A kaleidoscopic collection ... Jaw-dropping ... Sometimes hard to follow, in part because it jumps back and forth in time. But her style of brave, intimate reporting is likely to be a rarity in Russia for years to come.
This gritty insider’s take on Russia will prove more helpful than the welter of books by western experts when it comes to countering Putin’s disinformation blaming Nato 'aggression' for his woes. As Kostyuchenko makes clear, he has made his own mess.
Brilliant and immersive ... Her writing is reportage at its brave and luminous best ... The author’s decision to call her book I Love Russia is a little bizarre. My Russia would have been a better title, and less open to misinterpretation. Kostyuchenko’s fearless coverage of the war in Ukraine speaks for itself.
There is a defiant populism in Kostyuchenko’s reportage, which is focused largely on social and political unrest in Russia’s province ... The personal essays in I Love Russia mark the essential facts of Elena’s being: her nineties childhood, her career, her lesbianism, her travels, her complicated family. In the hands of someone with less to risk, this project—in which, crudely put, a journalist makes her coverage about herself—could have failed. But it’s not an exaggeration to say that the story of Elena’s own life is the story of the Russia that was decisively lost in February 2022 ... The motivation of Kostyuchenko’s work is that someday, to cite the motto of the entire Russian political opposition, “Russia Will Be Free.” It’s a hopeful statement—a rallying cry uniting the left, the Navalnyist center, and a few lone Russian paramilitary groups defected to Ukraine’s International Legion. But for every coterie that sees through the present regime’s talk, there’s another whose grievances about the abysmal policy failures of a cruel and degenerate state will never orient toward action.
Sharp-edged ... Free-flowing style ... Kostyuchenko’s journalistic integrity is unquestionable and the dangers she faces are very real. It’s a vivid and poignant account.
For English readers, the translation may appear uneven and choppy and occasionally ungrammatical, but the author’s stories are important. A deeply felt, fractured collection reveals a fractured, benumbed society.
