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The Dirty War | 
| Author: Anna Politkovskaya
Publisher: Harvill Press
Category: Book
List Price: $24.00
Buy Used: $9.99
You Save: $14.01 (58%)
Rating:  8 reviews
Sales Rank: 754585
Media: Paperback
Pages: 368
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 8.2 x 6.2 x 1.1
ISBN: 1860468977
Dewey Decimal Number: 947.52086
EAN: 9781860468971
ASIN: 1860468977
Publication Date: November 29, 2004
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
"My notes are written for the future. They are the testimon of the innocent victims of the new Chechen war, which is why I record all the detail I can" ANNA POLITKOVSKAYA The Chechen War was supposed to be over in i996 after the first Yeltsin campaign, but in the summer of iggg the new Putin government decided to "do the job properly". Before all the bodies of those killed in the first campaign had been located or identified, thousands more would be slaughtered in another round of fighting. The first account to be written by a Russian woman, A Dirty War is an edgy and intense study of a conflict that shows no signs of being resolved. Exasperated by the Russian governments attempt to manipulate media coverage of the war, journalist Anna Politkovskaya undertook to go to Chechnya, to make regular reports and keep events in the public eye. In a series of despatches from July 1999 to January 2001 she vividly describes the atrocities and abuses of the war, whether it be the corruption endemic in post-Communist Russia, in particular the government and the military, or the spurious arguments and abominable behaviour of the Chechen authorities. In these courageous reports, Politkovskaya excoriates male stupidity and brutality on both sides of the conflict and interviews the civilians whose homes and communities have been laid waste, leaving them nowhere to live and nothing and no one to believe in.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 3 more reviews...
 Russian Muckraking June 23, 2006
David W. Nicholas (Montrose, CA USA)
7 out of 10 found this review helpful
This is a hard book to judge. In the first place, it's a collection of articles for what the author refers to as a newspaper, though the "New Gazette" appears to publish biweekly. This leads to some jarring articles next to one another: the first article denounces officials involved in the identification of the corpses of Russian soldiers killed in the first Chechen War 1994-6, and the second article, immediately following, denounces the first one as biased and reverses all of its statements. It's a bit strange.
There's also the issue of bias. Strangely, here in the States, most political conservatives disliked Putin's war in Chechnya, and Yeltsin's before him. In Russia, however, support for the war lies among Russia's conservative political community, while liberals oppose it. The war itself is run as you would expect a Russian war to be run: the soldiers sell their weapons and ammunition to the rebels, who shoot it back at the same soldiers. The soldiers are rarely, if ever paid, and are regularly charged with everything from rape to murder to the relatively mild drug posession. Civilians trapped in the middle are starving, lacking clean water, medical supplies, housing, jobs, pretty much everything. The Russian government makes a lot of promises and then doesn't fulfill any of them. The Chechens steal everything that isn't nailed down (and what is, they pry up and *then* steal), hold old people hostage, set oil wells on fire if they can't own them themselves, and set mines in their neighbors' apartments in order to encourage them to leave. Everyone in this book is a vicious, nasty, mean person, except the innocent civilians the author interviews who are caught between the two forces.
I mostly disagree with the accusations of bias on the part of the author. She clearly doesn't like Putin or any of the Russian administration, but she also rips the Chechens regularly. One reason for her concentration on the negative aspects of the Russian army is that they're not so violent that she can't interview them, while the Chechen fighters, especially their leaders, are dangerous enough that she either didn't try, or failed. Either way, there's more material here on the Russians (most of it negative) than there is on the Chechens. She does show some sympathy for the soldiers at the front: she outlines everything from how underpaid they are to the lousy food (it comes to the front rotting in the cans it's packaged in) to the indifferent officers and the horrible conditions at the front. The whole book, frankly, is full of negative, depressing things. This isn't a book you read to cheer yourself up.
I really thought this book informative, though given its anecdotal nature and content there's very little material on the course of the war itself. I would recommend it to anyone interested in the subject.
Good overview December 14, 2004
Sarah Shoemaker (WA state)
11 out of 13 found this review helpful
I have to disagree to some degree with those who say this is a *completely* biased piece. I also have suspicions that those who trash this work have not read it in it's entirety, if at all. Anna is certainly an advocate for the Chechen people, but she also attempts to show, albeit in small bits, the human side of Russian troops. Her writing is vivid, impassioned, but sometimes choppy. It can be difficult to read sometimes, but that may be the translation. I'm not sure how the September 11th attacks should obscure any opinions in favor of Chechen independence. Those views expressed appear to be shallow, with a blind, "follow the leader" approach. This shouldn't be an issue where you chant, "go team!"--Why not consider both sides? If you go to www.hrw.org there are plenty accounts of Russian abuse of Chechens, to be fair there is also abuse from Chechen fighters on civilians. This is a dirty war because it is corrupt on all sides. You can also find numerous other articles, not just from Politkovskaya, that echo the same problems with corruption, human rights abuses, etc. Steven Lee Myers of the New York Times is also a good source. Why is it so unfathomable that soldiers might commit abuses, be xenophobic, rape, etc. What about Elza Kungayeva's rapist? He was a high ranking colonel. Even though her rape was ommitted from her autopsy report and he was never actually convicted of rape, he still murdered her. Is that okay? Is that fair or right? Is that not terrorism at it's finest? To form a solid opinion you really need to consider all sides; you need to look at the root problems, it isn't a simple issue.---And it's obvious that it cannot be resolved through military measures alone. There really has to be some considerate discussion. (Putin has blasted that idea so I don't think it will happen.) And you cannot put blinders up and think that abuse is impossible, or even okay. It's too easy to reduce the Chechens to a nation of terrorists.
Excellent reporting, Strong translation December 6, 2001
Misha (Staten Island, NY)
18 out of 20 found this review helpful
Politkovskaya has provided us an incredible insight into both sides of the ugliest conflict, both politically and moralistically, since the Second World War. Her ability to speak not only with the Russian OMON troops, the Russian military, and the Chechen "freedom fighters," as well as with the families of the dead from each side, provides the necessary balance and authority to make her book as intriguing as the people themselves. Politkovskaya's political leanings are apparent within the first two chapters, but should not shade the information she provides. Crowfoot's translation, which on occasion slips from lyrical to Boris-and-Natasha-speak, appears a bit rushed; considering the threats made on Politkovskaya after her October suggestion that Russians were responsible for the deaths of high-ranking Putin advisors sent to the region to investigate federal operations there, a rush can be understood and appreciated. This complaint is, in my opinion, the only distraction from an otherwise outstanding piece of work. Buy this book, and hope for another very soon!
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