Book about life of rights defender Natalia Estemirova published

The book "Please Live" about the life of human rights defender Natalia Estemirova has been presented in England. According to the author, Lana Estemirova, it took many years to write the book because it was emotionally difficult. Lana wanted to immortalize her mother's name in the absence of a fair investigation into her mother's murder.

In England, John Murray Publishing House has issued Lana Estemirova's book "Please Live" dedicated to her mother Natalia Estemirova. The official presentation of the book was held in the London Review Bookshop in the evening on June 17. The rights to translate the book have already been acquired by a publisher in Italy, Cora McGregor, Lana Estemirova's literary agent, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

So far, there are no plans to sell the rights to publish the book to Russia, since "at present, it is extremely difficult to make such deals with Russia," she said.

I think the book should be published in Russian.

Both the electronic and paper versions of the book are available in Europe for pre-order in online stores; the official sale start there is June 19. "I think that the book should be published in the Russian language. But first – and this is a fundamental point – it should be published in Ukrainian," Lana Estemirova told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

"This is a very lively and very personal book."

The book presentation in London was attended by family friends, colleagues, human rights defenders and journalists. Among them there was the son of the murdered Maltese journalist, Daphne Caruana Galizia, who noted the similarity of their stories and the importance of such memoirs.

On the eve of the presentation, an article about Estemirova's book was published in the British newspaper Telegraph. The literary reviewer of the paper called it very timely and awarded it a rating of "five out of five." "In ‘Please Live’, her vivid memoir of growing up during the Chechen wars, Lana Estemirova recalls her mother's anger at the way the attacks on civilian targets, such as the Grozny marketplace that killed 118 people, were calmly broadcast on Russian TV as 'targeted military strikes' to eliminate rebels," wrote Julian Evans, the columnist.

"The story of Lana Estemirova's childhood deserves to be told, and not just because her mother was the renowned human rights defender, Natalia Estemirova <> Her daughter's book, with its mundane details – such as living in an apartment with no glass in the windows – conveys the poignant, oppressive atmosphere of a country subject to what must have felt like perpetual war," the columnist has recounted.

This book is filled with pain, resentment, plenty of humour and endless love.

Sasha Kulaeva, a lecturer at the Higher School of Political Sciences in Paris, has noted that the evening “was very personal.” She told the “Caucasian Knot” correspondent about the value of the book. “It’s very important that this book came out now. It presents what happened in Chechnya in a completely different way than what we have read and seen so far. This is a universal book about the daughter-mother relationships, when the mother chooses the work of helping others, sometimes to the detriment of the obvious maternal responsibilities in the traditional society. This book is filled with pain, resentment, a lot of humour and endless love. And that is why it turned out so well,” she said.

“I was at my mother’s grave and promised her that I would write about her and tell our story.”

Lana Estemirova shared details of her work on the book. She began writing it at the age of 22, when she received a scholarship to create a literary project. According to her story, the work was very difficult: her emotional stress didn’t allow her to concentrate on the text for long, chapters were written in tears. “I returned to the text again and again, but each time I put it off ... The wounds began bleeding,” Lana admits. Only in 2022, with the advent of a literary agent and set deadlines, the project received impetus. The work took about a year, although the bulk of the material had already been gathered. In the process of writing, a feeling of liberation came: “I realized that I can talk about my mother not as a victim, but as a person who is alive – at least through my words.” “Besides, my view of things when I am closer to 30 is different from that when I was in my early twenties. Perhaps I needed to grow up a little,” Lana Estemirova shared her memories.

I had no goal of writing "Natalia Estemirova’s complete biography." I wanted it to be through the prism of my perception.

The book consists of both Lana’s own memories and conversations with Natalia’s relatives and colleagues, as well as historical episodes. Lana emphasizes that “I didn’t want to write an academic biography. I wanted people who never knew her to feel what she was like.” I asked my colleagues: “On such-and-such a day I was there, and what was my mother doing at that time?” For example, one of the episodes is the bombing of the village of Zumsoi in 2004. That day, Natalia went to document the strike aftermath; and Lana was relaxing in the mountains nearby, playing in the river. “I was having a perfect day … and my mother was talking to the husband of Maidat, the woman, who perished along with her six children," Lana recalls.

The book is addressed to a wide range of readers, including Western youth, she continued. "I describe the details of cleansings amid a largely difficult, albeit happy childhood. This is also the story of my growing up. I tried to write the book in a way that would be understandable to the general public, including those who have never heard of Chechnya. I refer to Harry Potter more than once in my book, and I hope that young people in Europe and England will read it. I had no idea of writing a book for experts on Chechnya. I just wanted to describe how everything was, honestly and without any pathos," Lana has noted.

She said that the book title refers to the last message Lana sent to her mother when she stopped answering her calls. "Please live" – this phrase became not only the title, but also the semantic centre of the entire book.

As long as her killers are at large, this wound will never close.

"The book is humanizing my mother. Because it is usually difficult to understand the characters – what motivates them, why they make this choice and why they worry about the fact that many don’t care what drives them. In the West, the concept of ‘completeness’ is very important. Of course, I’m happy that I fulfilled the promise I made to my mother. In the last chapter, I write a simple thought: just because the person we love dies doesn’t mean that our relationships with him/her ends – my mother is with me in different guises every day. Now, I have my own daughter, Natasha, and I imagine how she would sit with us now, how she would nurse her, what books she would read to her. As long as her killers are at large, this wound will never close," Lana Estemirova said.

She recalled that the case of her mother's murder is frozen. Lana draws attention to the legal side: the expiration of the statute of limitations is a farce and an obstacle to justice. She calls for the abolition of the 15-year statute of limitations for political murders in order to find the real perpetrators and customers of her mother’s murders, as well as of Anna Politkovskaya and Boris Nemtsov. “At the same time, in Chechnya, thanks to the word of mouth, everyone knows perfectly well who did it. Sooner or later, they will pay for what they did,” she has concluded.

This was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on June 18, 2025 at 02:20 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.