Masha Gessen
Masha Gessen began contributing to The New Yorker in 2014 and became a staff writer in 2017. Gessen is the author of eleven books, including “Surviving Autocracy” and “The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia,” which won the National Book Award in 2017. They have written about Russia, Ukraine, autocracy, L.G.B.T. rights, Vladimir Putin, and Donald Trump, among other subjects, for The New York Review of Books and the Times. On a parallel track, they have been a science journalist, writing about AIDS, medical genetics, and mathematics; famously, they were dismissed as the editor of the Russian popular-science magazine Vokrug sveta for refusing to send a reporter to observe Putin hang-gliding with Siberian cranes. They are a Distinguished Writer in Residence at Bard College and the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, an Andrew Carnegie Fellowship, a Nieman Fellowship, the John Chancellor Award, the Hitchens Prize, and the Overseas Press Club Award for Best Commentary. After more than twenty years as a journalist and editor in Moscow, Gessen has been living in New York since 2013.
Art Is Now a Crime in Russia
The arrests of a director and a playwright in Moscow signal a new chapter in the Putin regime’s eradication of dissent.
How Putin Criminalized Journalism in Russia
The case of Evan Gershkovich, a Wall Street Journal reporter being held in Moscow on espionage charges, is only the most recent example of the Kremlin’s crackdown on reporters.
An Architect’s Dream of Rebuilding a Battered City in Ukraine
Max Rozenfeld has spent much of the war imagining how the destruction of Kharkiv presents opportunities for reinventing its future.
A Ukrainian Philosopher’s Reluctant Departure from Kharkiv
Irina Zherebkina, who spent the first year of the war under bombardment in Kharkiv, still believes that peace must be imagined into being.
The Museum Director Who Stayed Behind to Defend Ukrainian Literature
Putin has undertaken the systematic annihilation of the country’s identity and culture. Tetyana Pylypchuk and the staff of Kharkiv’s Literary Museum are fighting back.
How a Young Architect Became a Tram Driver in Kharkiv
In a war-torn city, a familiar mode of public transportation became a symbol of resistance and resilience.
How Russian Journalists in Exile Are Covering the War in Ukraine
Dozens of media outlets have fled to the capital of Latvia, only to encounter a distrustful public and a set of strictly enforced laws and regulations.
The Law Professor Flying Surveillance Drones in Ukraine
When the first rockets struck outside Vasyl Bilous’s apartment building, in Kharkiv, he was already at the front.
The Couple Who Fled Russia for the War in Ukraine
When Alex and Halyna arrived at the Ukrainian border, a Russian agent looked at them like they were crazy. “Do you even know what’s going on there?” he asked.
War as Theatre, at a Private Home in Kharkiv
Most performance spaces in the city have been shut down since the start of the war. Some residents are reënacting experiences from the invasion themselves.
Volodymyr Zelensky’s Critical Visit to Washington, D.C.
The Ukrainian President’s trajectory is often cast as surprising, but what makes him compelling as a political leader is the former comic’s talent for exposing the crux of the matter.
The Meaning of the Colorado Springs Attack
The essential precondition for mass violence is not guns or hate but a culture of terror, a common imaginary that includes the possibility of a mass shooting.
Why Vladimir Putin Would Use Nuclear Weapons in Ukraine
The more the Kremlin has signalled its readiness to drop a nuclear bomb, the more the rest of the world has sought a reason to believe that it will not.
The War in Ukraine Launches a New Battle for the Russian Soul
The last time people were writing in Russian so urgently was in the late nineteen-eighties, when Soviet citizens were confronted with the terror of the Stalinist past.
Putin’s Draft Order Has Inspired a Russian Exodus
“I’ve never seen anything like this,” an advocate said. “It feels like a sort of popular resistance.”
Why Ron DeSantis Thinks Weaponizing Asylum Seekers Is a Winning Strategy
The Florida Governor’s political stunt rests on the cynical assumption that no one actually wants to offer refuge to people fleeing adversity.
Mikhail Gorbachev, the Fundamentally Soviet Man
The last leader of the U.S.S.R. attempted to modernize and reform his country, even as he failed to imagine it as anything but an empire.
The Mysterious Murder of Darya Dugina
Whoever killed Dugina likely meant to kill her more famous father, but that reveals little about the motives and identities of the perpetrators.
The Prosecution of Russian War Crimes in Ukraine
Twenty-five thousand cases have been identified thus far—what does justice look like for the victims of Russia’s atrocities?
How Kyiv’s L.G.B.T.Q. Community Found Shelter from the Russian Invasion
An advocacy group in Ukraine’s capital retools itself as a service organization.
Art Is Now a Crime in Russia
The arrests of a director and a playwright in Moscow signal a new chapter in the Putin regime’s eradication of dissent.
How Putin Criminalized Journalism in Russia
The case of Evan Gershkovich, a Wall Street Journal reporter being held in Moscow on espionage charges, is only the most recent example of the Kremlin’s crackdown on reporters.
An Architect’s Dream of Rebuilding a Battered City in Ukraine
Max Rozenfeld has spent much of the war imagining how the destruction of Kharkiv presents opportunities for reinventing its future.
A Ukrainian Philosopher’s Reluctant Departure from Kharkiv
Irina Zherebkina, who spent the first year of the war under bombardment in Kharkiv, still believes that peace must be imagined into being.
The Museum Director Who Stayed Behind to Defend Ukrainian Literature
Putin has undertaken the systematic annihilation of the country’s identity and culture. Tetyana Pylypchuk and the staff of Kharkiv’s Literary Museum are fighting back.
How a Young Architect Became a Tram Driver in Kharkiv
In a war-torn city, a familiar mode of public transportation became a symbol of resistance and resilience.
How Russian Journalists in Exile Are Covering the War in Ukraine
Dozens of media outlets have fled to the capital of Latvia, only to encounter a distrustful public and a set of strictly enforced laws and regulations.
The Law Professor Flying Surveillance Drones in Ukraine
When the first rockets struck outside Vasyl Bilous’s apartment building, in Kharkiv, he was already at the front.
The Couple Who Fled Russia for the War in Ukraine
When Alex and Halyna arrived at the Ukrainian border, a Russian agent looked at them like they were crazy. “Do you even know what’s going on there?” he asked.
War as Theatre, at a Private Home in Kharkiv
Most performance spaces in the city have been shut down since the start of the war. Some residents are reënacting experiences from the invasion themselves.
Volodymyr Zelensky’s Critical Visit to Washington, D.C.
The Ukrainian President’s trajectory is often cast as surprising, but what makes him compelling as a political leader is the former comic’s talent for exposing the crux of the matter.
The Meaning of the Colorado Springs Attack
The essential precondition for mass violence is not guns or hate but a culture of terror, a common imaginary that includes the possibility of a mass shooting.
Why Vladimir Putin Would Use Nuclear Weapons in Ukraine
The more the Kremlin has signalled its readiness to drop a nuclear bomb, the more the rest of the world has sought a reason to believe that it will not.
The War in Ukraine Launches a New Battle for the Russian Soul
The last time people were writing in Russian so urgently was in the late nineteen-eighties, when Soviet citizens were confronted with the terror of the Stalinist past.
Putin’s Draft Order Has Inspired a Russian Exodus
“I’ve never seen anything like this,” an advocate said. “It feels like a sort of popular resistance.”
Why Ron DeSantis Thinks Weaponizing Asylum Seekers Is a Winning Strategy
The Florida Governor’s political stunt rests on the cynical assumption that no one actually wants to offer refuge to people fleeing adversity.
Mikhail Gorbachev, the Fundamentally Soviet Man
The last leader of the U.S.S.R. attempted to modernize and reform his country, even as he failed to imagine it as anything but an empire.
The Mysterious Murder of Darya Dugina
Whoever killed Dugina likely meant to kill her more famous father, but that reveals little about the motives and identities of the perpetrators.
The Prosecution of Russian War Crimes in Ukraine
Twenty-five thousand cases have been identified thus far—what does justice look like for the victims of Russia’s atrocities?
How Kyiv’s L.G.B.T.Q. Community Found Shelter from the Russian Invasion
An advocacy group in Ukraine’s capital retools itself as a service organization.