Masha Gessen

Gessen was born into a Jewish family in Moscow to Alexander and Yelena Gessen. 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 grandfather Jakub Goldberg was murdered during the Holocaust in 1943, either in the Białystok Ghetto or a concentration camp.{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/06/books/review/ester-and-ruzya-grandmothers-of-invention.html |title='Ester and Ruzya': Grandmothers of Invention |newspaper=The New York Times |date=6 March 2005 |access-date=28 January 2020 |last1=Pollitt |first1=Katha |archive-date=28 January 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200128202224/https://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/06/books/review/ester-and-ruzya-grandmothers-of-invention.html |url-status=live }}

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.

In 1981, when Gessen was a teenager, their family moved via the U.S. Refugee Resettlement Program to the United States.Smith Rakoff, Joanna. [http://www.arlindo-correia.org/140505.html "Talking with Masha Gessen"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121024131910/http://www.arlindo-correia.org/140505.html |date=24 October 2012 }}. Newsday, 2 January 2005. As an adult in 1996, Gessen moved to Moscow, where they worked as a journalist. They hold both Russian and US citizenship. Their brothers are Keith, Daniel, and Philip Gessen.Smith Rakoff, Joanna. "Talking with Masha Gessen", Newsday, 14 June 2017.

File:Gessen, Masha1.jpeg

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.{{Cite web |title= Биография Мария Гессен |trans-title= Мария Гессен / Maria Hessen: Biography |language= ru |website= www.peoples.ru |url= https://www.peoples.ru/state/statesmen/maria_hessen/index.html |access-date= 16 March 2022 |archive-date= 20 August 2024 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20240820010833/https://www.peoples.ru/state/statesmen/maria_hessen/ |url-status= live }}{{Citation |title=Gessen |date=2011-10-31 |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/benz/9780199773787.article.b00072991 |work=Benezit Dictionary of Artists |access-date=2023-08-28 |publisher=Oxford University Press |doi=10.1093/benz/9780199773787.article.b00072991 |archive-date=20 August 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240820010905/https://www.oxfordartonline.com/benezit/display/10.1093/benz/9780199773787.001.0001/acref-9780199773787-e-00072991 |url-status=live |url-access=subscription }}

Gessen served as a volunteer board member at PEN America for nine years, resigning in May 2023{{cite web|title=Masha Gessen Resigns in Protest from PEN America Board |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/books/archive/2023/05/what-happens-when-the-free-speech-absolutists-flinch/674069/

|date=16 May 2023|work=The Atlantic|access-date=23 May 2023}}after the organization withdrew an invitation to two exiled Russian authors to speak at the PEN World Voices event in the wake of a threatened boycott.{{cite news |title=Author resigns from PEN America board amid row over Russian writers pane |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/may/16/pen-vice-president-masha-gessen-resigns |work=The Guardian |date=17 May 2023 |access-date=1 January 2024 |archive-date=20 August 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240820010819/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/may/16/pen-vice-president-masha-gessen-resigns |url-status=live }} Gessen was vice president of the board at the time and continues to be a member of PEN America.{{cite web |title=Masha Gessen Resigns from PEN America Board Over Removal of Russian Writers Panel |url=https://www.democracynow.org/2023/5/22/pen_america_masha_gessen |date=22 May 2023 |work=Democracy Now! |access-date=23 May 2023 |archive-date=22 May 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230522212512/https://www.democracynow.org/2023/5/22/pen_america_masha_gessen |url-status=live }}

Gessen said they understood the feelings of Ukrainian authors but did not approve of the way PEN handled the situation. 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."{{cite magazine |title=Why Masha Gessen Resigned from the PEN America Board |url=https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/why-masha-gessen-resigned-from-the-pen-america-board |magazine=The New Yorker |date=24 May 2023 |access-date=1 January 2024 |archive-date=17 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240117023704/https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/why-masha-gessen-resigned-from-the-pen-america-board |url-status=live }}

In an October 2008 profile of Vladimir Putin for Vanity Fair, Gessen described Putin as "an aspiring thug" and claimed the "backward evolution" of Russia began within days of his inauguration in 2000.{{cite web |last=Gessen |first=Masha |title=Dead Soul |url=https://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2008/10/Dead-Soul |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140414185356/http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2008/10/Dead-Soul |url-status=dead |archive-date=14 April 2014 |date=1 October 2008 |work=Vanity Fair |access-date=5 June 2017}}

Gessen contributed several dozen commentaries on Russia to The New York Times blog "Latitude" between November 2011 and December 2013 on the Russian gay propaganda law and other related laws, violence towards journalists, and the depreciation of the ruble.{{cite web |last=NYT |url=http://latitude.blogs.nytimes.com/author/masha-gessen/ |work=The New York Times |title=Powerlessness and Pretense |date=30 December 2013 |access-date=12 May 2014 |archive-date=20 August 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240820010847/https://archive.nytimes.com/latitude.blogs.nytimes.com/author/masha-gessen/ |url-status=live }}

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."{{cite web |last=Gessen |first=Masha |title=When Putin Declared War on Gay Families, It Was Time for Mine to Leave Russia |url=http://www.slate.com/blogs/outward/2013/08/26/when_putin_declared_war_on_gay_families_it_was_time_for_mine_to_leave_russia.html |work=Slate |date=26 August 2013 |access-date=15 May 2014 |archive-date=20 August 2024 |archive-url=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 |url-status=live }}

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.{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/sep/05/vladimir-putin-hang-glider-endangered-cranes|title=Putin to pilot hang-glider at head of endangered Siberian crane migration|work=The Guardian|first=Howard|last=Amos|date=10 September 2012|access-date=29 January 2017}}{{cite news |url=http://latitude.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/10/flying-putin-fired-editor|title=Flying Putin, Fired Editor|work=The New York Times|first=Masha|last=Gessen|date=10 September 2012|access-date=29 January 2017}} 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.{{cite web|last=Skavlan|first=Fredrik|title=American/Jewish/Russian journalist Masha Gessen wrote negative book about President Putin|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBA8oBqVlEg&noredirect=1 |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211220/QBA8oBqVlEg |archive-date=2021-12-20 |url-status=live|work=Skavlan|date=23 November 2012 |access-date=15 May 2014}}{{cbignore}}{{cite web|last=Aschberg|first=Robert|title=Stora Journalistpriset 2012: Masha Gessen|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQ55WVAY10o |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211220/KQ55WVAY10o |archive-date=2021-12-20 |url-status=live|work=Stora Journalistpriset 2012|date=23 November 2012 |access-date=15 May 2014}}{{cbignore}}

File:Masha Gessen vs. SWAT (9317876724).jpg at a protest in Moscow, July 2013]]

In September 2012, Gessen was appointed as director of the Russian Service for Radio Liberty, a U.S. government-funded broadcaster based in Prague.{{cite news|title=Radio Liberty Hires Gessen|url=http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/radio-liberty-hires-gessen/468212.html|access-date=5 January 2013|newspaper=The Moscow Times|date=17 September 2012}}{{cite web|last=Cohen|first=Ariel|title=How to Save Radio Liberty|url=http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2012/12/how-to-save-radio-liberty|publisher=The Heritage Foundation|access-date=5 January 2013|author2=Helle Dale|date=13 December 2012|archive-date=31 December 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121231093805/http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2012/12/how-to-save-radio-liberty|url-status=unfit}} 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.

In December 2013, Gessen moved to New York because Russian authorities had begun to talk about taking children away from gay parents.{{cite web |last1=Ghomeshi |first1=Jian |title=Masha Gessen on defiance and exile |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wP1B6XpZQvo |date=27 June 2014 |publisher=Canadian Broadcasting Corporation |access-date=10 August 2024 |via=YouTube |archive-date=20 August 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240820010845/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wP1B6XpZQvo |url-status=live }} 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."{{cite web |last=O'Brien |first=Lara |title=Masha Gessen on the State of Vladimir Putin's Russia |url=http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/episode/2014/01/09/masha-gessen-on-the-state-of-vladimir-putins-russia/ |work=CBC Radio |access-date=11 May 2014 |archive-date=19 May 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140519184102/http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/episode/2014/01/09/masha-gessen-on-the-state-of-vladimir-putins-russia/ |url-status=live }}

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."{{cite web |title=Russian Author and Activist Masha Gessen Answers 5 Questions |url=https://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2014/01/russian-author-and-activist-masha-gessen-answers-five-questions/ |work=ABC News |access-date=12 May 2014}}

Gessen wrote in February 2014 that Citibank had closed their bank account because of concern about Russian money-laundering operations.{{cite news |last=Gessen |first=Masha |title=Banking While Russian |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/12/opinion/gessen-the-checks-in-the-mail.html |work=The New York Times |date=11 February 2014 |access-date=15 May 2014 |archive-date=19 May 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140519191930/http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/12/opinion/gessen-the-checks-in-the-mail.html |url-status=live }}

Gessen worked as a translator on the FX TV channel historical drama The Americans.

{{As of|2023|June}}, Gessen taught as a distinguished professor at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at the City University of New York.{{Cite web |date=2023-06-27 |title=Newmark J-School Names Masha Gessen as First Distinguished Professor |url=https://www.journalism.cuny.edu/2023/06/newmark-j-school-names-masha-gessen-as-first-distinguished-professor/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230808193015/https://www.journalism.cuny.edu/2023/06/newmark-j-school-names-masha-gessen-as-first-distinguished-professor/ |archive-date=2023-08-08 |access-date=2023-08-08 |website=Newmark J-School, The City University of New York}} From 2020 to 2023, Gessen taught as Distinguished Writer in Residence at Bard College.{{Cite web |title=Award-Winning Author Masha Gessen Joins Bard College Faculty |url=https://www.bard.edu/news/details/?id=16718&type=release&prefurl=award-winning-author-masha-gessen-joins-bard-college-faculty-2020-04-14 |archive-url=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 |archive-date=2023-08-08 |access-date=2023-08-08 |website=Bard |language=en}} 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.{{cite web |url=https://www.amherst.edu/news/news_releases/2017/9-2017/meet-the-visitor |title=Meet the Visitors – Amherst College |access-date=27 November 2017}}{{Dead link|date=March 2020 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} They were included in the 2022 Fast Company Queer 50 list.{{Cite web |title=Masha Gessen is No. 11 on the 2022 Fast Company Queer 50 list |url=https://www.fastcompany.com/queer-50/list/rank/11 |access-date=2022-06-19 |website=Fast Company |language=en-US |archive-date=19 June 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220619192047/https://www.fastcompany.com/queer-50/list/rank/11 |url-status=live }}

{{See also|Russian 2022 war censorship laws}}

In August 2023,{{cite news |title=Russia brings new charges against jailed journalists Alsu Kurmasheva and Maria Ponomarenko, issues arrest warrant for exiled journalist Masha Gessen |url=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/ |work=Committee to Protect Journalists |date=14 December 2023 |access-date=18 December 2023 |archive-date=18 December 2023 |archive-url=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/ |url-status=live }} 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.{{cite news |title=Russia Puts Prominent Russian-American Journalist on Wanted List |url=https://www.voanews.com/a/russia-puts-prominent-russian-american-journalist-on-wanted-list-/7391630.html |work=VOA News |date=9 December 2023}} Gessen was accused of spreading "false information" after discussing atrocities in the Ukrainian city of Bucha during an interview with Russian journalist Yury Dud.{{cite news |title=Russia Opens Criminal Case Against Journalist Masha Gessen Over Ukraine War 'Fake News' |url=https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2023/11/23/russia-opens-criminal-case-against-journalist-masha-gessen-over-ukraine-war-fake-news-a83198 |work=The Moscow Times |date=23 November 2023 |access-date=18 December 2023 |archive-date=18 December 2023 |archive-url=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 |url-status=live }} In July 2024, Gessen was convicted and sentenced in absentia to 8 years in prison.{{Cite web |date=2024-07-15 |title=US journalist Masha Gessen is convicted in absentia in Russia for criticizing the military |url=https://apnews.com/article/russia-masha-gessen-journalist-convicted-5e72bc40d5981a5620be90e8bcfe3f28 |access-date=2024-09-20 |website=AP News |language=en}}

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 Gaza war.{{cite news |last1=Connolly |first1=Kate |title=Award ceremony suspended after writer compares Gaza to Nazi-era Jewish ghettos |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/dec/14/award-ceremony-suspended-after-writer-masha-gessen-compares-gaza-to-nazi-era-jewish-ghettos |date=14 December 2023 |work=The Guardian |access-date=14 December 2023}}{{Cite news |last=Wagner |first=Laura |date=14 December 2023 |title=Masha Gessen won a 'political thought' prize. Then they wrote on Gaza |language=en-US |newspaper=The Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/style/media/2023/12/14/masha-gessen-hannah-arendt-prize/ |access-date=16 December 2023 |issn=0190-8286 |archive-date=15 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231215043025/https://www.washingtonpost.com/style/media/2023/12/14/masha-gessen-hannah-arendt-prize/ |url-status=live }}{{cite web |title=Author receives German prize in scaled-down format after comparing Gaza to Nazi-era ghettos |url=https://apnews.com/article/germany-hannah-arendt-prize-masha-gessen-1923648579baea413c8b35cc436375fe |date=16 December 2023 |work=Associated Press |access-date=12 January 2024 |archive-date=18 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231218164437/https://apnews.com/article/germany-hannah-arendt-prize-masha-gessen-1923648579baea413c8b35cc436375fe |url-status=live }} 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 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.{{cite magazine |last=Gessen |first=Masha |title=In the Shadow of the Holocaust |url=https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-weekend-essay/in-the-shadow-of-the-holocaust |date=9 December 2023 |magazine=The New Yorker |access-date=14 December 2023 |archive-date=17 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240117043556/https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-weekend-essay/in-the-shadow-of-the-holocaust |url-status=live }} On December 16, Gessen received the Hannah Arendt literary prize award in a scaled-down ceremony.{{cite web |author=Amanpour and Company |title=Masha Gessen Responds to Controversy After Comparing Gaza to a Nazi Ghetto |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YU6kP9UqhGI |date=21 December 2023 |work=Amanpour & Company |access-date=12 January 2024 |archive-date=20 August 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240820010851/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YU6kP9UqhGI |url-status=live }}

Gessen is nonbinary and trans and uses they/them pronouns.{{cite tweet |last=Gessen|first=Masha|user=mashagessen |number=1275529666246426625 |date=23 June 2020 |title=I avoided the topic of pronouns for a while |link=no |access-date=7 August 2020 }}{{Cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAYNKHP-kVQ |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211220/BAYNKHP-kVQ |archive-date=2021-12-20 |url-status=live|title=Маша Гессен: о Трампе, тестостероне и терроре|website=Youtube|date=18 February 2020 |access-date=9 March 2020}}{{cbignore}}

Gessen has dual Russian and U.S. citizenship.{{Cite magazine |last=Remnick |first=David |date=2023-03-11 |title=What We Talk About When We Talk About Trans Rights |language=en-US |magazine=The New Yorker |url=https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-new-yorker-interview/what-we-talk-about-when-we-talk-about-trans-rights |access-date=2023-08-28 |issn=0028-792X}} 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.{{Cite web |url=https://echo.msk.ru/guests/5301/ |title=Семья Генераловых — Персоны |lang=ru |website=Эхо Москвы |url-status=dead |access-date=25 March 2020 |archive-date=25 March 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200325010507/https://echo.msk.ru/guests/5301/ }}{{page needed|reason=This link is to the whole series of interviews and doesn't include that specific information; the transcript of the particular interview must be linked (extracted from the Web Archive, as the original site has been destroyed).|date=March 2024}} 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.{{cite web |last=Bethune |first=Brian |title=Russian dissident Masha Gessen on Pussy Riot, Putin and Sochi |url=http://www.macleans.ca/culture/arts/russian-dissident-masha-gessen-on-pussy-riot-putin-and-sochi/ |work=Maclean's |date=18 January 2014 |access-date=17 May 2014}}{{cite web |last=Margolin |first=Emma |title=Faces of Russia's LGBT community |url=https://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/faces-russias-lgbt-community |access-date=17 May 2014 |author2=Johnny Simon |website=MSNBC |archive-date=19 May 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140519185322/http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/faces-russias-lgbt-community |url-status=dead}} In 2024, Gessen married Lynne Echenberg, special counsel for restorative justice in the Brooklyn District Attorney's office.https://www.facebook.com/gessen/posts/pfbid02F1ZsRFSZa3Vqt666vV5LBRyZtrV6Jj8W2snW9UiQKQpx3Bhan8QC365TAZKMfSwMl {{Bare URL inline|date=August 2024}}https://www.linkedin.com/in/lynne-echenberg-0a41a716/ {{Bare URL inline|date=August 2024}}

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.{{cite web |url=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/michelangelo-signorile/russian-gay-activists-plea-get-us-the-hell-out-of-here_b_3881059.html |title=Russian Gay Activist's Plea: 'Get Us the Hell Out of Here' |last=Signorile |first=Michelangelo |date=6 September 2013 |website=HuffPost |access-date=6 September 2017 |archive-date=20 August 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240820011401/https://www.huffpost.com/entry/russian-gay-activists-plea-get-us-the-hell-out-of-here_b_3881059 |url-status=live }}

Gessen tested positive for the BRCA mutation that is correlated with breast cancer and underwent a mastectomy in 2005.{{cite news |last=Groskop |first=Viv |title=Masha Gessen talks about blood, babies and the burden of knowing too much |url=https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2008/jul/05/familyandrelationships.family |work=The Guardian |date=4 July 2008}}

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 grammar in which past-stem verbs denote the grammatical gender of the subject of the sentence, 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.

• 2005: National Jewish Book Award for Ester and Ruzya: How My Grandmothers Survived Hitler's War and Stalin's Peace{{Cite web|url=https://www.librarything.com/bookaward/National+Jewish+Book+Award|title=National Jewish Book Award {{!}} Book awards {{!}} LibraryThing|website=www.librarything.com|access-date=18 January 2020|archive-date=3 June 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230603004931/https://www.librarything.com/bookaward/National+Jewish+Book+Award|url-status=live}}
• 2012: Stora Journalistpriset (Swedish Grand Prize for Journalism), Guest of Honor{{Cite web|url=https://www.storajournalistpriset.se/about/|title=About – Stora Journalistpriset|website=www.storajournalistpriset.se|access-date=25 March 2020|archive-date=2 July 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230702040549/https://www.storajournalistpriset.se/about|url-status=live}}
• 2013: Liberty Media Corporation, Media for Liberty award for their article "The Wrath of Putin," published in the April 2012 edition of Vanity Fair{{cite web|title=2013 Media for Liberty Award Honors Vanity Fair's "The Wrath of Putin" by Masha Gessen|url=http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/03/14/2013-media-for-liberty-award-honors-vanity-fairs-t/|work=Daily Finance|access-date=19 May 2014|archive-date=4 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230404021005/http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/03/14/2013-media-for-liberty-award-honors-vanity-fairs-t/|url-status=live}}
• 2015: University of Michigan Wallenberg Medal, 24th recipient{{Cite web|url=http://wallenberg.umich.edu/news-and-events/masha-gessen-to-receive-wallenberg-medal/|title=Masha Gessen to Receive Wallenberg Medal – Wallenberg Legacy, University of Michigan|first=Wallenberg|last=Committee|date=14 July 2015|access-date=25 March 2020|archive-date=4 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230404074231/https://wallenberg.umich.edu/news-and-events/masha-gessen-to-receive-wallenberg-medal/|url-status=live}}
• 2017: National Book Award for Nonfiction for The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia{{cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/books/jacketcopy/la-et-jc-national-book-award-winners-20171115-story.html|title=Masha Gessen, Jesmyn Ward, Robin Benway and Frank Bidart win National Book Awards|last=Kellogg|first=Carolyn|work=Los Angeles Times|date=15 November 2017|access-date=16 November 2017|archive-date=4 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230404025943/https://www.latimes.com/books/jacketcopy/la-et-jc-national-book-award-winners-20171115-story.html|url-status=live}}
• 2018: Hitchens Prize{{cite web |title=2018 Prize – Masha Gessen |url=http://www.dvrf.org/2018-masha-gessen |publisher=The Dennis & Victoria Ross Foundation |access-date=18 May 2020 |archive-date=4 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230404021006/http://www.dvrf.org/2018-masha-gessen |url-status=live }}
• 2023: Hannah Arendt Award{{Cite web|url=https://www.boell.de/en/2023/12/14/heinrich-boll-foundation-has-decided-pull-out-event-during-which-masha-gessen-was|title=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|website=www.boell.de|access-date=4 March 2024|archive-date=20 August 2024|archive-url=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|url-status=live}}
• 2024: Polk Award in Commentary for In the Shadow of the Holocaust{{Cite magazine |date=2024-02-19 |title=The New Yorker's Luke Mogelson and Masha Gessen Win Polk Awards |url=https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-new-yorkers-luke-mogelson-and-masha-gessen-win-polk-awards |access-date=2024-07-09 |magazine=The New Yorker |language=en-US |issn=0028-792X |archive-date=20 August 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240820011259/https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-new-yorkers-luke-mogelson-and-masha-gessen-win-polk-awards |url-status=live }}

{{external media |float = right |video1 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?304877-1/the-man-face-rise-vladimir-putin Presentation by Gessen on The Man Without a Face, 8 March 2012], C-SPAN}}

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.{{cite journal |last=Vuolo |first=Mike |title=Words Will Break Cement: The Passion of Pussy Riot |url=http://www.slate.com/articles/podcasts/live_at_politics/2014/03/masha_gessen_discusses_words_will_break_cement_the_passion_of_pussy_riot.html |journal=Slate |date=14 March 2014 |access-date=17 May 2014 |archive-date=20 August 2024 |archive-url=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 |url-status=live }}

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".{{cite magazine |last=Applebaum |first=Anne |title=Vladimir's Tale |url=http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2012/apr/26/vladimirs-tale/ |magazine=New York Review of Books |access-date=17 May 2014 |archive-date=20 August 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240820011322/https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2012/04/26/vladimirs-tale/ |url-status=live }} The Guardian called the book "luminous";{{cite web |last=Harding |first=Luke |title=The Man Without a Face by Masha Gessen – review |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/mar/09/man-without-face-gessen-review |work=The Guardian |date=9 March 2012 |access-date=17 May 2014 |archive-date=20 August 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240820011330/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/mar/09/man-without-face-gessen-review |url-status=live }} the Telegraph called it "courageous".{{cite web |last=Miller |first=A. D. |title=The Man Without a Face: the Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin by Masha Gessen: review |url=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 |work=The Telegraph |date=24 February 2012 |access-date=17 May 2014 |archive-date=20 August 2024 |archive-url=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 |url-status=live }}

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."{{cite web |url=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 |archive-url=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 |url-status=dead |archive-date=2020-11-06 |title=Intelligence in Public Literature. The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin and Mr. Putin: Operative in the Kremlin |date=12 February 2014 |website=CIA |access-date=23 October 2020}}

{{external media |float = right |video1 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?318334-1/words-break-cement Presentation by Gessen on Words Will Break Cement, 12 March 2014], C-SPAN}}

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".{{cite web |last=Miller |first=A. D. |title=Words Will Break Cement: The Passion of Pussy Riot, by Masha Gessen, review |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/non_fictionreviews/10638445/Words-Will-Break-Cement-The-Passion-of-Pussy-Riot-by-Masha-Gessen-review.html |work=The Telegraph |date=18 February 2014 |access-date=17 May 2014 |archive-date=20 August 2024 |archive-url=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 |url-status=live }} Booklist described the book as "prickly, frank, precise, and sharply witty".{{Cite book |title=Words Will Break Cement: The Passion of Pussy Riot |first=Masha |last=Gessen |date=8 January 2014 |publisher=Riverhead Books |isbn=978-1594632198 }}

The New York Times called it "urgent" and "damning".{{cite news |last=Nazaryan |first=Alexander |title=Punk, Skirts, Balaclavas: A Russian Revolution |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/10/books/masha-gessens-words-will-break-cement.html |work=The New York Times |date=9 January 2014 |access-date=17 May 2014 |archive-date=20 August 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240820011416/https://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/10/books/masha-gessens-words-will-break-cement.html |url-status=live }} The Washington Post called the book an "excellent" portrait of Pussy Riot and said that "Gessen gives a particularly brilliant account of their trials".{{cite news |last=Applebaum |first=Anne |title=Book review: 'Words Will Break Cement: The Passion of Pussy Riot' by Masha Gessen |url=https://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 |newspaper=The Washington Post |access-date=17 May 2014 |archive-date=25 May 2014 |archive-url=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 |url-status=live }} The Los Angeles Times said that Gessen was "Not just a keen observer of these events" but "also an impassioned partisan".{{cite web |last=Marcus |first=Sara |title='Words Will Break Cement' documents the Pussy Riot revolution |url=https://www.latimes.com/books/jacketcopy/la-ca-jc-masha-gessen-pussy-riot-20140113-story.html |work=Los Angeles Times |date=14 January 2014 |access-date=17 May 2014 |archive-date=14 May 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140514063422/http://www.latimes.com/books/jacketcopy/la-ca-jc-masha-gessen-pussy-riot-20140113-story.html |url-status=live }}

{{external media |float = right |video1 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?325803-1/masha-gessen-the-brothers Presentation by Gessen on The Brothers, 29 April 2015], C-SPAN}}

Published in April 2015 by Riverhead, The Brothers investigates the background of Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the perpetrators of the Boston Marathon bombing.{{cite news |last=Bosman |first=Julie |title=First Book Is Planned on the Tsarnaev Brothers |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/02/business/media/masha-gessen-to-write-book-on-tsarnaev-brothers.html |work=The New York Times |date=May 2013 |access-date=17 May 2014 |archive-date=20 August 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240820011336/https://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/02/business/media/masha-gessen-to-write-book-on-tsarnaev-brothers.html |url-status=live }}

{{Incomplete list|date=June 2018}}

• {{cite book |author=Gessen, Masha |others=Foreword by Larisa I. Bogoraz; introduction by Julie Dorf|title= 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 |date=1994 |publisher=International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) |location=San Francisco }}
• {{cite book |last1=Gessen|first1=Masha (translated by)|last2=Lipovskaya|first2=Olga (preface by)|last3=Gorlanova|first3=Nina|last4=Volodina|first4=Galina|last5=Paley|first5=Marina|last6=Polianskaya|first6=Irina|last7=Tarasova|first7=Yelena|last8=Nabatnikova|first8=Tatiana|last9=Shulga|first9=Natalia|last10=Narbikova|first10=Valeria|last11=Sadur|first11=Nina|editor1-last=Gessen|editor1-first=Masha|title= Half a Revolution: Contemporary Fiction by Russian Women|date=1995|publisher=Cleis Press|location=Pittsburgh, PA|isbn=978-1-57344-006-6|language=en|oclc=31518015}}
• {{cite book|author=Gessen, Masha|title=Dead Again: The Russian Intelligentsia After Communism|date=1997|publisher=Verso|location=London|isbn=978-1-85984-147-1|url=https://archive.org/details/deadagainrussian00gess|language=en|oclc=36201042|url-access=registration}}
• {{cite book |author=Gessen, Masha |title=Ester and Ruzya: How My Grandmothers Survived Hitler's War and Stalin's Peace|url=https://archive.org/details/esterruzyahowmyg00gess |url-access=registration |date=2004|publisher=Dial Press Trade Paperbacks|location=New York|isbn=978-0-385-33605-5 |language=en|oclc=54529515}} - also known in the UK as Two Babushkas: How My Grandmothers Survived Hitler's War and Stalin's Peace{{cite news|last1=Rounding|first1=Virginia|title=Against all odds|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2004/jul/10/featuresreviews.guardianreview8|work=The Guardian|date=9 July 2004|access-date=12 December 2016|archive-date=20 August 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240820011307/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2004/jul/10/featuresreviews.guardianreview8|url-status=live}}
• {{cite book|author=Gessen, Masha|title=Blood Matters: From Inherited Illness to Designer Babies, How the World and I Found Ourselves in the Future of the Gene|date=2008|publisher=Harcourt|location=Orlando|isbn=978-0-15-101362-3|language=en|oclc=171151566|url=https://archive.org/details/bloodmattersfrom00gess}} - a New York Times Notable Book of the year
• {{cite book|author=Gessen, Masha|title=Perfect Rigor: A Genius and the Mathematical Breakthrough of the Century|date=2009|publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|location=Boston|isbn=978-0-15-101406-4|language=en|oclc=759834681|url=https://archive.org/details/perfectrigorgeni00gess}} - about Grigori Perelman
• {{cite book |author=Gessen, Masha |title=The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin|date=2012|publisher=Riverhead Books|location=New York|isbn=978-1-59448-842-9|language=en|oclc=859327104}} - Short-listed for Pushkin House Russian Book Prize 2013, Long-listed for Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction 2012
• {{cite book |author=Gessen, Masha |title= Words Will Break Cement: The Passion of Pussy Riot|date=2014|publisher=Riverhead Books|location=New York|isbn=978-1-59463-219-8|language=en|oclc=880926302}}
• {{cite book |last1=Kasparov|first1=Garry (foreword by)|editor1-last=Gessen|editor1-first=Masha|editor2-last=Huff-Hannon|editor2-first=Joseph|title=Пропаганда гомосексуализма в России : истории любви / Gay Propaganda: Russian Love Stories|date=2014|publisher=OR Books|location=New York|isbn=978-1-939293-35-0|language=ru, en|oclc=907537609}}
• {{cite book|author=Gessen, Masha|title=Brothers: The Road to An American Tragedy|date=2015|publisher=Riverhead Books|location=New York|isbn=978-1-59463-264-8|language=en|oclc=905658714|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/brothersroadtoam0000gess}}
• {{cite book |author=Gessen, Masha |title= Where the Jews Aren't: The Sad and Absurd Story of Birobidzhan, Russia's Autonomous Region|date=2016|publisher=Nextbook/Schocken|location=New York|isbn=978-0-80524-246-1|language=en|oclc=959936125}}
• {{cite book |author=Gessen, Masha |title= The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia|date=3 October 2017|publisher=Riverhead Books|location=New York|isbn=978-1594634536}} - 2017 National Book Award for nonfiction{{cite news|url=https://www.nationalbook.org/awards-prizes/national-book-awards-2017#.Wg0H2bT83Vo|title=2017 National Book Awards|work=National Book Foundation|access-date=15 November 2017|archive-date=14 November 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181114141425/https://www.nationalbook.org/awards-prizes/national-book-awards-2017/#.Wg0H2bT83Vo|url-status=live}}
• {{cite book |author=Gessen, Masha |title= Never Remember: Searching for Stalin's Gulags in Putin's Russia|date=20 March 2018|publisher=Columbia Global Reports|location=New York|isbn=978-0997722963}}{{cite news|url=https://globalreports.columbia.edu/books/never-remember|title=Never Remember: Searching for Stalin's Gulags in Putin's Russia|work=Columbia Global Reports|access-date=16 November 2017|archive-date=22 December 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171222180519/https://globalreports.columbia.edu/books/never-remember/|url-status=live}}
• {{cite book |author=Gessen, Masha |title= Surviving Autocracy |date=2 June 2020|publisher=Riverhead Books|location=New York|isbn=978-0593188934}}{{cite news|url=https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/565060/surviving-autocracy-by-masha-gessen/|title=Surviving Autocracy|work=Riverhead Books|access-date=8 June 2020|archive-date=20 August 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240820011339/https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/565060/surviving-autocracy-by-masha-gessen/|url-status=live}}

• {{cite journal|last1=Dorf|first1=Julie|last2=Gessen|first2=Masha|title=From Russia with Homo Love|journal=Out/Look|date=Winter 1992|pages=48–54|url=https://www.outrightinternational.org/sites/default/files/Jule-Dorf-Masha-Gessen-from-Russia-with-Homo-Love.pdf|language=en|access-date=16 October 2021|archive-date=16 October 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211016112356/https://outrightinternational.org/sites/default/files/Jule-Dorf-Masha-Gessen-from-Russia-with-Homo-Love.pdf|url-status=dead}}
• {{cite news|author=Gessen, Masha |title=Vladimir Putin and Mikhail Khodorkovsky: One Man's Truth, Another Man's Tyranny|url=https://www.vanityfair.com/news/politics/2012/04/vladimir-putin-mikhail-khodorkovsky-russia|work=Vanity Fair|date=2 March 2012}}
• {{cite news|author=Gessen, Masha |title=Is Vladimir Putin insane? Hardly|url=http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-oe-gessen-putin-russia-ukraine-20140311-story.html|work=Los Angeles Times|date=11 March 2014|language=en}}
• {{cite news|author=Gessen, Masha |title=Opinion: Trump's Incompetence Won't Save Our Democracy|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/02/opinion/sunday/trumps-incompetence-wont-save-our-democracy.html|work=The New York Times|date=2 June 2017}}
• {{cite magazine |author=Gessen, Masha |author-mask=1 |date=3 July 2017 |title=Forbidden lives : the stories of the gay men fleeing a purge in Chechnya |department=Letter from Moscow |magazine=The New Yorker |volume=93 |issue=19 |pages=22–28 |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/07/03/the-gay-men-who-fled-chechnyas-purge }}Online version is titled "The gay men who fled Chechnya's purge".
• {{cite magazine |author=Gessen, Masha |author-mask=1 |date=12 February 2020 |title=The Queer Opposition to Pete Buttigieg, Explained |department=Our Columnists. 12 February 2020 |magazine=The New Yorker|url=https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/the-queer-opposition-to-pete-buttigieg-explained}}
• {{cite magazine |author=Gessen, Masha |author-mask=1 |date=27 July 2020 |title=Lorena Borjas |department=The Talk of the Town. 2 April 2020 |magazine=The New Yorker |volume=96 |issue=21 |pages=14–15 |url=https://www.newyorker.com/news/postscript/remembering-lorena-borjas-the-mother-of-a-trans-latinx-community |access-date=16 October 2021 |archive-date=17 April 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200417022925/https://www.newyorker.com/news/postscript/remembering-lorena-borjas-the-mother-of-a-trans-latinx-community |url-status=dead }}First published on newyorker.com on 2 April 2020.
• [https://www.newyorker.com/contributors/masha-gessen Articles from The New Yorker]

• LGBT rights in Russia
• Russia under Vladimir Putin

{{Reflist}}

{{sister project links|b=no|commons=Category:Masha Gessen|d=Q441226|n=no|q=Masha Gessen|s=no|v=no|wikt=no}}

• {{twitter}}
• {{C-SPAN|1026649}}
• {{IMDb name}}
• (11 March 2023). [https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-new-yorker-interview/what-we-talk-about-when-we-talk-about-trans-rights What We Talk About When We Talk About Trans Rights] (an interview with David Remnick), The New Yorker.
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20120510034755/http://www.bloomsbury.com/Masha-Gessen/authors/1589 Bloomsbury Books author pages]
• [https://www.vanityfair.com/politics/2012/04/vladimir-putin-mikhail-khodorkovsky-russia# "The Wrath of Putin"] re: Russian prime minister's relationship with Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Vanity Fair, April 2012.
• [http://latitude.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/16/a-call-from-the-kremlin/ "A Call from the Kremlin"] re: face-to-face meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, The New York Times, September 2012.
• [https://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=147653086 "Putin Biography Chronicles Rise Of A 'Street Thug'"], interview with Dave Davies on Fresh Air, 1 March 2012.
• [https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/blood-matters-by-masha-gessen-896990.html Review of Blood Matters], The Independent
• [https://www.npr.org/2014/01/08/260746432/the-pussy-riot-arrests-and-the-crackdown-that-followed Review of "Words Will Break Cement: The Passion of Pussy Riot"]
• {{Muckrack}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gessen, Masha}}

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