蜜芽传媒

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, 鈥榓n invisible thread that could never be broken, not even by death鈥�. 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鈥檚 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 third episode opens in the autumn of 1999, when Natalya and five-year old Lana have fled the war to Yekaterinburg in Russia, where her uncle and aunt live. But only a few weeks after they arrive, Natalya decides to leave her daughter behind and return to the war zone.

鈥極n the 21st of October 1999, sometime after six o鈥檆lock in the evening, Mum boarded a bus near the Central Post Office in Grozny, planning to visit a friend and return home before dark. Market day was coming to an end, and she was accompanied by women with heavy bags. Suddenly, as the last passengers boarded the bus, there was, in her words, 鈥渁 terrible roar, and a huge brown cloud flew right at us.鈥� She and the other passengers jumped off the bus and ran towards a nearby bombed-out building. The man who was one step ahead of her fell, dead.

By pure chance, my mother had witnessed one of the most despicable war crimes committed by the Russian army in Chechnya.鈥�

Despite these horrors, Lana and her mother manage a birthday celebration with a fruit the young girl had never seen before: a pineapple.

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 蜜芽传媒 Radio 4

Show less