Anne Applebaum was born in Washington D. C. in 1964. She studied history and literature at Yale and international relations in London. After working as a correspondent for the »Economist« in Warsaw from 1988, she went on to work as an editor for the »Washington Post« from 2002 to 2006, to which she still regularly contributes as a columnist. Applebaum is best known for her publications on East European history and communism, which include her book »Gulag« (2004), which was awarded the Pulitzer Prize.