March 26, 2024

A Theater Director's Letter from Prison


A Theater Director's Letter from Prison
Zhenya Berkovich faces seven years for "justifying terrorism." Anton Novoderezhkin / TASS

Theater director Zhenya Berkovich has been imprisoned since May 2023 on charges of justifying terrorism. If found guilty, she'll face seven years in prison. She and her artistic collaborator, Svetlana Petriychuk, were arrested after a criminal investigation was launched into their award-winning play "Finist the Brave Falcon" (Finist Yasny Falcon). As her trial continues to be postponed, Berkovich loses more time with her two adopted daughters, Kira and Anya. 

In a letter for PravmirBerkovich tells the story of meeting and adopting her daughters in 2019, when they were 13 and 15 years old. After years in the orphanage system, the girls had participated in a theater program for disenfranchised children that Berkovich was leading. Berkovich describes how she bonded with the girls, and, over the course of years, built a family with them, along with her husband, actor Nikolai Matveev. Matveev is currently the primary caregiver for Kira and Anya. 

Berkovich and Petriychuk do not concede any guilt on their charges, which are officially against their play, in which two women get involved in radical Islam over the internet and travel to Syria. Unofficially, their arrest is likely related to protest poetry they wrote after the beginning of the war in Ukraine. The two directors are widely supported by the theater and greater arts community. 

The urgency in Berkovich's letter increases as she considers how long she might be absent from her daughters' lives: "And with each day of this new loss, they again fall back into the hell from which they were miraculously able to escape. There should be a beautiful ending here, but I can’t do it anymore. I'm just hurt and scared for my two girls. And they are hurt and scared for me. [...] We are tired. We want to go home."

You Might Also Like

Words from Behind the Glass Box
  • March 04, 2024

Words from Behind the Glass Box

A playwright and a theater director were arrested for a play criticizing ISIS. After months in jail, they spoke from their defendants' glass box.
Another Political Prisoner
  • February 20, 2023

Another Political Prisoner

A court in Barnaul sentenced an independent Russian journalist for "fake news" about the Russian army.
Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of our Books

Murder and the Muse
December 12, 2016

Murder and the Muse

KGB Chief Andropov has tapped Matyushkin to solve a brazen jewel heist from Picasso’s wife at the posh Metropole Hotel. But when the case bleeds over into murder, machinations, and international intrigue, not everyone is eager to see where the clues might lead.

The Moscow Eccentric
December 01, 2016

The Moscow Eccentric

Advance reviewers are calling this new translation "a coup" and "a remarkable achievement." This rediscovered gem of a novel by one of Russia's finest writers explores some of the thorniest issues of the early twentieth century.

Life Stories
September 01, 2009

Life Stories

The Life Stories collection is a nice introduction to contemporary Russian fiction: many of the 19 authors featured here have won major Russian literary prizes and/or become bestsellers. These are life-affirming stories of love, family, hope, rebirth, mystery and imagination, masterfully translated by some of the best Russian-English translators working today. The selections reassert the power of Russian literature to affect readers of all cultures in profound and lasting ways. Best of all, 100% of the profits from the sale of this book are going to benefit Russian hospice—not-for-profit care for fellow human beings who are nearing the end of their own life stories.

How Russia Got That Way
September 20, 2025

How Russia Got That Way

A fast-paced crash course in Russian history, from Norsemen to Navalny, that explores the ways the Kremlin uses history to achieve its ends.

The Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas
October 01, 2013

The Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas

This exciting new trilogy by a Russian author – who has been compared to Orhan Pamuk and Umberto Eco – vividly recreates a lost world, yet its passions and characters are entirely relevant to the present day. Full of mystery, memorable characters, and non-stop adventure, The Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas is a must read for lovers of historical fiction and international thrillers.

 
Little Golden Calf
February 01, 2010

Little Golden Calf

Our edition of The Little Golden Calf, one of the greatest Russian satires ever, is the first new translation of this classic novel in nearly fifty years. It is also the first unabridged, uncensored English translation ever, and is 100% true to the original 1931 serial publication in the Russian journal 30 Dnei. Anne O. Fisher’s translation is copiously annotated, and includes an introduction by Alexandra Ilf, the daughter of one of the book’s two co-authors.

Driving Down Russia's Spine
June 01, 2016

Driving Down Russia's Spine

The story of the epic Spine of Russia trip, intertwining fascinating subject profiles with digressions into historical and cultural themes relevant to understanding modern Russia. 

Marooned in Moscow
May 01, 2011

Marooned in Moscow

This gripping autobiography plays out against the backdrop of Russia's bloody Civil War, and was one of the first Western eyewitness accounts of life in post-revolutionary Russia. Marooned in Moscow provides a fascinating account of one woman's entry into war-torn Russia in early 1920, first-person impressions of many in the top Soviet leadership, and accounts of the author's increasingly dangerous work as a journalist and spy, to say nothing of her work on behalf of prisoners, her two arrests, and her eventual ten-month-long imprisonment, including in the infamous Lubyanka prison. It is a veritable encyclopedia of life in Russia in the early 1920s.

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955