Masha Gessen Explained

Masha Gessen
Native Name Lang:	ru
Birth Date:	13 January 1967
Birth Place:	Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union (now Russian Federation)
Nationality:	Russian
Spouse:	Lynne Echenberg
Children:	3
Relatives:	Keith Gessen (brother)

Masha Gessen (Russian: Мари́я "Маша" Алекса́ндровна Ге́ссен|translit=; born 13 January 1967) is a Russian-American journalist, author, translator.^{[1] [2]} Gessen is nonbinary and trans and uses they/them pronouns.^{[3] [4]} Gessen has written extensively on LGBT rights.^[5]

Gessen writes primarily in English but also in their native Russian. In addition to being the author of several non-fiction books, they have been a prolific contributor to such publications as The New York Times, The New York Review of Books, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, The New Republic, New Statesman, Granta, Slate, Vanity Fair, Harper's Magazine, The New Yorker, and U.S. News & World Report. They have been a staff writer for The New Yorker since 2017, and an opinion columnist at The New York Times, under the byline M. Gessen, since May 2024.^[6]

Early life and education

Gessen was born into a Jewish family in Moscow to Alexander and Yelena Gessen.^[1] Gessen's paternal grandmother Ester Goldberg, the daughter of a socialist mother and a Zionist father, was born in Białystok, Poland, in 1923 and emigrated to Moscow in 1940. Ester's father Jakub Goldberg was murdered during the Holocaust in 1943, either in the Białystok Ghetto or a concentration camp.^[7]

Gessen's maternal grandmother, Ruzya Solodovnik, was a Russian-born intellectual who worked as a censor for the Stalinist government until she was fired during an antisemitic purge. Gessen's maternal grandfather Samuil was a committed Bolshevik who died during World War II, leaving Ruzya to raise Yelena alone.^[7]

In 1981, when Gessen was a teenager, their family moved via the US Refugee Resettlement Program to the United States.^[8] As an adult in 1996, Gessen moved to Moscow, where they worked as a journalist.^[8] They hold both Russian and US citizenship. Their brothers are Keith, Daniel, and Philip Gessen.^[9]

Career

Activism and journalism

Gessen was on the board of directors of the Moscow-based LGBT rights organization Triangle between 1993 and 1998 and has led gay rights demonstrations in Moscow.^[10]

Gessen served as a volunteer board member at PEN America for nine years. They resigned in May 2023^[11] when the organization withdrew an invitation to two exiled Russian authors to speak at the PEN World Voices event, after invited Ukrainian authors protested the presence of Russian writers and threatened a boycott.^[12] Gessen was vice president of the board at the time and will continue to be a member of PEN America.^[13]

Gessen said that they understand the feelings of Ukrainian authors, and their resignation was related to how PEN handled the situation.^[12] Gessen said: "I felt like I was being asked to tell these people [the Russian dissidents] that because they’re Russians they can’t sit at the big table; they have to sit at the little table off to the side … Which felt distasteful."^[14]

In an extensive October 2008 profile of Vladimir Putin for Vanity Fair, Gessen reported that the young Putin had been "an aspiring thug" and that "the backward evolution of Russia began" within days of his inauguration in 2000.^[15]

They contributed several dozen commentaries on Russia to The New York Times blog "Latitude" between November 2011 and December 2013. Among their subjects were the banning of so-called "homosexual propaganda" and other related laws, the harassment and beating of journalists, and the depreciation in value of the ruble.^[16]

In March 2013, politician Vitaly Milonov promoted the Russian law against foreign adoption of Russian children by saying: "The Americans want to adopt Russian children and bring them up in perverted families like Masha Gessen's."^[17]

Dismissal from Vokrug sveta

Gessen was dismissed from their position as the chief editor of Russia's oldest magazine, Vokrug sveta, a popular-science journal, in September 2012 after Gessen refused to send a reporter to cover a Russian Geographical Society event about nature conservation featuring President Putin, because Gessen considered it political exploitation of environmental concerns.^{[18] [19]} After Gessen tweeted about their firing, Putin phoned them and claimed he was serious about his "nature conservation efforts". At his invitation, Gessen met him and Gessen's former publisher at the Kremlin and were offered their job back. Gessen rejected the offer.^{[20] [21]}

Radio Liberty

In September 2012, Gessen was appointed as director of the Russian Service for Radio Liberty, a U.S. government-funded broadcaster based in Prague.^{[22] [23]} Shortly after their appointment was announced and a few days after Gessen met with Putin, more than 40 members of Radio Liberty's staff were fired. The station lost its Russian broadcasting license several weeks after Gessen took over. The degree of Gessen's involvement in both of these events is unclear, but has caused controversy.^[23]

Return to the U.S.

In December 2013, Gessen moved to New York because Russian authorities had begun to talk about taking children away from gay parents.^[24] In March of that year, "the St Petersburg legislator [Milonov] who had become a spokesman for the law [against 'homosexual propaganda' towards children] started mentioning me and my 'perverted family' in his interviews", and Gessen contacted an adoption lawyer asking "whether I had reason to worry that social services would go after my family and attempt to remove my oldest son, whom I adopted in 2000".

The lawyer told Gessen "to instruct my son to run if he is approached by strangers and concluding: 'The answer to your question is at the airport.'" In June 2013, Gessen was beaten up outside of the Parliament; they said of the incident: "I realized that in all my interactions, including professional ones, I no longer felt I was perceived as a journalist first: I am now a person with a pink triangle." They stated that "a court would easily decide to annul Vova's adoption, and I wouldn't even know it". Given this potential threat to their family, Gessen "felt like no risk was small enough to be acceptable", they later told the CBC Radio. "So we just had to get out."^[25] In a January 2014 interview with ABC News, Gessen claimed that the Russian gay propaganda law had "led to a huge increase in antigay violence, including murders. It's led to attacks on gay and lesbian clubs and film festivals ... and because these laws are passed supposedly to protect children, the people who are most targeted or have the most to fear are LGBT parents."^[26]

Gessen wrote in February 2014 that Citibank had closed their bank account because of concern about Russian money-laundering operations.^[27]

Gessen worked as a translator on the FX TV channel historical drama The Americans.^[2]

, Gessen taught as a distinguished professor at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at the City University of New York.^[28] From 2020 to 2023, Gessen taught as Distinguished Writer in Residence at Bard College.^[29] Previously at Amherst College, they were named the John J. McCloy '16 Professor of American Institutions and International Diplomacy for the 2017–18 and 2018–19 academic years. In October 2017, they published their 10th book The Future is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia.^[30] They were included in the 2022 Fast Company Queer 50 list.^[31]

Arrest warrant by Russia

See also: Russian 2022 war censorship laws. In August 2023,^[32] Russia opened a criminal case against Gessen on charges of spreading "false information" about the Russian army's actions in Ukraine. In December 2023, it was reported that Gessen's name appeared on the Russian Interior Ministry's online wanted list.^[33] Gessen was accused of spreading "false information" after discussing atrocities in the Ukrainian city of Bucha during an interview with Russian journalist Yury Dud.^[34]

Award controversy

In August 2023, the Heinrich Böll Foundation (HBS) announced that Gessen was the winner of the Hannah Arendt Prize for Political Thought. In December, days before the award was due to be presented, the HBS said that it was withdrawing its support because it objected to Gessen's December 9 New Yorker essay In the Shadow of the Holocaust on German Holocaust memory and the Israel–Hamas war.^{[35] [36] [37]} In the essay, Gessen argued that Germany's remembrance culture regarding the Holocaust was being used as a "cynically wielded political instrument" by the Alternative for Germany (AfD) to target Muslim immigrants. Gessen condemned the atrocities committed by Hamas in the October 7 attack, but was also critical of the Israeli bombings of the Gaza Strip, which they considered to be highly destructive and comparable to an Eastern European ghetto "being liquidated" by the Nazis.^[38] On December 16, Gessen received the Hannah Arendt literary prize award in a scaled-down ceremony.^{[37] [39]}

Personal life

Gessen has dual Russian and US citizenship.^[40] In 2004, Gessen married Svetlana Generalova, a Russian citizen who was also involved in the LGBT movement in Moscow. The wedding took place in the U.S.^[41] Generalova and Gessen later divorced. By the time Gessen returned to the U.S. from Russia in December 2013, Gessen was married to Darya Oreshkina.^{[42] [43]} In 2024, Gessen married Lynne Echenberg, special counsel for restorative justice in the Brooklyn District Atorrney's office.^{[44] [45]} Gessen has three children—two sons and a daughter. Their eldest son, Vova, was born in 1997 in Russia and was adopted by Gessen from an orphanage for the children of HIV-positive women in Kaliningrad. Their daughter, Yolka, was born to Gessen in the U.S. in 2001. Their third child, a son, was born in February 2012.^[46]

Gessen tested positive for the BRCA mutation that is correlated with breast cancer and underwent a mastectomy in 2005.^[47]

Gessen came out as nonbinary in 2020 and began using they/them pronouns at that time. When speaking of their childhood, Gessen said: "I remember, at the age of five [...] hoping that I would wake up a boy. A real boy. I had people address me by a boy’s name. My parents, fortunately, were incredibly game. They were totally fine with it." As a child, Gessen used the male denoting verb forms, a feature of Russian syntax in which verbs denote the speaker's gender, but as a teenager switched to using female denoting verb forms. In a Russian-language interview, Gessen said that they continue to use the female form of verbs when speaking Russian.^[48]

Awards

• 2005: National Jewish Book Award for Ester and Ruzya: How My Grandmothers Survived Hitler's War and Stalin's Peace^[49]
• 2012: Stora Journalistpriset (Swedish Grand Prize for Journalism), Guest of Honor^[50]
• 2013: Liberty Media Corporation, Media for Liberty award for their article "The Wrath of Putin," published in the April 2012 edition of Vanity Fair^[51]
• 2015: University of Michigan Wallenberg Medal, 24th recipient^[52]
• 2017: National Book Award for Nonfiction for The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia^[53]
• 2018: Hitchens Prize^[54]
• 2023: Hannah Arendt Award^[55]
• 2024: Polk Award in Commentary for In the Shadow of the Holocaust^[56]

Summaries of select works

The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin

In The Man Without a Face, Gessen offers an account of Putin's rise to power and summary of recent Russian politics. The book was published on 1 March 2012 and translated into 20 languages.^[57]

The New York Review of Books described the book as written in "beautifully clear and eloquent English", stating that it was "at heart a description of th[e] secret police milieu" from which Putin originated and was "also very good at evoking ... the culture and atmosphere within which [Putin] was raised, and the values he came to espouse".^[58] The Guardian called the book "luminous";^[59] the Telegraph called it "courageous".^[60]

CIA officer John Ehrman's review stated: "As a biography it is satisfactory, but no more than that" and "little of what Gessen has to say is new". Ehrman found Gessen's depiction of Putin as essentially a gangster and a mafia don to be an oversimplification, but concluded, "The image of Putin making offers no Russian can refuse is exactly what Gessen wants us to see and is effective as anti-Putin propaganda."^[61]

Words Will Break Cement: The Passion of Pussy Riot

When this book was published in 2014, A. D. Miller wrote in the Telegraph that "even readers who do not share Gessen's esteem for Pussy Riot as artists will be convinced of their courage". Miller described Gessen as "the right person to tell this story" and said that their journalistic approach was "scrupulous and sensitive".^[62] Booklist described the book as "prickly, frank, precise, and sharply witty".^[63]

The New York Times called it "urgent" and "damning".^[64] The Washington Post called the book an "excellent" portrait of Pussy Riot and said that "Gessen gives a particularly brilliant account of their trials".^[65] The Los Angeles Times said that Gessen was "Not just a keen observer of these events" but "also an impassioned partisan".^[66]

The Brothers: The Road to an American Tragedy

Published in April 2015 by Riverhead, The Brothers investigates the background of Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the perpetrators of the Boston Marathon bombing.^[67]

Bibliography

Books

• Book: Gessen, Masha . Foreword by Larisa I. Bogoraz; introduction by Julie Dorf. The rights of lesbians and gay men in the Russian Federation : an International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission report = Права гомосексуалов и лесбиянок в Российской Федерации : отчет Международной Комиссии по правам человека для гомосексуалов и лесбиянок . 1994 . International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) . San Francisco . 978-1-884955-13-6. en, ru. 33402470-->.
• Book: Gessen. Masha (translated by). Lipovskaya. Olga (preface by). Gorlanova. Nina. Volodina. Galina. Paley. Marina. Polianskaya. Irina. Tarasova. Yelena. Nabatnikova. Tatiana. Shulga. Natalia. Narbikova. Valeria. Sadur. Nina. Gessen. Masha. Half a Revolution

  Contemporary Fiction by Russian Women

  . 1995. Cleis Press. Pittsburgh, PA. 978-1-57344-006-6. en. 31518015.
• Book: Gessen, Masha. Dead Again: The Russian Intelligentsia After Communism. 1997. Verso. London. 978-1-85984-147-1. en. 36201042. registration.
• Book: Gessen, Masha . Ester and Ruzya: How My Grandmothers Survived Hitler's War and Stalin's Peace. registration . 2004. Dial Press Trade Paperbacks. New York. 978-0-385-33605-5 . en. 54529515. - also known in the UK as Two Babushkas: How My Grandmothers Survived Hitler's War and Stalin's Peace^[68]
• Book: Gessen, Masha. Blood Matters: From Inherited Illness to Designer Babies, How the World and I Found Ourselves in the Future of the Gene. 2008. Harcourt. Orlando. 978-0-15-101362-3. en. 171151566. - a New York Times Notable Book of the year
• Book: Gessen, Masha. Perfect Rigor: A Genius and the Mathematical Breakthrough of the Century. 2009. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Boston. 978-0-15-101406-4. en. 759834681. - about Grigori Perelman
• Book: Gessen, Masha . . 2012. Riverhead Books. New York. 978-1-59448-842-9. en. 859327104. - Short-listed for Pushkin House Russian Book Prize 2013, Long-listed for Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction 2012
• Book: Gessen, Masha . Words Will Break Cement

  The Passion of Pussy Riot

  . 2014. Riverhead Books. New York. 978-1-59463-219-8. en. 880926302.
• Book: Kasparov. Garry (foreword by). Gessen. Masha. Huff-Hannon. Joseph. Пропаганда гомосексуализма в России : истории любви / Gay Propaganda: Russian Love Stories. 2014. OR Books. New York. 978-1-939293-35-0. ru, en. 907537609.
• Book: Gessen, Masha. Brothers: The Road to An American Tragedy. 2015. Riverhead Books. New York. 978-1-59463-264-8. en. 905658714. registration.
• Book: Gessen, Masha . Where the Jews Aren't

  The Sad and Absurd Story of Birobidzhan, Russia's Autonomous Region

  . 2016. Nextbook/Schocken. New York. 978-0-80524-246-1. en. 959936125.
• Book: Gessen, Masha . The Future Is History

  How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia

  . 3 October 2017. Riverhead Books. New York. 978-1594634536. - 2017 National Book Award for nonfiction^[69]
• Book: Gessen, Masha . Never Remember

  Searching for Stalin's Gulags in Putin's Russia

  . 20 March 2018. Columbia Global Reports. New York. 978-0997722963. ^[70]
• Book: Gessen, Masha . . 2 June 2020. Riverhead Books. New York. 978-0593188934. ^[71]

Essays and reporting

• Dorf. Julie. Gessen. Masha. From Russia with Homo Love. Out/Look. Winter 1992. 48–54. en. 16 October 2021. 16 October 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20211016112356/https://outrightinternational.org/sites/default/files/Jule-Dorf-Masha-Gessen-from-Russia-with-Homo-Love.pdf. dead.
• News: Gessen, Masha . Vladimir Putin and Mikhail Khodorkovsky: One Man's Truth, Another Man's Tyranny. Vanity Fair. 2 March 2012.
• News: Gessen, Masha . Is Vladimir Putin insane? Hardly. Los Angeles Times. 11 March 2014. en.
• News: Gessen, Masha . Opinion: Trump's Incompetence Won't Save Our Democracy. The New York Times. 2 June 2017.
• Gessen, Masha . 1 . July 3, 2017 . . Letter from Moscow . The New Yorker . 93 . 19 . 22–28 . 2018-06-01-->. ^[72]
• Gessen, Masha . 1 . February 12, 2020 . The Queer Opposition to Pete Buttigieg, Explained . Our Columnists. February 12, 2020 . The New Yorker.
• Gessen, Masha . 1 . July 27, 2020 . . The Talk of the Town. April 2, 2020 . The New Yorker . 96 . 21 . 14–15 . 2021-10-16--> . 16 October 2021 . 17 April 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20200417022925/https://www.newyorker.com/news/postscript/remembering-lorena-borjas-the-mother-of-a-trans-latinx-community . dead . ^[73]
• Articles from The New Yorker

See also

• LGBT rights in Russia
• Russia under Vladimir Putin

External links

• • • • (March 11, 2023). What We Talk About When We Talk About Trans Rights (an interview with David Remnick), The New Yorker.
• Bloomsbury Books author pages
• "The Wrath of Putin" re: Russian prime minister's relationship with Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Vanity Fair, April 2012.
• "A Call from the Kremlin" re: face-to-face meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, The New York Times, September 2012.
• "Putin Biography Chronicles Rise Of A 'Street Thug'", interview with Dave Davies on Fresh Air, 1 March 2012.
• Review of Blood Matters, The Independent
• Review of "Words Will Break Cement: The Passion of Pussy Riot"

Notes and References

1. Encyclopedia: Contemporary Authors Online. Masha Gessen. 16 January 2017. 2016.
2. News: Thomas . June . The Art of the Perfect Subtitle . 21 April 2016 . Slate . 1091-2339 . 16 November 2017 . 16 June 2018 . https://web.archive.org/web/20180616130945/http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2016/04/21/the_americans_russian_translator_talks_about_her_perfection_of_the_show.html . live .
3. Gessen. Masha. mashagessen . 1275529666246426625 . 23 June 2020 . I avoided the topic of pronouns for a while . no . 7 August 2020 .
4. Web site: Маша Гессен: о Трампе, тестостероне и терроре. https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211220/BAYNKHP-kVQ . 2021-12-20 . live. Youtube. 18 February 2020 . 9 March 2020.
5. Web site: Gessen. Masha. The Supreme Court Considers L.G.B.T. Rights, but Can't Stop Talking About Bathrooms. The New Yorker. 9 October 2019. 9 October 2019. 20 November 2022. https://web.archive.org/web/20221120124214/https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/the-supreme-court-considers-lgbt-rights-but-cant-stop-talking-about-bathrooms. live.
6. Kingsbury . Kathleen . Kathleen Kingsbury . Masha Gessen Joins the Times as an Opinion Columnist . . 21 July 2024 . 23 May 2024 . 21 July 2024 . https://web.archive.org/web/20240721005754/https://www.nytco.com/press/masha-gessen-joins-the-times-as-an-opinion-columnist/ . live .
7. News: 'Ester and Ruzya': Grandmothers of Invention . . 6 March 2005 . 28 January 2020 . Pollitt . Katha . 28 January 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20200128202224/https://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/06/books/review/ester-and-ruzya-grandmothers-of-invention.html . live .
8. [Joanna Rakoff|Smith Rakoff, Joanna]
9. Smith Rakoff, Joanna. "Talking with Masha Gessen, Newsday, 14 June 2017.
10. Web site: Биография Мария Гессен . Мария Гессен / Maria Hessen: Biography . ru . www.peoples.ru . 16 March 2022 . 20 August 2024 . https://web.archive.org/web/20240820010833/https://www.peoples.ru/state/statesmen/maria_hessen/ . live .
11. Web site: Masha Gessen Resigns in Protest from PEN America Board . 16 May 2023. The Atlantic. 23 May 2023.
12. News: Author resigns from PEN America board amid row over Russian writers pane . The Guardian . 17 May 2023 . 1 January 2024 . 20 August 2024 . https://web.archive.org/web/20240820010819/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/may/16/pen-vice-president-masha-gessen-resigns . live .
13. Web site: Masha Gessen Resigns from PEN America Board Over Removal of Russian Writers Panel . 22 May 2023 . . 23 May 2023 . 22 May 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230522212512/https://www.democracynow.org/2023/5/22/pen_america_masha_gessen . live .
14. Why Masha Gessen Resigned from the PEN America Board . The New Yorker . 24 May 2023 . 1 January 2024 . 17 January 2024 . https://web.archive.org/web/20240117023704/https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/why-masha-gessen-resigned-from-the-pen-america-board . live .
15. Web site: Gessen . Masha . Dead Soul . https://web.archive.org/web/20140414185356/http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2008/10/Dead-Soul . dead . 14 April 2014 . 1 October 2008 . . 5 June 2017.
16. Web site: NYT . Powerlessness and Pretense . . 30 December 2013 . 12 May 2014 . 20 August 2024 . https://web.archive.org/web/20240820010847/https://archive.nytimes.com/latitude.blogs.nytimes.com/author/masha-gessen/ . live .
17. Web site: Gessen . Masha . When Putin Declared War on Gay Families, It Was Time for Mine to Leave Russia . Slate . 26 August 2013 . 15 May 2014 . 20 August 2024 . https://web.archive.org/web/20240820010814/https://slate.com/human-interest/2013/08/when-putin-declared-war-on-gay-families-it-was-time-for-mine-to-leave-russia.html . live .
18. News: Putin to pilot hang-glider at head of endangered Siberian crane migration. The Guardian. Howard. Amos. 10 September 2012. 29 January 2017.
19. News: Flying Putin, Fired Editor. The New York Times. Masha. Gessen. 10 September 2012. 29 January 2017.
20. Web site: Skavlan. Fredrik. American/Jewish/Russian journalist Masha Gessen wrote negative book about President Putin. https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211220/QBA8oBqVlEg . 2021-12-20 . live. Skavlan. 23 November 2012 . 15 May 2014.
21. Web site: Aschberg. Robert. Stora Journalistpriset 2012: Masha Gessen. https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211220/KQ55WVAY10o . 2021-12-20 . live. Stora Journalistpriset 2012. 23 November 2012 . 15 May 2014.
22. News: Radio Liberty Hires Gessen. 5 January 2013. The Moscow Times. 17 September 2012.
23. Web site: Cohen. Ariel. How to Save Radio Liberty. The Heritage Foundation. 5 January 2013. Helle Dale. 13 December 2012. 31 December 2012. https://web.archive.org/web/20121231093805/http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2012/12/how-to-save-radio-liberty. live.
24. Web site: Ghomeshi . Jian . Masha Gessen on defiance and exile . June 27, 2014 . Canadian Broadcasting Corporation . 10 August 2024 . YouTube . 20 August 2024 . https://web.archive.org/web/20240820010845/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wP1B6XpZQvo . live .
25. Web site: O'Brien . Lara . Masha Gessen on the State of Vladimir Putin's Russia . . 11 May 2014 . 19 May 2014 . https://web.archive.org/web/20140519184102/http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/episode/2014/01/09/masha-gessen-on-the-state-of-vladimir-putins-russia/ . live .
26. Web site: Russian Author and Activist Masha Gessen Answers 5 Questions . . 12 May 2014.
27. News: Gessen . Masha . Banking While Russian . . 11 February 2014 . 15 May 2014 . 19 May 2014 . https://web.archive.org/web/20140519191930/http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/12/opinion/gessen-the-checks-in-the-mail.html . live .
28. Web site: 2023-06-27 . Newmark J-School Names Masha Gessen as First Distinguished Professor . https://web.archive.org/web/20230808193015/https://www.journalism.cuny.edu/2023/06/newmark-j-school-names-masha-gessen-as-first-distinguished-professor/ . 2023-08-08 . 2023-08-08 . Newmark J-School, The City University of New York.
29. Web site: Award-Winning Author Masha Gessen Joins Bard College Faculty . https://web.archive.org/web/20230808192637/https://www.bard.edu/news/award-winning-author-masha-gessen-joins-bard-college-faculty-2020-04-14?type=release . 2023-08-08 . 2023-08-08 . Bard . en.
30. Web site: Meet the Visitors – Amherst College . 27 November 2017.
31. Web site: Masha Gessen is No. 11 on the 2022 Fast Company Queer 50 list . 2022-06-19 . Fast Company . en-US . 19 June 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220619192047/https://www.fastcompany.com/queer-50/list/rank/11 . live .
32. News: Russia brings new charges against jailed journalists Alsu Kurmasheva and Maria Ponomarenko, issues arrest warrant for exiled journalist Masha Gessen . Committee to Protect Journalists . 14 December 2023 . 18 December 2023 . 18 December 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20231218214246/https://cpj.org/2023/12/russia-brings-new-charges-against-imprisoned-journalists-alsu-kurmasheva-and-maria-ponomarenko-issues-arrest-warrant-for-exiled-journalist-masha-gessen/ . live .
33. News: Russia Puts Prominent Russian-American Journalist on Wanted List . VOA News . 9 December 2023.
34. News: Russia Opens Criminal Case Against Journalist Masha Gessen Over Ukraine War 'Fake News' . . 23 November 2023 . 18 December 2023 . 18 December 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20231218214246/https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2023/11/23/russia-opens-criminal-case-against-journalist-masha-gessen-over-ukraine-war-fake-news-a83198 . live .
35. News: Connolly . Kate . Award ceremony suspended after writer compares Gaza to Nazi-era Jewish ghettos . December 14, 2023 . . December 14, 2023.
36. News: Wagner . Laura . December 14, 2023 . Masha Gessen won a 'political thought' prize. Then they wrote on Gaza . en-US . . December 16, 2023 . 0190-8286 . 15 December 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20231215043025/https://www.washingtonpost.com/style/media/2023/12/14/masha-gessen-hannah-arendt-prize/ . live .
37. Web site: Author receives German prize in scaled-down format after comparing Gaza to Nazi-era ghettos . December 16, 2023 . . January 12, 2024 . 18 December 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20231218164437/https://apnews.com/article/germany-hannah-arendt-prize-masha-gessen-1923648579baea413c8b35cc436375fe . live .
38. Gessen . Masha . In the Shadow of the Holocaust . December 9, 2023 . . December 14, 2023 . 17 January 2024 . https://web.archive.org/web/20240117043556/https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-weekend-essay/in-the-shadow-of-the-holocaust . live .
39. Web site: Amanpour and Company . Masha Gessen Responds to Controversy After Comparing Gaza to a Nazi Ghetto . December 21, 2023 . . January 12, 2024 . 20 August 2024 . https://web.archive.org/web/20240820010851/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YU6kP9UqhGI . live .
40. Remnick . David . 2023-03-11 . What We Talk About When We Talk About Trans Rights . en-US . The New Yorker . 2023-08-28 . 0028-792X.
41. Web site: Семья Генераловых — Персоны . ru . Эхо Москвы . dead . 25 March 2020 . 25 March 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20200325010507/https://echo.msk.ru/guests/5301/ .
42. Web site: Bethune . Brian . Russian dissident Masha Gessen on Pussy Riot, Putin and Sochi . . 17 May 2014.
43. Web site: Margolin . Emma . Faces of Russia's LGBT community . 17 May 2014 . Johnny Simon . . 19 May 2014 . https://web.archive.org/web/20140519185322/http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/faces-russias-lgbt-community . dead.
44. https://www.facebook.com/gessen/posts/pfbid02F1ZsRFSZa3Vqt666vV5LBRyZtrV6Jj8W2snW9UiQKQpx3Bhan8QC365TAZKMfSwMl
45. https://www.linkedin.com/in/lynne-echenberg-0a41a716/
46. Web site: Russian Gay Activist's Plea: 'Get Us the Hell Out of Here' . Signorile . Michelangelo . 6 September 2013 . . 6 September 2017 . 20 August 2024 . https://web.archive.org/web/20240820011401/https://www.huffpost.com/entry/russian-gay-activists-plea-get-us-the-hell-out-of-here_b_3881059 . live .
47. News: Groskop . Viv . Masha Gessen talks about blood, babies and the burden of knowing too much . . 4 July 2008.
48. .
49. Web site: National Jewish Book Award Book awards LibraryThing. www.librarything.com. 18 January 2020. 3 June 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20230603004931/https://www.librarything.com/bookaward/National+Jewish+Book+Award. live.
50. Web site: About – Stora Journalistpriset. www.storajournalistpriset.se. 25 March 2020. 2 July 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20230702040549/https://www.storajournalistpriset.se/about. live.
51. Web site: 2013 Media for Liberty Award Honors Vanity Fair's "The Wrath of Putin" by Masha Gessen. Daily Finance. 19 May 2014. 4 April 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20230404021005/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/03/14/2013-media-for-liberty-award-honors-vanity-fairs-t/. live.
52. Web site: Masha Gessen to Receive Wallenberg Medal – Wallenberg Legacy, University of Michigan. Wallenberg. Committee. 14 July 2015. 25 March 2020. 4 April 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20230404074231/https://wallenberg.umich.edu/news-and-events/masha-gessen-to-receive-wallenberg-medal/. live.
53. Web site: Masha Gessen, Jesmyn Ward, Robin Benway and Frank Bidart win National Book Awards. Kellogg. Carolyn. Los Angeles Times. 15 November 2017. 16 November 2017. 4 April 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20230404025943/https://www.latimes.com/books/jacketcopy/la-et-jc-national-book-award-winners-20171115-story.html. live.
54. Web site: 2018 Prize – Masha Gessen . The Dennis & Victoria Ross Foundation . 18 May 2020 . 4 April 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230404021006/http://www.dvrf.org/2018-masha-gessen . live .
55. Web site: The Heinrich Böll Foundation has decided to pull out of the event during which Masha Gessen was to receive the Hannah Arendt Award | Heinrich Böll Stiftung. www.boell.de. 4 March 2024. 20 August 2024. https://web.archive.org/web/20240820011410/https://www.boell.de/en/2023/12/14/heinrich-boll-foundation-has-decided-pull-out-event-during-which-masha-gessen-was. live.
56. 2024-02-19 . The New Yorker's Luke Mogelson and Masha Gessen Win Polk Awards . 2024-07-09 . The New Yorker . en-US . 0028-792X . 20 August 2024 . https://web.archive.org/web/20240820011259/https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-new-yorkers-luke-mogelson-and-masha-gessen-win-polk-awards . live .
57. Vuolo . Mike . Words Will Break Cement: The Passion of Pussy Riot . Slate . 14 March 2014 . 17 May 2014 . 20 August 2024 . https://web.archive.org/web/20240820011415/https://www.slate.com/articles/podcasts/live_at_politics/2014/03/masha_gessen_discusses_words_will_break_cement_the_passion_of_pussy_riot.html . live .
58. Applebaum . Anne . Vladimir's Tale . New York Review of Books . 17 May 2014 . 20 August 2024 . https://web.archive.org/web/20240820011322/https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2012/04/26/vladimirs-tale/ . live .
59. Web site: Harding . Luke . The Man Without a Face by Masha Gessen – review . The Guardian . 9 March 2012 . 17 May 2014 . 20 August 2024 . https://web.archive.org/web/20240820011330/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/mar/09/man-without-face-gessen-review . live .
60. Web site: Miller . A. D. . The Man Without a Face: the Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin by Masha Gessen: review . The Telegraph . 24 February 2012 . 17 May 2014 . 20 August 2024 . https://web.archive.org/web/20240820011336/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/bookreviews/9100906/The-Man-Without-a-Face-the-Unlikely-Rise-of-Vladimir-Putin-by-Masha-Gessen-review.html . live .
61. Web site: Intelligence in Public Literature. The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin and Mr. Putin: Operative in the Kremlin . https://web.archive.org/web/20201106100404/https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/vol-57-no-4/the-man-without-a-face-the-unlikely-rise-of-vladimir-putin-and-mr-putin-operative-in-the-kremlin.html . dead . 2020-11-06 . February 12, 2014 . CIA . October 23, 2020.
62. Web site: Miller . A. D. . Words Will Break Cement: The Passion of Pussy Riot, by Masha Gessen, review . The Telegraph . 18 February 2014 . 17 May 2014 . 20 August 2024 . https://web.archive.org/web/20240820011331/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/non_fictionreviews/10638445/Words-Will-Break-Cement-The-Passion-of-Pussy-Riot-by-Masha-Gessen-review.html . live .
63. Book: Gessen, Masha . Words Will Break Cement: The Passion of Pussy Riot . 8 January 2014 . Riverhead Books . 978-1594632198 .
64. News: Nazaryan . Alexander . Punk, Skirts, Balaclavas: A Russian Revolution . The New York Times . 9 January 2014 . 17 May 2014 . 20 August 2024 . https://web.archive.org/web/20240820011416/https://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/10/books/masha-gessens-words-will-break-cement.html . live .
65. News: Applebaum . Anne . Book review: 'Words Will Break Cement: The Passion of Pussy Riot' by Masha Gessen . The Washington Post . 17 May 2014 . 25 May 2014 . https://web.archive.org/web/20140525083425/http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/book-review-words-will-break-cement-the-passion-of-pussy-riot-by-masha-gessen/2014/02/13/7f5bff82-9258-11e3-84e1-27626c5ef5fb_story.html . live .
66. Web site: Marcus . Sara . 'Words Will Break Cement' documents the Pussy Riot revolution . Los Angeles Times . 14 January 2014 . 17 May 2014 . 14 May 2014 . https://web.archive.org/web/20140514063422/http://www.latimes.com/books/jacketcopy/la-ca-jc-masha-gessen-pussy-riot-20140113-story.html . live .
67. News: Bosman . Julie . First Book Is Planned on the Tsarnaev Brothers . The New York Times . May 2013 . 17 May 2014 . 20 August 2024 . https://web.archive.org/web/20240820011336/https://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/02/business/media/masha-gessen-to-write-book-on-tsarnaev-brothers.html . live .
68. News: Rounding. Virginia. Against all odds. The Guardian. 9 July 2004. 12 December 2016. 20 August 2024. https://web.archive.org/web/20240820011307/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2004/jul/10/featuresreviews.guardianreview8. live.
69. News: 2017 National Book Awards. National Book Foundation. 15 November 2017. 14 November 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20181114141425/https://www.nationalbook.org/awards-prizes/national-book-awards-2017/#.Wg0H2bT83Vo. live.
70. News: Never Remember: Searching for Stalin's Gulags in Putin's Russia. Columbia Global Reports. 16 November 2017. 22 December 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20171222180519/https://globalreports.columbia.edu/books/never-remember/. live.
71. News: Surviving Autocracy. Riverhead Books. 8 June 2020. 20 August 2024. https://web.archive.org/web/20240820011339/https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/565060/surviving-autocracy-by-masha-gessen/. live.
72. Online version is titled "The gay men who fled Chechnya's purge".
73. First published on newyorker.com on April 2, 2020.