18 July 2025

by Teresa Cherfas

Welcome to the 33rd edition of our Russian-language podcast Then & Now with me, Teresa Cherfas

On 15 July 2009, Chechen human rights activist and member of the management committee of the human rights organization “Memorial,” Natalia Estemirova, was murdered. She was abducted near her home in Grozny and taken by car across the border to Ingushetia, where she was shot five times in the chest. The killers fled, leaving her body at the scene of the crime. Her only child was 15 years old. That child recently published a book about her mother, Please Live, and its author is our guest today – Lana Estemirova.

• Our podcast is called Then and Now, and most often it’s about how the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia has impacted people’s lives and perceptions. You wrote in your book that few people cared about your mother’s murder, or the Russian-Chechen wars, or the constant human rights violations, and that all these were but brief mentions at the end of the news, or cursory minutes of international meetings, if at all. By the time Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February 2022, you wrote, it was too late. What does that date mean for you now?
• In your book, you write warmly about your relatives in Russia and in Chechnya. Are you in touch with them? Is there a difference between Chechens’ and Russians’ perceptions of the war in Ukraine?
• I imagine it cannot have been easy to write your book. What was the process of writing like? Did you struggle to find your voice?
• How would you describe your mother to people who didn’t know her?
• Your mother’s close friend, Anna Politkovskaya, was killed in the entrance to her apartment building in Moscow in 2006. Do you remember that day? Were you worried about your mother and her safety?
• Your book clearly outlines the stages of the Chechen wars and of Ramzan Kadyrov’s rise to power. How did you feel about him and his influence on your lives? I’m thinking about your protest against compulsory headscarves for schoolgirls, for example.
• Two days ago was the anniversary of the murder of your mother, Natalia Estemirova. The title of your book, Please Live, is a direct reference to that day. I read your account of how you learned of your mother’s death , about your reactions and emotions on the day and the immediate aftermath, and of how they changed and evolved over time, of your rage and sadness and your final acceptance of what had happened. These are almost indescribable feelings, and yet you describe them in unforgettable language. What were the most important lessons for you?. After all, the last sentence of your book is: “Happiness is victory.” What did you mean by that?
• You recently became a mother yourself. Tell us about your feelings toward your baby daughter. What will you tell her about her grandmother?

You can read Teresa Cherfas’ review of Please Live. The Chechen Wars, My Mother and Me by Lana Estemirova here.

Welcome to the 31st edition of our Russian-language podcast Then & Now. Our latest guest is Marina Sapritsky-Nahum, a social anthropologist and author of the book

Welcome to the twenty-eighth edition of our Russian-language podcast Then & Now with me, Teresa Cherfas. My guest today is Natalia Soprunova, a mathematician, teacher and mother of four children. Her story is so inspiring that it is immediately obvious how much Putin’s Russia has lost as a result of the wave of emigration that followed the start of the invasion of Ukraine. Very soon it will be the third anniversary of the invasion of Ukraine by the Russian armed forces and the beginning of a full-scale war against a sovereign state. Hundreds of thousands of citizens of the Russian Federation left their country after 24 February 2022. Each had their own reasons, their own fears and dilemmas. Each had a different choice. Today, we hear the story of one of them – Natalia Soprunova. This podcast was recorded on 13 January 2025.

• Tell us a little bit about yourself, about your family. What has been important to you in your life? What moral principles have you followed.
• You are a mathematician and educator. Tell us about your professional career in Russia and how it developed.
• What was your inspiration when you decided to found your private school – Moscow School Workshop – in Moscow? How did it differ from state schools?
• Could you have imagined that your professional world could experience a complete collapse so quickly and irrevocably?
• Why did you decide to leave Russia? When you learned war had broken out – what did you think and when did you make the decision to leave and why? What was your main fear and your main reason?
• Tell us how it was. You have, after all, four children….
• What is the fate of the children who studied with you at the Moscow Workshop School? And your teachers?
• You and your family now live in Berlin. Tell us about the journey that took you there…
• You joined the Russian Lyceum, which already existed in Munich. What kind of school is it?
• How did the idea of Online Master School come about? Is it a virtual continuation of your school in Moscow?
• What does this teaching work mean for you? And for the children and their parents?
• Your experience as a teacher and the practical application of a new approach to teaching children – is that relevant to today’s Russia? What do you think about the system of education now in Russia?
• How do you see the future? Yours and the future of your children?
• These days some people are returning to Russia – the reasons are different: residence permits are not renewed or not granted, there are no jobs or sources of income. What do you think about this?
• What is your attitude to people who have not left Russia?
• Would you return to Russia? What would have to happen for this to become realistic for you? And the children? Is this new generation already lost to Russia?

Welcome to the twenty-sixth edition of our Russian-language podcast Then & Now with me, Teresa Cherfas. In this episode, you can hear the second part of my interview with Irina Shcherbakova, one of the founders of “Memorial”. I first spoke to her in October of this year [you can listen to podcast #24 on our website here, where you can also find links to our YouTube channel and other platforms]. Since we last spoke, there has been another blow to the impartial study of Russian history. On 14 November, the Moscow Museum of the History of the Gulag was shut. The official reason given was that it was a fire risk. This would seem to be the most recent link in the chain that has seen the shutting down of unauthorised interpretations of Russian history. Before that, the Perm-36 museum was declared a foreign agent and then seized by the local authorities; “Memorial” was declared a foreign agent and then closed in 2021; and, in parallel, the authorities took control of all public initiatives, such as the Immortal Regiment, honouring the memory of war victims. The main theme of our conversation today is: what role does insistence on the ‘correct’ interpretation of history play in the political and social life of Russia – and why is controlling the historical narrative so important for the Putin regime? This podcast was recorded on 18 December 2024.

My questions:

• What were the Putin regime’s first attempts to take over control of Russia’s history? This process seems to have begun almost immediately after the mass protests of 2011-12. What was its purpose?
• Particularly pronounced in President Putin’s third term, was the appearance of articles by various Russian scholars devoted to promoting an ‘authorised’ interpretation of history. In 2014, an article of the criminal code penalising the rehabilitation of Nazism was adopted, which also banned the dissemination of ‘information known to be false’ about the activities of the USSR in World War II. What are the goals of these initiatives from the point of view of the authorities? Was Memorial’s work directly affected by these new laws? Were you personally affected by them in your own work?
• Why is the Great Patriotic War of such importance for Putin’s goals regarding the country’s history? When did it become such a significant part of the regime’s policies?
• The Immortal Regiment was a very interesting civil society initiative to preserve the memory of those who died in the Great Patriotic War. How have the authorities used this in their favour? And why?
• In 2021, Memorial was forced to suspend its activities. The following October, Memorial received the Nobel Peace Prize. Tell us about your emotions and memories of that time.
• How do you explain why it was that Putin needed to close down Memorial? After all, a couple of months later his full-scale invasion of Ukraine began.
• Do you remember how you learnt about the invasion of Ukraine by the Russian army? Did it take you by surprise?
• How did you make your decision about whether to stay in Russia or to leave?
• There are new history textbooks for schoolchildren now in Russia, access to archives is limited, and the state closely monitors how the country’s history is interpreted, especially in the public arena. What independent sources of historical information remain accessible in Putin’s Russia?
• What happened to Memorial’s invaluable archives after the organisation was shut down?
• How do you see the future for Russia? Under what circumstances would you consider returning to your homeland?