Profile of Courage

Do you think you’re brave?  Have you done anything courageous?  How do you personally define courage?  I’d like to recommend a book to you that will likely stand as a monument to true courage for some time to come. 

The book is "Putin's Russia - Life in a Failing Democracy" written by a Russian journalist named Anna Politkovskaya in 2004.  Ms. Politkovskaya had been pointing out many "inconvenient truths" of Russia under Vladimir Putin for several years in a variety of newspapers.  Her book captures the shortfalls (no pun intended, even though Mr. Putin is only 5’4”), and abuses that she discovered as she researched stories throughout the country.  Topics include the systemic abuse and inhumanity that exists within the Russian Army; a policy of genocide in Chechnya; an explanation of how the “new” Russian economy is controlled by mafia-controlled oligarchs supported by a corrupt police and judicial system; inappropriate government responses to the terrorist tragedies of the Nord-Ost theater in October, 2002 and at the Beslan school in September, 2004. 

As you can see, she took on some very powerful people and groups within Russia. 

She was gunned down in October 2006.  Murdered for her unflinching desire to take on an increasingly all powerful state to defend the individual.  Like many other murders of journalists opposed to the regime, the crime was barely investigated, and her murderer was never discovered.  Putin himself dismissed her as a “person of little consequence.” Does that leave you with any doubt at all??

If you want a good look at what's going on inside Russia today and if you want to truly discover what a courageous life is all about, please read this book.