Novaya Gazeta – Russia’s most prominent independent newspaper – is being shut down. On 29 October, two things became known: Novaya was being evicted from its newsroom, and banks would stop processing readers’ donations to Novaya (its only legal income). Insiders spoke of the risk of Novaya being declared an extremist organisation – then any employee could be jailed: a journalist, an editor, an accountant, a cleaner. Closing was safer.

Novaya Gazeta is a second family to me and to many journalists now scattered around the Earth. For me it is my first family, too – my adopted sister also worked at Novaya, and it’s funny how alike we turned out.

I bought Novaya for the first time when I was 14. I opened it to an article by Anna Politkovskaya about the “cleansing” of the Chechen village of Mesker-Yurt by Russian soldiers. Thirty-six people were killed; one man was crucified. None of it made sense to me. I considered myself well informed; like everyone around me, I knew exactly what was happening in Chechnya. Our soldiers were heroically protecting civilians from terrorists.

The more I read, the more I realised that I knew nothing about my own country. I was angry at Novaya. It took away the truth I shared with everyone else. I couldn’t ignore it – the words would not be forgotten. Later, I understood that this is exactly what journalism should be: it should drag you back to reality, even when you don’t want to go. A few years later, I was working at the........

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