{"title":"Christmas 2026: Beyond the headlines \/ Картина современного мира","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"please-live-the-chechen-wars-my-mother-and-me-by-lana-estemirova","title":"Please Live: The Chechen Wars, My Mother and Me by Lana Estemirova","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"container_16 clearfix\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"grid_16 product\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"productInfo\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"imageBlockWrap\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"imageBlock\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"productImageWrapper\"\u003e\n\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e \u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e \u003cem\u003e\u003cb id=\"docs-internal-guid-ea1c80e5-7fff-af97-3746-aea9a3dbe6e1\"\u003eIn “Please Live: The Chechen Wars, My Mother and Me”, Lana Estemirova recalls her mother – human rights activist Natalia Estemirova, abducted and murdered for exposing abuses in Chechnya. Lana’s powerful memoir of love and loss chronicles her childhood amid conflict, mother and daughter’s bond and courage, and the relentless pursuit of truth.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"productImageWrapper\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"productContentWrap\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"productContent\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"description\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"productDescription\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEK \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"productDescription\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"productDescription\"\u003e'Please live' were the last words fifteen-year-old Lana said to her mother. Shortly afterwards Natalia Estemirova was kidnapped outside their apartment block in Grozny, Chechnya. On 15th July 2009, she was murdered for telling the truth.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA mountainous sliver of land which creates a natural boundary between Europe and Asia, for centuries Chechnya had been a sharp bone in Russia's throat. Three years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, frustrated by the continued presence of the independence movement within Chechnya, Russia invaded. It was a war of extraordinary brutality.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt turned Lana's mother, Natalia Estemirova, from a teacher into a human rights investigator. She became a dedicated member of Memorial, intent on exposing the kidnappings, bombings, torture and murders committed by Russian forces and Ramzan Kadyrov, the Kremlin-backed Chechen President. Natalia Estemirova's life, assassination, and the impunity that followed it, tell the story of Putin's Russia.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis is Lana's story of growing up in a war. Of the intense bond between a mother and daughter, desperate to be together even though it was so much safer for Lana to live elsewhere, often for months at a time. It is a book both about being brave and about being ordinary in extraordinary times.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt's the fulfilment of a promise Lana made at her mother's grave.\u003cbr\u003e\u003clabel\u003e\u003c\/label\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"productDescription\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"productDescription\"\u003e\n\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"productDescription\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003e\"Powerful... a coming-of-age story with a twist\" – \u003c\/em\u003eGuardian\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"productDescription\"\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"productDescription\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\"\u003cem\u003eHeart-wrenching... We need accounts like this haunting, compelling book\u003c\/em\u003e\" – Telegraph\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"productDescription\"\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"productDescription\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\"\u003cem\u003eA profound and moving tribute... 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Many expected the country’s elite—prominent liberals and global businessmen—to defend their assets and cosmopolitan lifestyles by forcing Putin to stop the war. Instead, liberal-minded officials rewired the economy for war; corporations obeyed new rules; and only a handful resigned or spoke out. Why?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBuilt on dozens of candid conversations with top Russian officials and businessmen since the mid-2010s, this book dissects their moral reasoning, and how their boundaries of ethical acceptability expanded over time, in line with the expectations of their superiors. Though the Russian upper class retained formal attributes of power, in reality it lost its agency, essentially becoming a mere instrument of governance.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAlexandra Prokopenko illuminates the war’s pivotal moments: Western sanctions, mass mobilisation, the annexation of four Ukrainian regions, and Yevgeny Prigozhin’s aborted mutiny in 2023. She traces meticulously how competing factions, from technocrats to hawks, rationalised each shock and recalibrated their loyalties. And she sets this process within an inside history of Putin’s regime, analysing the transformation of mindset at individual and sociological levels. These people will continue influencing global politics; we must understand how they think and act.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePaperback\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Pushkin House Bookshop","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57339109736826,"sku":null,"price":24.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0510\/3406\/3009\/files\/9781805265771-web.jpg?v=1790953293"}],"url":"https:\/\/shop.pushkinhouse.org\/collections\/christmas-2026-beyond-the-headlines-%d0%ba%d0%b0%d1%80%d1%82%d0%b8%d0%bd%d0%b0-%d1%81%d0%be%d0%b2%d1%80%d0%b5%d0%bc%d0%b5%d0%bd%d0%bd%d0%be%d0%b3%d0%be-%d0%bc%d0%b8%d1%80%d0%b0.oembed","provider":"Pushkin House Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}