.
A group of 15 Chechen boys was invited to attend a military academy in the Siberian city of Omsk, as some kind of Russian PR gambit. The Russian minister of defense showed up for the TV cameras to get credit for this wonderful show of humanitarianism. But the venture soon turned sour. The boys were taunted by their schoolmates; graffiti read "N-- OUT OF OMSK!" The four who stuck it out, despite the abuse, were barred from taking their final exams. "Whatever happens," a teacher told them, "Chechens won't study here."
The boys were basically left to their own devices to make it home, and ended up sleeping in train stations, hungry and broke, slowly making their way back. But that was not the end of the indignity, or the deep cynicism behind the whole episode. Even after the fiasco, a Russian military officer still wanted to milk the episode for PR value.
"Chechen lads are studying in Omsk," he said on TV. "Now they're on holidays and soon they will return there."
To which Politkovskaya asks a reasonable question: "Who was he trying to fool?"
Elsewhere, she visits a tent-school for refugee children and records their essays on the idea of home, including this one by a girl named Marina: "My city Grozny always radiated beauty and goodness. But now all that is gone like a beautiful dream and only memories remain. The war is blind, it doesn't see the city, the school or the children. . . . Soldiers! Think of your children, of your own childhood! . . . Leave us alone! We want to go home."
Since Sept. 11, the United States and its key Western European allies have all agreed not to put pressure on Russia over allegations of persistent human- rights violations in Chechnya. Such is the price of coalition-building. But no one reading Politkovskaya's brave collection can quite take at face value the repeated Russian claims, recently echoed in Washington, London and Berlin, that in Chechnya the Russians are merely cracking down on "terrorists."
There have been some links between Chechen separatists and Osama bin Laden, and a truly independent Chechnya would most certainly be a Muslim state. But that does not justify repeatedly killing civilians, indeed, targeting them, as Politkovskaya shows, all in the name of fighting terrorism.
It may take some time before any of the world's attention returns to Chechnya, which has been seeking independence from Moscow for generations. But it's unlikely that many readers of Politkovskaya will have as much success as many world leaders apparently have had in pushing the human tragedy of Chechnya out of their minds.
Steve Kettmann, a finalist for the 2001 Online Journalism Award in commentary, lives in Berlin.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi...
This article appeared on page RV - 6 of the San Francisco Chronicle
The amazing thing is not that Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya was ultimately forced into exile in Vienna after a series of particularly emphatic and believable death threats last September.
No, the amazing thing is that Politkovskaya was able to plug away as long as she did with her fearless, heartbreaking articles in Russia's Novaya Gazeta on the human calamity unfolding in Chechnya. Many of those articles, reported from 1999 to early 2001 during the second Chechen war, have now been collected in this disturbing volume, "A Dirty War," translated with refreshing immediacy and clarity by John Crowfoot.
Politkovskaya calls herself a reporter, because in fact she gets out there and risks her life and finds out what's going on. But she does not slow down in her writing in some pointless show of what American reporters like to call "objectivity." She tells it like it is, again and again, in a way that few short of Mencken and Orwell have before her.
"A real war has its own bitter and proud symbols," she writes in a dispatch from July 24, 2000. "Like May 1945. . . . This war has nothing. We don't even know if it's a real war or not. We already know that there will never be a victory. It's like some crazy, broken merry-go-round dangling little zinc coffins instead of horses."
There will never be a victory, Politkovskaya believes, because even as Russian military forces have devastated the capital of Grozny and largely subdued Chechen separatist fighters, they have burned into young Chechens an ever-greater sense of separateness from Russia, as well as a hunger for revenge.
The power of the book comes in the way it combines a sober grasp of the big picture, so at odds with the official line pumped out by Vladimir Putin's press machine, with an energetic exploration of the human particulars. Learning of the pathetic residents of a Grozny home for the elderly, for example, many of whom are half-mad with hunger and privation, no reader can see the annihilation of Grozny in quite the same light again.
But it would grow tiresome to focus only on the terrible price exacted on the Chechen people. There are many victims in this surrealistic cauldron of profiteering, corruption and often pointless violence, and that includes young,
poorly trained Russian soldiers. Often these young men are not even given adequate rations, instead facing a choice between nearly starving or getting sick eating spoiled tins of meat. Why? Because of greedy businessmen making an extra buck by cutting corners at every opportunity, even in supplying food for scared young men facing death.
Politkovskaya's passion can at times make her fall in love with the power of her own observations, as when she watches a general at a ceremonial dinner and remarks that he looked so lonely, it was "painful" to watch. Maybe he was just bored? Or had heartburn?
But her balanced moral imagination and restless pursuit of telling details gives her tales a way of lingering in the mind. This is especially true in her accounts of Chechen schoolchildren trying to carry on in the midst of humiliating circumstances.
A group of 15 Chechen boys was invited to attend a military academy in the Siberian city of Omsk, as some kind of Russian PR gambit. The Russian minister of defense showed up for the TV cameras to get credit for this wonderful show of humanitarianism. But the venture soon turned sour. The boys were taunted by their schoolmates; graffiti read "N-- OUT OF OMSK!" The four who stuck it out, despite the abuse, were barred from taking their final exams. "Whatever happens," a teacher told them, "Chechens won't study here."
The boys were basically left to their own devices to make it home, and ended up sleeping in train stations, hungry and broke, slowly making their way back. But that was not the end of the indignity, or the deep cynicism behind the whole episode. Even after the fiasco, a Russian military officer still wanted to milk the episode for PR value.
"Chechen lads are studying in Omsk," he said on TV. "Now they're on holidays and soon they will return there."
To which Politkovskaya asks a reasonable question: "Who was he trying to fool?"
Elsewhere, she visits a tent-school for refugee children and records their essays on the idea of home, including this one by a girl named Marina: "My city Grozny always radiated beauty and goodness. But now all that is gone like a beautiful dream and only memories remain. The war is blind, it doesn't see the city, the school or the children. . . . Soldiers! Think of your children, of your own childhood! . . . Leave us alone! We want to go home."
Since Sept. 11, the United States and its key Western European allies have all agreed not to put pressure on Russia over allegations of persistent human- rights violations in Chechnya. Such is the price of coalition-building. But no one reading Politkovskaya's brave collection can quite take at face value the repeated Russian claims, recently echoed in Washington, London and Berlin, that in Chechnya the Russians are merely cracking down on "terrorists."
There have been some links between Chechen separatists and Osama bin Laden, and a truly independent Chechnya would most certainly be a Muslim state. But that does not justify repeatedly killing civilians, indeed, targeting them, as Politkovskaya shows, all in the name of fighting terrorism.
It may take some time before any of the world's attention returns to Chechnya, which has been seeking independence from Moscow for generations. But it's unlikely that many readers of Politkovskaya will have as much success as many world leaders apparently have had in pushing the human tragedy of Chechnya out of their minds.
Steve Kettmann, a finalist for the 2001 Online Journalism Award in commentary, lives in Berlin.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi...
This article appeared on page RV - 6 of the San Francisco Chronicle
October 1, 2015
My knowledge on the Chechen Wars is extremely limited. The only thing I really knew about them was what Anthony Loyd covered in his book My War Gone By, I Miss it So. While the chapter on it didn't exactly seem to fit the rest of the book, I really enjoyed it and at the same time was repulsed by how terrible the war there sounded. Anna Politkovskaya's A Dirty War: A Russian Reporter in Chechnya came up when I was browsing other books on Amazon. It wasn't overly long so I decided to pick it up.
The book didn't end up being what I thought, or hoped, it would be. I'm not super familiar with journalist accounts of war, as the only two I've read are the aforementioned book by Loyd and Peter Maass' Love Thy Neighbor. However, those two books, in my opinion, give a great insight into war from a journalist's perspective. Lots of action, stories of incredible sadness and appalling brutality, along with plenty of near-death experiences for the journalists themselves. Politkovskaya's book is more about the politics of the Second Chechen War than anything else. Because of this, there's no you-are-there-ness to the story and it failed to draw me in from the get-go. This book is also a collection of articles, so it is not a narrative of her time in Chechnya and Ingushetia.
A Dirty War starts off with an introduction by Thomas de Waal and for the most part I liked it. It gives an overview of both Chechen Wars, but I found it a bit difficult to understand, maybe because it wasn't quite thorough enough. I thought maybe once I got into the book things would become clearer, but because it's based on politics, that didn't really happen. Politkovskaya writes about many different topics and it's very easy to see that she would not have been well liked among certain Russian circles. Bodies of exhumed Russian soldiers were left untouched for long periods of time, resulting in not being able to be easily identified. Russian soldiers were pulled into the war with only very minimal training. While the Russian government promised aid to Chechnya, rarely did this ever actually turn up. Ridiculous curfews imposed on locals. The terrible situation refugees faced, etc.
Throughout the book I simply felt detached. I feel bad saying it, but I really did not enjoy this book. It is a very quick read, but nothing stayed with me, nothing affected me; I was never there with the reporter. I read it simply to finish reading it and I'm glad I'm done. Regardless, A Dirty War is a testament to what a corrupt business both war and politics are, as well as to Politkovskaya's bravery in reporting things as they were, not filtering them to make the government and the situation to sound better than it was.
The book didn't end up being what I thought, or hoped, it would be. I'm not super familiar with journalist accounts of war, as the only two I've read are the aforementioned book by Loyd and Peter Maass' Love Thy Neighbor. However, those two books, in my opinion, give a great insight into war from a journalist's perspective. Lots of action, stories of incredible sadness and appalling brutality, along with plenty of near-death experiences for the journalists themselves. Politkovskaya's book is more about the politics of the Second Chechen War than anything else. Because of this, there's no you-are-there-ness to the story and it failed to draw me in from the get-go. This book is also a collection of articles, so it is not a narrative of her time in Chechnya and Ingushetia.
A Dirty War starts off with an introduction by Thomas de Waal and for the most part I liked it. It gives an overview of both Chechen Wars, but I found it a bit difficult to understand, maybe because it wasn't quite thorough enough. I thought maybe once I got into the book things would become clearer, but because it's based on politics, that didn't really happen. Politkovskaya writes about many different topics and it's very easy to see that she would not have been well liked among certain Russian circles. Bodies of exhumed Russian soldiers were left untouched for long periods of time, resulting in not being able to be easily identified. Russian soldiers were pulled into the war with only very minimal training. While the Russian government promised aid to Chechnya, rarely did this ever actually turn up. Ridiculous curfews imposed on locals. The terrible situation refugees faced, etc.
Throughout the book I simply felt detached. I feel bad saying it, but I really did not enjoy this book. It is a very quick read, but nothing stayed with me, nothing affected me; I was never there with the reporter. I read it simply to finish reading it and I'm glad I'm done. Regardless, A Dirty War is a testament to what a corrupt business both war and politics are, as well as to Politkovskaya's bravery in reporting things as they were, not filtering them to make the government and the situation to sound better than it was.
June 11, 2014
Pundits have started yammering about a "new Cold war" with Russia after the Crimean Crisis. Somehow Russian interests on its borders and in the "Near Abroad" have been cast as "revisionist Soviet aggression."
Yet a look into 200 years of Russian Imperialism in the Caucusus would challenge that notion. Russia's second great novelist, Mikhail Lermontov, lived and died (in a duel no less) in this part of the Czarist "Near Abroad." Pechorin, his great Hero of Our Time, traveled the same Dagestan, Chechnya and Ossetia that Lermontov did.
In the 170 years since: the serfs were freed; the Czar lost, regained and lost again power; Utopian socialism rose and fell; Stalinist socialism crumbled into the dust of history. Yet, through it all, young Russian men have been sent to the Caucusus at the behest of the Kremlin.
When the then new Russian President, Vladimir Putin, sent Russian troops into the Second (or by my count "Sixth" going back to 1818) Chechen War, these troops were not accompanied by a novelist. Instead, it was a journalist. Anna Politkovskaya documents the atrocities of both sides and the failures of the Russian regime to protect its own people and soldiers.
A Dirty War becomes the Second Chechen War's Babi Yar. With the atrocities and failures, Politkovskaya also unravels the myth of the new "Liberal Democracy" in Russia.
A Dirty War is also yet another brick covering the tomb of the "End of History." The attacks on the press she documents show that the New Russia is not all that dissimilar from Czarist Russia or the Soviet Union. The racist fury and anti-Muslim furor of the Russian "blue" Army seethes below the surface. And when it boils to the top it is in acts of violence that are the same as those of the Soviet "International." Yet they still achieve the same end: defending the Russian Empire based in Moscow.
The Second chechen war is a battleground Lermontov, Alexander II, Stalin and Yevtushenko would recognize. But in a larger sense, lies at the very essence of all human conflict. Some how we can view our violence as "good" while the violence of "terrorists" or "Communists" or "Czarists" is done for "evil." Politkovskaya herself was killed by the agents of the "new Czar" or "Revisionist Soviet" who sits in Moscow - fighting the same battles fought for the last 200 years.
Yet a look into 200 years of Russian Imperialism in the Caucusus would challenge that notion. Russia's second great novelist, Mikhail Lermontov, lived and died (in a duel no less) in this part of the Czarist "Near Abroad." Pechorin, his great Hero of Our Time, traveled the same Dagestan, Chechnya and Ossetia that Lermontov did.
In the 170 years since: the serfs were freed; the Czar lost, regained and lost again power; Utopian socialism rose and fell; Stalinist socialism crumbled into the dust of history. Yet, through it all, young Russian men have been sent to the Caucusus at the behest of the Kremlin.
When the then new Russian President, Vladimir Putin, sent Russian troops into the Second (or by my count "Sixth" going back to 1818) Chechen War, these troops were not accompanied by a novelist. Instead, it was a journalist. Anna Politkovskaya documents the atrocities of both sides and the failures of the Russian regime to protect its own people and soldiers.
A Dirty War becomes the Second Chechen War's Babi Yar. With the atrocities and failures, Politkovskaya also unravels the myth of the new "Liberal Democracy" in Russia.
A Dirty War is also yet another brick covering the tomb of the "End of History." The attacks on the press she documents show that the New Russia is not all that dissimilar from Czarist Russia or the Soviet Union. The racist fury and anti-Muslim furor of the Russian "blue" Army seethes below the surface. And when it boils to the top it is in acts of violence that are the same as those of the Soviet "International." Yet they still achieve the same end: defending the Russian Empire based in Moscow.
The Second chechen war is a battleground Lermontov, Alexander II, Stalin and Yevtushenko would recognize. But in a larger sense, lies at the very essence of all human conflict. Some how we can view our violence as "good" while the violence of "terrorists" or "Communists" or "Czarists" is done for "evil." Politkovskaya herself was killed by the agents of the "new Czar" or "Revisionist Soviet" who sits in Moscow - fighting the same battles fought for the last 200 years.
October 25, 2015
I have always had special feelings toward what happened to Anna Politkovskaya, her journalistic work during Putin's rise and the way she was killed
back in 2006. Therefore, I decided to read all her books, starting with "A Dirty War" that is portraying the war in Chechenya through her articles in Novaya Gazeta.
While in Russia "society was hungry for "bad" Chechens", somewhere South of Russia was happening the second Chechen war, where thousands and thousands of lives were sacrificed daily on the altar of OIL revolution, for nothing but millions of dollars.
Politkovskaya relates stories from the federal forces, the Russian troops and from simple people's villages, and what is the most heartbreaking conclusion is that Chechenya had no time for the truth, and people had no desire for freedom - all they wanted was basic peace and means to give their families safe housing and food. At some point, while reading, you just keep asking yourself: What difference does it make, in the end, if you die from hunger of from bombing?
A Dirty War reminded me of what is happening nowadays in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and Nigeria, and the “Just because it’s not happening here, doesn’t mean it’s not happening” campaing for Save Syria's Children - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBQ-I...
The world is continously game page for forces to clash, while people's lifes are hanging by a chance of fate.
back in 2006. Therefore, I decided to read all her books, starting with "A Dirty War" that is portraying the war in Chechenya through her articles in Novaya Gazeta.
While in Russia "society was hungry for "bad" Chechens", somewhere South of Russia was happening the second Chechen war, where thousands and thousands of lives were sacrificed daily on the altar of OIL revolution, for nothing but millions of dollars.
Politkovskaya relates stories from the federal forces, the Russian troops and from simple people's villages, and what is the most heartbreaking conclusion is that Chechenya had no time for the truth, and people had no desire for freedom - all they wanted was basic peace and means to give their families safe housing and food. At some point, while reading, you just keep asking yourself: What difference does it make, in the end, if you die from hunger of from bombing?
A Dirty War reminded me of what is happening nowadays in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and Nigeria, and the “Just because it’s not happening here, doesn’t mean it’s not happening” campaing for Save Syria's Children - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBQ-I...
The world is continously game page for forces to clash, while people's lifes are hanging by a chance of fate.
July 23, 2008
I would give this book 10 stars if I could...on par with the greatest journalistic novels, Politkovskaya's book traces the first wave of the war Russia waged on the Chechen people. Politkovskaya was one of the few writers to go there, live there, endure torture and other forms of abuse, all in the name of telling it like it is. Not only a great book by a great writer on the subject of freedom, this book is a testament to this woman's courage...the parallels between US/Iraq and Russia/Chechnaya are also interesting...
May 2, 2021
Another book about the horrors and atrocities of the Chechen-Russian conflict. The book is similar to her A Small Corner in Hell as it revolves around families and the suffering of civilians in the war. I thought A Small Corner in Hell was a little more hard hitting and aimed at showing the horrific impacts of the war in comparison to this book.
December 11, 2022
A difficult read. At times horrifying. It was what I thought it would be, an account by a very competent writer of a conflict about which I knew very little (with a strong focus on the voices of and impacts on the average civilian). I'm glad I read this and I'm glad I read it now. If this topic interests you then I would recommend this book.
June 15, 2009
I have already read Babchenko's war memoir, and this only reinforces the horror of that book. Everyone involved in the tragedy of Chechnya was so terribly brutalized. This book killed me a little.
July 21, 2024
Just as the Internal Monetary Fund had indirectly helped to finance the first Chechen war by continuing to hand over funds intended to support economic reforms, so are the Western powers today funding the war in Ukraine by continuing to hand over funds intended to support Europe. Ah, the military-defense complex: Killing in the name!
“To join the Council of Europe in February 1996, Russia had signed both the European Convention on Human Rights and the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. Its most public reservation concerned abolition of the death penalty, but even here it imposed and, for the most part, observed a moratorium (leaving some 700 on death row). There was no outside agency, however, that could make the Russian government respect and honour the provisions of these and other international treaties. It was not a Bosnia or a Somalia, a "weak" or "failed" state where any national or international force might intervene. It was up to pressure groups within Russia to monitor and attempt to restrain Putin and his administration.“
In Russia, everything is better!!!
Like what?
Oh, like the schools for instance.
Then why do you live in Spain?
For the weather, of course!
“The children a little older than two or three do not react at all to the missiles. Hunger makes them apathetic and lethargic. The small children, still entirely dependent, react quite differently. Their short lives are threatened by each volley. Unborn children suffer too. Seven months pregnant, Malizha was so frightened that by morning she gave birth prematurely. Her little baby girl died immediately. Aina, 17 years old, has a newborn son with her. He’s now four months old. Aina’s milk failed as soon as the missile volleys began, so for a week now they have been giving him nothing but weak tea. He won’t survive. Asking the camp administrator for baby food, they could find nothing.”
“To join the Council of Europe in February 1996, Russia had signed both the European Convention on Human Rights and the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. Its most public reservation concerned abolition of the death penalty, but even here it imposed and, for the most part, observed a moratorium (leaving some 700 on death row). There was no outside agency, however, that could make the Russian government respect and honour the provisions of these and other international treaties. It was not a Bosnia or a Somalia, a "weak" or "failed" state where any national or international force might intervene. It was up to pressure groups within Russia to monitor and attempt to restrain Putin and his administration.“
In Russia, everything is better!!!
Like what?
Oh, like the schools for instance.
Then why do you live in Spain?
For the weather, of course!
“The children a little older than two or three do not react at all to the missiles. Hunger makes them apathetic and lethargic. The small children, still entirely dependent, react quite differently. Their short lives are threatened by each volley. Unborn children suffer too. Seven months pregnant, Malizha was so frightened that by morning she gave birth prematurely. Her little baby girl died immediately. Aina, 17 years old, has a newborn son with her. He’s now four months old. Aina’s milk failed as soon as the missile volleys began, so for a week now they have been giving him nothing but weak tea. He won’t survive. Asking the camp administrator for baby food, they could find nothing.”
April 25, 2024
Lascio un estratto che mi è sembrato significativo.
“Contrariamente a quanto affermano medici, neurologi e psichiatri sulle nostre infinite possibilità, ogni uomo dispone di una resistenza morale limitata al di là della quale si apre il suo abisso personale. Non è necessariamente la morte. Ci possono essere situazioni peggiori, ad esempio la perdita totale della propria umanità, come unica risposta alle innumerevoli nefandezze della vita. Nessuno può sapere ciò di cui sarebbe capace in guerra.”
“Contrariamente a quanto affermano medici, neurologi e psichiatri sulle nostre infinite possibilità, ogni uomo dispone di una resistenza morale limitata al di là della quale si apre il suo abisso personale. Non è necessariamente la morte. Ci possono essere situazioni peggiori, ad esempio la perdita totale della propria umanità, come unica risposta alle innumerevoli nefandezze della vita. Nessuno può sapere ciò di cui sarebbe capace in guerra.”
January 14, 2018
Bon, je me doutais que ce livre ne serait pas une promenade de santé et une fois n'est pas coutume, j'avais raison. le meurtre de Politkovskaia le jour de l'anniversaire de Poutine en disait déjà long sur les relations entre la journaliste et les autorités russes; c'est d'ailleurs la raison principale pour laquelle j'ai d'abord pris ce livre avec des pincettes car, aussi horrible que puisse être une situation, le manichéisme a généralement peu de rapport avec la réalité. Même si on sent rapidement que ce livre est le cri d'un être humain en colère, Politkovskaia tente de rester objective malgré la colère qui gronde en elle; elle explique posément sa haine de Poutine sans pour autant tomber dans la caricature du méchant grand contre le gentil petit.
Soyons clair, ce livre est horrible; la Tchétchénie a été déchirée et l'est encore, tant par les autorités russes que par les autorités tchétchènes. Je ne vais pas entrer dans une vaine tentative d'explication géopolitique et ce n'est pas l'objectif de cet ouvrage. La journaliste a tenté de donner la parole aux victimes et aux bourreaux; c'est donc plus un témoignage qu'une analyse mais sa lecture vaut la peine ne fut-ce que par respect pour le courage de cette femme qui a eu le cran de se promener dans ce champ de guerre à la recherche de témoignages et ce, au péril de sa vie (et je ne pense pas cette expression soit exagérée). Un document qui ne permet pas de comprendre tous les enjeux de ce sanglant conflit mais qui donne un éclairage précieux de par les risques pris par Politkovskaia.
Soyons clair, ce livre est horrible; la Tchétchénie a été déchirée et l'est encore, tant par les autorités russes que par les autorités tchétchènes. Je ne vais pas entrer dans une vaine tentative d'explication géopolitique et ce n'est pas l'objectif de cet ouvrage. La journaliste a tenté de donner la parole aux victimes et aux bourreaux; c'est donc plus un témoignage qu'une analyse mais sa lecture vaut la peine ne fut-ce que par respect pour le courage de cette femme qui a eu le cran de se promener dans ce champ de guerre à la recherche de témoignages et ce, au péril de sa vie (et je ne pense pas cette expression soit exagérée). Un document qui ne permet pas de comprendre tous les enjeux de ce sanglant conflit mais qui donne un éclairage précieux de par les risques pris par Politkovskaia.
June 28, 2013
Few people knew of Chechnya before the Boston Marathon bombing; even fewer people know of the struggles that have pervaded Chechnya's short history, and the two Chechen Wars from 1994-6 and 1999-2000 fought on its soil. In this collection of articles, Anna Politkovskaya, an investigative journalist for the Novaya Gazeta, paints a harsh, glaring picture of the fate of the civilians, Russians and Chechens alike, who were the main victims of the early crossfire between the Russian federal forces and the Chechen fighters and later the actual targets of gross atrocities committed by both soldiers and rebels during the second war. This book may be difficult for those not particularly well-versed in international affairs, but I was able to comprehend most of the politics through both textual clues and my own inferences. Moreover, the countless inexcusable crimes and massacres chronicled in A Dirty War makes it a difficult book to go through without tearing up in grief and frustration over the injustices. Despite these obstacles, A Dirty War is a moving work of literature and anyone who does finish would agree the messages it conveys makes it well-worth the time. - Alice W. '16
January 2, 2012
E' dovere di ogni europeo che si scalda con l'energia di Putin leggere questo libro. Anna è morta per raccontarci una verità che non va dimenticata. Leggetelo per favore!
September 11, 2017
Da leggere.
December 9, 2025
"It's quite evident that the new war in the Caucasus also caught Russian society off-guard. Where are the human rights activists? The intelligentsia, the conscience of the nation? Where has all that army of socially active people gone? Why do we not hear their voices raised in defence of the victims of the war? Or at least in support of. the truth. There is a war going on, but those taking part continue to be officially described as no more than "participants of an anti-terrorist operation. ... The minds of the majority are becoming rapidly and totally militarised: they talk of "wiping out", "crushing" and "smashing" the enemy, while the minority, faced with military euphoria, lapse into a state of apathy."
Covering the First Chechen War, Politkovskaya writes with a meticulous blend of journalistic precision and deeply human empathy. She does not observe from afar; she walks into ruined villages, prison camps, refugee shelters, and front-line chaos to document what others ignore. Her writing is intimate and painfully honest. She listens to mothers searching for missing sons, wounded soldiers abandoned by their own commanders, civilians crushed between two merciless forces, and families living in fear of the next knock on the door. Every page shows her refusal to dehumanize anyone even those committing the violence. This human-centered perspective is the beating heart of the book. Politkovskaya exposes torture, corruption, disappearances, and systematic cruelty without sensationalism. She writes quietly, almost gently, and that softness makes the horrors she documents even more devastating. Reading her feels like sitting beside someone who has seen too much but still believes truth matters. And it was this belief that ultimately cost her everything. anna Politkovskaya was assassinated in 2006 shot in the elevator of her Moscow apartment building. She was killed for the same reason this book is so powerful: she refused to be intimidated, refused to lie, and refused to stop giving voice to the people crushed by war and dictatorship. Her death is not separate from the book; it hangs over every story, every interview, every risk she took on the ground in Chechnya. A Dirty War is heartbreaking, infuriating, and necessary. It is the kind of book that forces you to confront the realities many governments want forgotten. Above all, it is a reminder of the courage one human being can carry and the terrible price she paid for it.
Covering the First Chechen War, Politkovskaya writes with a meticulous blend of journalistic precision and deeply human empathy. She does not observe from afar; she walks into ruined villages, prison camps, refugee shelters, and front-line chaos to document what others ignore. Her writing is intimate and painfully honest. She listens to mothers searching for missing sons, wounded soldiers abandoned by their own commanders, civilians crushed between two merciless forces, and families living in fear of the next knock on the door. Every page shows her refusal to dehumanize anyone even those committing the violence. This human-centered perspective is the beating heart of the book. Politkovskaya exposes torture, corruption, disappearances, and systematic cruelty without sensationalism. She writes quietly, almost gently, and that softness makes the horrors she documents even more devastating. Reading her feels like sitting beside someone who has seen too much but still believes truth matters. And it was this belief that ultimately cost her everything. anna Politkovskaya was assassinated in 2006 shot in the elevator of her Moscow apartment building. She was killed for the same reason this book is so powerful: she refused to be intimidated, refused to lie, and refused to stop giving voice to the people crushed by war and dictatorship. Her death is not separate from the book; it hangs over every story, every interview, every risk she took on the ground in Chechnya. A Dirty War is heartbreaking, infuriating, and necessary. It is the kind of book that forces you to confront the realities many governments want forgotten. Above all, it is a reminder of the courage one human being can carry and the terrible price she paid for it.
March 2, 2025
“A Dirty War” by Anna Politkovskaya: A Must-Read to Understand Putin’s Russia
Anna Politkovskaya’s A Dirty War is an essential book for anyone seeking to understand Vladimir Putin’s influence on Russia, his treatment of his own people, and his brutal policies beyond its borders. Written by one of Russia’s most courageous investigative journalists, this book offers a harrowing account of the Second Chechen War, exposing the lies, corruption, and sheer brutality of the Russian state under Putin’s rule.
Politkovskaya documented the suffering of civilians, the lawlessness of Russian forces, and the complicity of the political elite in perpetuating violence. Her reporting directly challenged the Kremlin’s propaganda, revealing a regime that thrived on fear, oppression, and deception. Through her work, she not only exposed the horrors of war but also painted a broader picture of a government that weaponized violence—both at home and abroad—to consolidate power.
Her fearless journalism made her a target, and in 2006, she was assassinated—a murder widely believed to be politically motivated. But her work lives on, and A Dirty War remains one of the most important books for understanding Putin’s Russia. It provides crucial context for today’s world, where his tactics of repression, misinformation, and military aggression continue to shape global events.
If you want to grasp the true nature of Putin’s regime, the suffering it has inflicted, and the resistance it has provoked, A Dirty War is a must-read.
Anna Politkovskaya’s A Dirty War is an essential book for anyone seeking to understand Vladimir Putin’s influence on Russia, his treatment of his own people, and his brutal policies beyond its borders. Written by one of Russia’s most courageous investigative journalists, this book offers a harrowing account of the Second Chechen War, exposing the lies, corruption, and sheer brutality of the Russian state under Putin’s rule.
Politkovskaya documented the suffering of civilians, the lawlessness of Russian forces, and the complicity of the political elite in perpetuating violence. Her reporting directly challenged the Kremlin’s propaganda, revealing a regime that thrived on fear, oppression, and deception. Through her work, she not only exposed the horrors of war but also painted a broader picture of a government that weaponized violence—both at home and abroad—to consolidate power.
Her fearless journalism made her a target, and in 2006, she was assassinated—a murder widely believed to be politically motivated. But her work lives on, and A Dirty War remains one of the most important books for understanding Putin’s Russia. It provides crucial context for today’s world, where his tactics of repression, misinformation, and military aggression continue to shape global events.
If you want to grasp the true nature of Putin’s regime, the suffering it has inflicted, and the resistance it has provoked, A Dirty War is a must-read.
May 24, 2022
I have been wanting to read a book by Anna Politkovskaya since I read the Chechen war novel "A Constellation of Vital Phenomena," which is currently my favorite book of all time. I had to get this book through interlibrary loan, but it did not disappoint. Politkovskaya was murdered in her apartment building's elevator in 2006, at the order of Putin, against whom she spoke out and wrote critically.
Right now the Russians are fighting another dirty war in Ukraine. There are so many similarities between what happened in Chechnya and Ukraine- I wish I was surprised.
The ruthless, unrepentant, morally vacuous behavior of the Russian military in Chechnya is horrific. Politkovskaya traveled as close as she could get to the heart of the stories in this book, which covers much of the second Chechen war from 1999-2001.
Recurring themes:
- Lack of accountability among military superiors and their subordinates
- Indiscriminate killing of civilians without repercussions
- Intentional maiming of Grozny residents
- Mismanagement of refugee sites
- Financial mismanagement benefiting the Russians elite at the expense of the poor/refugees/low rank soldiers
- Desertion of duty by Russian soldiers who were not given adequate support
- Rampant cynicism about any meaningful outcome of the war
The news stories detail the lived experiences of both Chechens and Russians. Occasionally there was a story that gave you hope, but most of the stories were about how awful the war was.
Right now the Russians are fighting another dirty war in Ukraine. There are so many similarities between what happened in Chechnya and Ukraine- I wish I was surprised.
The ruthless, unrepentant, morally vacuous behavior of the Russian military in Chechnya is horrific. Politkovskaya traveled as close as she could get to the heart of the stories in this book, which covers much of the second Chechen war from 1999-2001.
Recurring themes:
- Lack of accountability among military superiors and their subordinates
- Indiscriminate killing of civilians without repercussions
- Intentional maiming of Grozny residents
- Mismanagement of refugee sites
- Financial mismanagement benefiting the Russians elite at the expense of the poor/refugees/low rank soldiers
- Desertion of duty by Russian soldiers who were not given adequate support
- Rampant cynicism about any meaningful outcome of the war
The news stories detail the lived experiences of both Chechens and Russians. Occasionally there was a story that gave you hope, but most of the stories were about how awful the war was.
July 7, 2017
I don't have the proper words to describe this book. Eye-opening and tragic doesn't begin to cover it. Anna Politkovskaya's bravery, tenacity, intelligence and compassion seeps from every word. I had to stop several times and weep, knowing what happened to her. Journalists who tell the truth are a threat in Russia, and she had nothing but scathing criticism for the government.
I hoped I would better understand the nature of the recent Chechen conflicts by reading this. And if this book is any indication, what it comes down to was not a matter of separatism vs. nationalism, nor any kind of political ideology at all. It was all about war profiteering, under the guise of "fighting terrorism," with each side just as corrupt as the other. Those who suffered the most were civilians who wanted nothing to do with the fighting in the first place. As Politkovskaya says several times herself, "cynical" and "senseless" don't even begin to describe it. And, sadly, we have only seen this type of conflict repeat in recent years, in Ukraine as well as Syria.
I only hope one day we learn from lessons like this one. Politkovskaya died to bring these abuses and atrocities to light. I don't want her sacrifice to have been in vain.
I hoped I would better understand the nature of the recent Chechen conflicts by reading this. And if this book is any indication, what it comes down to was not a matter of separatism vs. nationalism, nor any kind of political ideology at all. It was all about war profiteering, under the guise of "fighting terrorism," with each side just as corrupt as the other. Those who suffered the most were civilians who wanted nothing to do with the fighting in the first place. As Politkovskaya says several times herself, "cynical" and "senseless" don't even begin to describe it. And, sadly, we have only seen this type of conflict repeat in recent years, in Ukraine as well as Syria.
I only hope one day we learn from lessons like this one. Politkovskaya died to bring these abuses and atrocities to light. I don't want her sacrifice to have been in vain.
August 18, 2022
I started reading this due to the Ukraine situation. It's a collection of newspaper articles all linked by the Second Chechen War waged by a youthful Putin, all written by the late journalist Anna Poltikovskaya. I realised after getting a fifth of the way in that this wasn't a book for me, so I had to put it down. That's no reflection at all on the author or subject matter, it's just that I don't have knowledge of the political background of late 20th century Russia and Chechnya for this to make much sense to me. It's very dense, very technical, very specific, and lacking the broader picture I found it too much of a struggle to make sense of. I'll stick with the likes of Antony Beevor in future.
June 2, 2023
It's a generation later and all these same stories are cropping up in Ukraine.
It's like the Russian machine, and Putin in particular, only have the one playbook. Take dangerously untrained young men and force them into an ugly situation, then hold on and outlast the other side.
It seems to have "worked" in a lot of places, anywhere they could punch down at just smother the opposition. But when it hits actual resistance, the wheels just fall off the wagon.
This collection of stories and snapshots of life under the ethnic cleansing in Chechnya are pretty rough and ugly. It took amazing courage for Anna Politkovskaya to do the reporting she did, and then inevitably paid the price for.
It's like the Russian machine, and Putin in particular, only have the one playbook. Take dangerously untrained young men and force them into an ugly situation, then hold on and outlast the other side.
It seems to have "worked" in a lot of places, anywhere they could punch down at just smother the opposition. But when it hits actual resistance, the wheels just fall off the wagon.
This collection of stories and snapshots of life under the ethnic cleansing in Chechnya are pretty rough and ugly. It took amazing courage for Anna Politkovskaya to do the reporting she did, and then inevitably paid the price for.
March 4, 2021
I was only just born at the start of the first Chechen war thousands of miles away and would barely comprehend what was taking place there for the second war if I even saw news reports on TV so this was an illuminating piece on something I really didn’t have any real knowledge about.
Absolutely horrific and depressing to read, Politkovskaya was incredible in her reporting, especially in her constant call to action, never letting the reader sit still in their belief that there was nothing that they could do to stop the atrocities taking place if they would just stop their inaction.
Absolutely horrific and depressing to read, Politkovskaya was incredible in her reporting, especially in her constant call to action, never letting the reader sit still in their belief that there was nothing that they could do to stop the atrocities taking place if they would just stop their inaction.
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