“This book is not a biography of Boris Nemtsov, assassinated nearly seven years ago in central Moscow near the Kremlin. Zhanna Nemtsova wrote a book about herself. “It’s important for her to be honest, she talks simply and clearly about her childhood, her evolution alongside her father and without him, it’s her destiny and her memory…”.
“A sincere, pure, simple, yet poignant and touching story: the story of Zhanna Nemtsova, daughter of Boris Nemtsov, about herself and her father. A book for those who do not remember or have not found German Russia. A book with the hope of a better future for these people. A book in memory of the just man and martyr of Russian politics. Read. Remember. To hope.”
These are two annotations placed on the last page of the cover of Zhanna Nemtsova’s book “My Father’s Daughter”. The first belongs to the journalist of the radio station “Echo of Moscow” Arina Borodina, the second to the writer Dmitry Glukhovsky. The book was published in early 2022 by the Bombora publishing house, and its presentation took place in Vilnius at the MOMuseum on Saturday, March 11, an important day for the Republic of Lithuania. Exactly 33 years ago, the Lithuanian Supreme Council passed the Law on the Restoration of the State of Lithuania (Aktas dėl Lietuvos nepriklausomos valstybės atstatymo). According to this document, all laws of the USSR, including the Constitution, ceased to have effect on the territory of Lithuania.
Zhanna Nemtsova
Only 30 copies of the book “My Father’s Daughter” were brought to Vilnius. By the way, the first presentation took place in Lisbon, the second was planned in Yekaterinburg at the Yeltsin Center, but it had to be canceled due to the start of a large-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine .
In her opening remarks for the presentation at the IOM Museum, Zhanna Nemtsova said that there was a shortage of her book not only in this room, but also around the world. The 4,000 copies of the first printing were clearly not enough to meet demand, so negotiations are underway on the possible publication of a second printing.
Jeanne recalled that her father had warned against the approach of war. He was the only opposition politician from the Russian Federation who actively participated in the Orange Revolution in Ukraine. In 2004 he came to Kiev for the first Maidan, after which he became an independent adviser to Viktor Yushchenko for a year. Yanukovych did not let him go to the second Maidan.
“I have made it my life’s purpose to preserve, rethink and promote Nemtsov’s political legacy. When I established the Nemtsov Foundation, I needed to identify priority areas, and I did education, freedom of information, Russia’s European future the basis of the Foundation’s activities,” she said.
Responding to a question from the audience: “Is it possible to live an honest life without being killed?” Zhanna Nemtsova replied: “I don’t know. There was no great respect during her lifetime. They started to like her after death.
And answering the question, where, in her opinion, Boris Nemtsov would be today, she noted: “Saving his life would be a matter of emigration. My father thought of the Baltic countries and wanted to create his own foundation.
I think back and promote my father’s legacy – it’s hard, but I feel like an independent person. There is the perception that people have of me. So far I have managed not to spoil the Boris Nemtsov brand.
After the presentation, Zhanna Nemtsova spoke with the correspondent of the Russian service media. She said that the main program of the foundation she leads is the granting of fourteen two-year scholarships to Ukrainian students. “They are all studying in Prague, except for one person who is not allowed to leave Ukraine and is studying online. All these guys are schoolboys from yesterday, now they are studying in preparatory courses and in two months they will enter Czech universities. When I am in Prague, I always communicate with these guys, I try to invite interesting speakers. These guys are great guys, I’m very proud of them. I deal with issues of education and enlightenment, and in this sense our foundation helps, ”explains Nemtsova.
In the late 2000s and early 10s, pamphlets by Boris Nemtsov, Vladimir Milov, Ilya Yashin, Garry Kasparov and other well-known Russian opponents about corruption in the country were published and distributed in Russia. Zhanna Nemtsova emphasizes that this work, in which her father took part, was not in vain. “Anti-corruption investigations gain millions of views on YouTube, and Navalny investigations have been watched by at least a hundred million,” she recalls.
At the same time, Zhanna Nemtsova admits that education in Russia is currently undergoing great changes, which became especially noticeable after the start of the war against Ukraine: “Education has become absolutely censored, many teachers who have expressed an anti-war position were forced to leave. And, of course, this has an extremely negative impact on the state of Russian society.
The second problem, according to Nemtsova, is that people in Russia, even those who know about all the anti-corruption investigations, feel that they themselves are in no position to change anything. “There is no dynamic, society is in a passive state. What can change the situation? In the Soviet Union, it was a weakening of the regime, because even my grandmother would not have come to any protest demonstrations by now. And in 1987 – easy! And of course it was tied to Gorbachev’s rise to power, his drive for perestroika, whatever it was. And with such a harsh repressive regime, while there is no reason to believe that it has weakened, we do not see active resistance,” says Zhanna Nemtsova.
The head of the Lithuanian Seimas’ Foreign Affairs Committee, Žygimantas Pavilionis, told the media Russian Service correspondent that the presentation and discussion of Zhanna Nemtsova’s book reminded him of the atmosphere of Lithuanian community meetings in Chicago. in the late 1980s. After World War II, the United States granted asylum to Lithuanian emigrants, and now Lithuania hosts Russian opposition.
Zhygimantas Pavilion
“And, of course, I was now thinking about what has happened to Russia over the past thirty-five years. Why, as Jeanne figuratively put it, did Russia “go to China, and not to Europe,” as her father wanted? After all, I myself saw Russian tanks at the Vilnius TV tower in January 1991, I myself really wanted Lithuania to be in Europe, but I am alive and his father was killed. After all, I am engaged in foreign policy and I constantly think that the peoples of other countries have helped us – Northern Europe, America, Poland.
And Putin cut off Russia from the West with wars and occupations: he brought Russian troops to Moldova, Georgia, Ukraine, tried to scare the Baltic countries. And so he alienated his best friends from Russia, who understand Russia, understand the Russian language,” the Lithuanian politician said.
Zhigimantas Pavilionis is convinced that without a victory over the Russian Empire, his people cannot become free. The empire must be stopped, because if it continues to advance, it will give Putin legitimacy at home, but will cut Russia off from Europe and push it into the arms of China, turn it into a gas station for the PRC.
“But in childhood, all my friends were Russians, I consider Russians to be Europeans, and I’m just shocked at the choice of Russia in favor of China. But it’s true, and the fact that we, the Lithuanians, won 33 years ago, after restoring our independence, it (the imperial consciousness – PA) remained in Russia and took it to neighboring countries. And we cannot understand this in any way”, says the Lithuanian parliamentarian.
Vytis Jurkonis, a Lithuanian political scientist and expert with the non-governmental human rights organization Freedom House, notes that the decision to organize a presentation of Zhanna Nemtsova’s book on the day of the restoration of the independence of the Lithuania is a coincidence, but a significant coincidence. “We are holding a presentation in the old Lietuva cinema, which also has a history associated with this holiday. It seems to me that there is a symbolic meaning in all this. But Zhanna and I are friends, I knew she would be in Lithuania and there is this book. And it seemed to me that we should take the opportunity and make this presentation,” Yurkonis said in an interview with a correspondent for the Russian media service.
Vytis Yurkonis
“I know that Zhanna is very responsible for all the events she attends, and almost a hundred people came here – the room is packed, which shows that such meetings are in demand. Although the audience is mixed – there are Russians, Belarusians and Lithuanians here, it shows that there is a demand for the subject of Russia and the hope that Russia can be different,” says the Lithuanian activist. human rights.
Boris Nemtsov’s colleague Vsevolod Chernozub, who has been living in Lithuania for a few years, also came to the presentation of the book “Her Father’s Daughter”. In conversation with a correspondent for the Russian media service, he noted both the importance of the book and the continued relevance of what Boris Nemtsov said and did. “Nemtsov is a man who spoke a lot, and especially after his death it turned out that a lot of people took him very personally: they followed what he said and how, discussed what ‘they heard. I’ve spoken with him a lot myself, and I pretty much imagine he’s said something unique very rarely, personally to you. When we sat for a long time and went into a very personal mode, he was saying something personal. And Jeanne can bring something very new and very personal to Boris. It seems to me that it is a unique document, including historical. That is, it is not only his personal memoirs, the book is not only about Boris Nemtsov, it is something very important from a historical point of view, ”Vsevolod Chernozub is convinced.
Vsevolod Chernozub
In the afterword to her book, Zhanna Nemtsova points out that this work led her not only to refresh her memory of episodes from the distant past and rethink them, but also to look at her life from the outside after the date. tragedy of February 27, 2015. “If earlier phrases like ‘love will save the world’ or ‘love is stronger than fear’ sounded like some kind of abstraction to me, now they are full of meaning. It turns out in people who love, because they infect others with their ideas. For me, as a girl, preserving the memory of my father is the most important thing in life, ”writes Zhanna Nemtsova.
“For me, the most important task remains a full and thorough investigation into the circumstances of my father’s murder and the identification of all those involved…I will not hide that I was very scared and that I am participating actively to the investigation as a victim and create the Nemtsov Foundation, “she continues. “Maybe I did not do everything I could, I am not, at least, not ashamed , and I am not tormented by remorse. My dad had a favorite phrase: “We will make it” – I still believe in that, no matter what.
