was born 1946 in Velsk (Arkhangelsk). He studied history and concerned himself academically with the history of the Soviet Union in the 20th century. In 1981, he was sentenced to four years in prison on political grounds. He co-founded the organization Memorial, which campaigns for human rights and for the
poetess, artist and passionate doll-maker Anna Russ was born in Kazan (Russia) in 1981. Started in 2002 with winning the »International Debut Award« for writers under 25 (children’s literature). In 2004 she gained the »Open Russia« literature award, in 2005 the »Sokoloff Prize« for poems and in 2006 the »Big
born 1974 in Kiev, after her graduation in St. Petersburg in 1992 she studied Psychology, Sociology and Political Science in Gießen. She worked with the Peace Research Institute Frankfurt and on her dissertation about social changes in post-Soviet Russia. She is an active member of the human rights organization »Memorial«
Born in St. Petersburg, where she grew up, Anna Nowok moved to Germany in 1994. She did an apprenticeship as a copywriter and worked as a translator, waitress, and shop assistant in different German cities. She now lives in Berlin, and has been participating in slams and readings since 2005,
Anna Politkovskaya, the daughter of Soviet UN diplomats, was born in New York in 1958. She studied Journalism at Moscow University and worked for various newspapers such as »Izvestia« and after the fall of Communism for independent papers, among them »Obchtchaya Gazeta«. Most recently she was a special correspondent for
Anzhelina Polonskaya was born in 1969 in Malakhovka, a work settlement near Moscow. The daughter of a physician and an ice-skating coach, Polonskaya attended the Institute for Physical Culture and Sport in Moscow and studied Spanish at the Cervantes Institute. She wrote her first verse when she was seven, and
Andrej Nekrasow was born in St. Petersburg in 1958, where he studied at the Institute of Film and Theatre. He emigrated to the West in 1980 and worked as a journalist, author, theatre director and filmmaker. He got to know Alexander Litvinenko through his research and accompanied him on his
Andrei A. Piontkowski was born in 1967, studied Mathematics in Moscow and London. He is Director of Moscow’s Centre for Strategic Studies and is an independent observer of Russian politics. He provides political analysis for various American institutions and writes for Russian publications. His recently published article, »Putin’s Second Republic«,
born in 1950, he studied History in Moscow, for which he was conferred a doctorate. In 1991 he founded the publishing house Rosspen (Rossijskaja politicheskaja entsiklopedija; tr: Russian political encyclopedia). In 2008 he brought his project »History of Stalinism« to life, a collection of 100 volumes of relevant publications. He
was born in 1938 in Leningrad. The poet initially spent his childhood near Ufa due to wartime evacuations. In 1966 he wrote a cycle of poems entitled »Rossiya«, for which he was arrested in 1969 and sentenced to four years in a labour camp and two years’ exile. He was
Alisa Ganieva was born in 1985 in Moscow, and grew up in Makhachkala, the capital of the Caucasus republic of Dagestan. She is an author and literary critic, whose independent voice has shaken up the Russian cultural scene for a number of years, who graduated from the Maxim Gorky Literary
Alexandr Delphinov born in Moscow in 1971, is one of the founders of the reggae band »Jah Division« as well as of the punk-reggae band »Podwig Gastelko«. He has published two books of poetry in Moscow. At the moment, he lives in Berlin. From 2005 to 2006 he was part
