Source: hro.org (info), 19/01/11

 

 

From Nastya Baburova’s diary: “Someone stole my fear / straight out of my soul they dragged it, the thieves [...].”

 

 

 

 

 

“Now we can say that they [the authorities and the police] have decided to ‘turn their attention’ to everyone at the same time – fascists and anti-fascists – and to do this with obvious benefits for themselves. Now the words ‘youth subculture’ for the ordinary person sound like an excuse for police violence – since it’s some kind of informal grouping, that means that you can beat them up” - (Avtonom, № 30. Summer-Autumn, 2008.)

 

“Each minute of the day somewhere in the world it is morning”

 

“I want to be immortal and to love an immortal.”

 

“I am irrevocably growing up”

 

“I tried to imagine what I will be like in ten years’ time, and I find myself at a loss.”

 

“and to those who voluntarily fall into hell

the good angels will not cause

any harm

ever

ever :)”

 

Verses about autumn:

“Autumn has drunk from and left me – until the next time,

like a vampire its lover.

(and all of this

of course, has already happened somewhere before).

a long drawn out initiation?

yes,

but in the metro

(recently, it seems)

someone stole my fear 

straight out of my soul they dragged it, the thieves.

now you have nothing to drink, I’m sorry.

although...perhaps, some Guinness?

in the autumn even vampires drink beer.

you know,

I would have given everything to you, to the last drop.

before this -

without any stakes, with weakness broken on the knee.

only one sip remains there.

Cheers!

June 2007”

 

 

 

Anastasia Eduardovna Baburova was born on 30 November 1983 in Sevastopol. She studied at the Moscow State Institute for International Relations and then at the Department of Journalism of Moscow State University. She worked for the newspapers Vecherniaia Moskva, Izvestiia, and Rossiiskaia gazeta. She wrote poetry which she published on her Livejournal page.

 

 She took part in anarchist and ant-fascist movements; in public protests against police lawlessness and against rising prices for public transportation; she was a member of ecological protest groups and participated in forums on social issues. She worked for the journal Avtonom. In June 2008, she took part in protests against the unlawful eviction by prison officers of refugees and former workers from hostels, and was detained. It was while she was taking part in these protests, writing about them, and defending the activists in her role as a journalist, that she met Stanislav Markelov.

 

From the autumn of 2008 she began working as a part-time reporter for Novaia gazeta, writing about the trials of neo-Nazis.

 

On 5 January 2009 she interviewed Stanislav Markelov, the last interview he gave to Novaia gazeta before his death.

 

She accompanied him as he left his last press conference.

 

On 19 January 2009 at around 3 pm near No. 1, Prechistenka Street, as Stanislav Markelov was killed by a shot in the back of the head, she threw herself on the attacker and was mortally wounded by a gunshot to the head. She died later that day in hospital. She is buried in Sevastopol.