I have to apologize ahead, as this column is not an opinion piece but rather a story, which I had to share.
Work was a huge part of Irina Slavina, a Russian journalist from Nizhny Novgorod.
On Oct. 2 she tied herself to a bench in front of the regional Ministry of Inner Affairs building in Nizhny Novgorod and committed an act of self-immolation.
She was a well-known public person and a journalist, editor-in-chief of Koza.Press. The day before her apartment was searched in relation to a criminal case in which she was a witness. And before that, for a couple of years, she'd been charged for various administrative cases and was going through other hardships with the local government security services.
The last post Slavina did on Facebook said "Blame the Russian Federation for my death."
Was it suicide? Protest? Breakdown?
Many people didn't accept her manifestation. But only the person knows and can evaluate what they are actually going through.
One may argue that she was going through hardly any pressure in the context of Russian realities. She wasn't prosecuted anywhere close to Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny, and it makes many believe that it wasn't a provoked suicide.
Opponents insist that it was her personal psychological breakdown.
But people who were around her say there were no signs of any psychological issues. Many of her friends and family believe that it was rather the strongest possible protest. Some assume that while the final decision could have been made quickly, Slavina planned and prepared that "political statement," and did more than possible to ensure it's heard.
Slavina used to be a school teacher but left the education sector to become a journalist when she was 30 years old. In an interview with journalist Alexey Pivovarov, her husband said that back then she explained that she felt she was getting restricted in her work and couldn't work freely with kids because of government intervention and regulations.
She came into journalism to tell the truth and to publish facts. But for that, she was fired from her first newspaper where she'd spent eight years. Slavina published a brochure for media, distributed by the leading political party and providing instructions to reporters on how to cover their campaign. Having a reputation of a straight-shooter it was almost impossible to find another job, and even more difficult to keep it. So, at some point, she started her online media – Koza.Press (Goat.Press).
While actions or absence of such on behalf of many politicians and bureaucrats were subject matters of her investigations, she still wasn't an enemy number 1 in the region and had decent relationships with different people including the city governor. Koza.Press was a fact-based media with just a pinch of subjectivity in the opinion section.
It was pretty much a one-person operation, and Slavina was fully dedicated to it. Financially it wasn't really successful, but it allowed her to get by while doing what she believed in. The media was known and was getting more and more popular and quoted regularly because there hardly was any competition in what Slavina was doing.
But it was her personal sharp and often non-compromised opinions she published on social media that attracted extra attention to Slavina. She was persecuted personally, someone cut tires on her vehicle, and with administrative charges. Some of the claims came from the public, from people who don't want to see any opposition in the country and whose concerns were found rightful by the court system.
Slavina was charged several times in such cases for a total of about $2,000, which is a pretty big number for a regular citizen in that region.
The day before Slavina died, armed security servicemen came into her apartment with a search warrant, grabbed all gadgets and memory sticks, according to her husband, banned them from calling a lawyer and then delivered her to the station for questioning. (Again, Slavina was just a witness in the criminal case against a local entrepreneur who was allegedly involved with Open Russia, a public movement for freedom of speech. Besides, the case turned out as a total misinterpretation of those opposition fighters).
Slavina wasn't known outside her professional circle and the region where she worked until her last day. She used her talent and energy to change injustice, mainly locally. And people who've known her say she didn't accept any compromises.
Slavina was known as an energetic and strong person and professional. But as Pivovarov put it, with every new case, court appearance, police station visit or that final house search, the spring inside her could have been shrinking more and more.
After all, it doesn't matter if the government prosecution pushed her beyond the limits, or if she chose that terrible move to attract attention to a crucial situation with the Russian press, freedom of speech and freedom in general. If self-immolation was the resort, something is deeply wrong with the system.
She wanted to change the world. Has she? The time will show, but the price paid was too high.
