About the Author

Elena Kostyuchenko was born in Yaroslavl, Russia in 1987. She began working as a journalist when she was 15, and spent 17 years reporting for Novaya Gazeta, Russia's last major independent newspaper until it was shut down in the spring of 2022 in response to her reporting from Ukraine. She is the author of two books published in Russian, Unwanted on Probation and We Have to Live Here, and the recipient of the European Press Prize, the Gerd Bucerius Award, and the Paul Klebnikov Prize.

Reviews

Brilliant and immersive ... reportage at its brave and luminous best
*Luke Harding, Observer*

Fearless reporting… shocking and moving… 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
*Sunday Times, *Book of the Week**

I Love Russia is full of rigorous journalistic detail, but is also deeply personal, beautifully written ... real and intimate
*Rob Hastings, I Paper*

Few have tried to examine the life of ordinary people in the world's biggest country (by physical size) the way this one does ... [Elena's] style of brave, intimate reporting is likely to be a rarity in Russia for years to come
*New York Times*

Elena Kostyuchenko is an important guide to the twenty-first century. The Russia she recounts here is the Russia we need to understand
*Timothy Snyder*