Polina Zherebtsova

Polina Zherebtsova
Born(1985-03-20)20 March 1985
Grozny, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
OccupationNovelist, journalist
LanguageRussian, Chechen

Polina Zherebtsova (Russian: Полина Викторовна Жеребцова, IPA: [pɐˈlʲinə ʐɨrʲɪpˈt͡sovə]; 20 March 1985) is a Chechen Russian documentarian, poet and author of the diaries Ant in a Glass Jar, covering her childhood, adolescence and youth that witnessed two Chechen wars.[1][2]

She was born in a mixed ethnic family in Grozny, Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Republic, USSR. In 2002, she began to work as a journalist. She is a member of PEN International and the Union of Journalists of Russia. She has been awarded the Janusz Korczak international prize in Jerusalem in two categories (narrative and documentary prose). In 2012, she was awarded Andrei Sakharov[3] Award “For Journalism as an Act of Conscience”. In 2013, she received a political asylum in Finland.[4]

A picture drawn by Polina Zherebtsova in 1995, depicting the Battle of Grozny.
A photo of a house taken by Polina.

Author of a Report on war crimes in Chechnya in 1994–2004. ru.[5] eng.[6]

Polina was born in Grozny, USSR, and started her diary when she was 9 years old, at the start of the First Chechen War. She was still living in Grozny when the Second Chechen War began. On 21 October 1999, the market in Grozny was shelled where she was helping her mother sell newspapers, and Polina was moderately injured.

Politkovskaya described war as a journalist from the outside. Polina Zherebtsova writes about war from inside the heart of darkness. Der Spiegel №10 /2015.[7]

Ant in a glass jar. Chechen diaries of 1994–2004 has been translated into Ukrainian, Slovenian, French, Lithuanian, Finnish, German, Georgian, and Chechen.

Polina Zherebtsova has given interviews to the BBC, The Guardian, Reuters, has participated in literary festivals around the world.

She has always offered publishing rights for translations of all of her books by herself, without the use of services of literary agents.

  1. ^ Polina Zherebtsova on the diary she kept as a child during the Chechen war. ВВС on YouTube
  2. ^ Polina Zherebtsova was born in Grozny in 1985
  3. ^ "Дайджест Фонда защиты гласности № 594". www.gdf.ru. Retrieved February 23, 2019.
  4. ^ Узел, Кавказский. "Polina Zherebtsova, author of the book about Chechen War asks for political asylum in Finland". Caucasian Knot. Retrieved March 22, 2018.
  5. ^ "Report on war crimes in Chechnya in 1994–2004". Retrieved February 23, 2019.
  6. ^ "Report on war crimes in Chechnya in 1994-2004". Retrieved February 23, 2019.
  7. ^ Der Spiegel №10 /2015 http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-132040417.html