ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½

Lana Estemirova grew up in Chechnya in the 1990s, the daughter of the human rights activist Natalya Estemirova, who was assassinated when Lana was only 15. This memoir is dedicated to her mother.

Lana tells the story of her childhood, and what happened to her after her mother died. There was a powerful bond between mother and daughter, ‘an invisible thread that could never be broken, not even by death’. Sometimes Lana is sent to live with relatives, but wherever possible Natalya brings her young daughter to live with her in Grozny - and so Lana is able to give us a vivid child’s eye view of what it is like to grow up in a warzone. There is terrifying danger, but also a lot of fun, and even deep happiness.

This first episode opens with Lana’s memory of the last words her mother said to her, as she left their apartment in Grozny on the 15th July 2009 – ‘Lana, where’s my perfume?’ Lana then circles back to tell the story of her birth and early childhood, living with her mother in Chechnya and begging her for stories about the first Russo-Chechen war.

‘Some of the most harrowing crimes committed by Russian troops – rapes, cleansing operations and secret torture prisons – would only be uncovered in the years that followed the war. My mother was to play a role in this, finding her true calling as a human rights activist.

Her memories of that time must have been deeply traumatic. But she never grew tired of telling me the story of our survival, and I never grew tired of hearing it. No matter how terrifying, every tale had a happy ending: Mum and me in our kitchen with our fluffy tabby cat next to us.’

Read by Ell Potter

Produced and abridged by Elizabeth Burke

Studio Production and Sound Design by Jon Calver

Executive Producer: Sara Davies

A Loftus Media production for ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Radio 4

Show less