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Last week, we invited readers from Russia to tell us what place Meduza has in their lives, and to ask those in exile to support our work by donating. Why this is so important is not for us to explain, but for you! Here are some of the many stories that Medusa readers have sent in. We publish them with minor editing. And we thank you for these important and warm words! We will definitely keep those references that were not included in this material – keep an eye on the updates.
If you do not live in Russia and can respond to the request of our readers who remain in the country, make a small but regular payment to Meduza. Help keep hope and cuckoo to your like-minded readers! And if you’d like to specify for whom exactly you donated, write to us at [email protected].
Yulia
St. Petersburg
(Asked to donate to all those who strive for humanity, respect for the interests of different people and non-violence)
I donate to those organizations that are left in Russia. But I can’t donate to Medusa. Although every morning I start with reading this publication. “Meduza” helps me stay informed, covering events from a perspective I understand and with values that are important to me. “Meduza” plays a huge role in the worldview of people in my circle, I can’t imagine how I would live without it. Although I read other independent publications and the English-language press, Medusa speaks to what is important to me, and in a way that is important to me.
Dear stranger or stranger, if you can support Medusa for us, please do so. And we here will support our fellow citizens who are being persecuted and imprisoned by the Russian authorities. Thank you to everyone who helps journalists to tell the truth, to discuss things that are important for society, to give us information to develop and support.
Ira
(Donation for herself and her granddaughter)
Thanks to the parsing of “Meduza” in 2018-2019 I searched for information about my repressed great-grandfather. A copy of the personal file of the arrested sent to her grandfather: he turned 91, and he [last] saw his father before the arrest, in 21. Still glad that it turned out and had time.
Also, without What Happened, my soothing cooking ritual, which has always saved me and continues to keep a lid on, would fall apart.
Katya
Nizhny Novgorod
Help keep a ray of hope and faith in justice – in the fact that one day Meduza will write, “The war is over!”
Anonymous reader
It was in Russia, it was a long time ago, we donated to Meduza during the covid – that “wonderful” time of covid, which now, unfortunately, we have to nostalgize for. And now we can’t do that. But you can. By some miraculous (or suffered) coincidence you now have such an opportunity. An opportunity to support the remnants of something in the Russian language. Just look around you, what is left of Runet? It’s not rubble or ruins. It’s scorched earth sprinkled with salt. You can support podcasters, bloggers, musicians – it will be good. You can also support Medusa.
Vika
Vyborg
Over the years, Medusa has become a loyal friend to me. I wasn’t interested in politics before, but I started reading Meduza because of [film critic Anton] Dolin and [literary critic Galina] Yuzefovich. Of course, politics is very important to me now, and Meduza answers many of my questions in an intelligent, European way, with respect for the reader. If I lose the opportunity to read Meduza, another window in the deaf curtain surrounding our country will close, and my world will narrow even more.
Svetlana
St. Petersburg
I live in Russia and cannot send a donation to Meduza, which is extremely important to me as a source of reliable information.
I have no friends abroad, and I ask you, a stranger to me, to support Meduza, and with it the hope for a normal future for Russia. This hope is fading every day. It is unbearable to listen to propaganda and meet people poisoned by it – especially children.
Everyone around sincerely believes or pretends that nothing terrible is happening either in Russia or in the world – “everything is going according to plan”. People have completely stopped discussing politics – this was not the case even in the late USSR. That’s why Meduza and other independent sources of information are so important. “Meduza” can be read without VPN, with poor internet quality, the application always works. This is a very high quality project worth supporting.
Dear stranger or stranger, if you decide to donate to “Meduza” for me, please dedicate it to Svetlana from St. Petersburg. A huge thank you for this.
Maria
St. Petersburg
I remain in Russia and continue to receive objective, verified, censorship-free information primarily thanks to Meduza. I also teach journalism at a university and try to pass on to students the standards of independent quality press as I remember them. I still hope that this is not a Sisyphean labor and that one day this knowledge will be useful to my students. So we also need Meduza as a reference point in our profession.
Anonymous reader
I can’t leave Russia. I’m wildly uncomfortable, I’m practically alone. I have a thousand excuses not to leave, but the main one is that I’m a lazy coward. I try not to lose hope, and I won’t really lose it, even if all the people in the world start fighting. But still, looking at some beautiful people or reading independent media, even if I see terrible news, I realize that I am not alone – and that helps a lot. Forgive me, I love you.
Maxim
I stay in Russia and cannot send donations to those who are labeled “enemies” by the Russian authorities. As long as it was possible, I supported Meduza financially. I would like to say that I am far from always satisfied with the way Meduza’s materials are written, and some things I don’t like at all. But this – like/dislike – does not matter at all: neither reality nor the journalist is obliged to please everyone in the world. “Meduza” is almost the only Russian-language publication that tries to be objective and professional. In fact, it’s almost the last available and truthful source of information about what’s going on for those who are trapped with the mad dictator and his nephews.
Anonymous reader
(Donut for student).
I am a simple student from yesterday who used to transfer one hundred rubles a month to Meduza. Putin stole my country, my ability to speak, and even my freedom to dispose of my hundred rubles. Help Meduza! Freedom for Russia!
Sergei
Imagine a boy who hated reading as a child and herded cows every summer, beating every bush with a stick, which is “to blame” for the fact that the boy has to follow the herd for 12 hours and fight off mosquitoes and gnats. Later he will grow up, study at the university, but will never become a specialist in his field. He’ll spend a long time looking for work, and then the war starts.
And now he thinks that by all logic such a person should have been among the first to sign a contract [to serve in the Russian army], but in addition to his parental upbringing, he was lucky enough to meet people in his life who got him interested in the political life of Russia. And his main source of information was then – and still is – Meduza.
I wouldn’t want you to send donations “for me” – send them from yourself. Someday the time will come, and I will find an opportunity to support all those publications that over the years have given so much to all of us to understand this world.
Galina
I stay in Russia and work in the field of palliative care. It is very important for me to keep my humanity and the remnants of my common sense! Medusa’s voices help me not to suffocate in the propaganda chamber.
Anonymous reader
I’ve supported Medusa every month, but I’m terribly embarrassed that I can’t donate more. I have one paycheck, three kids and a mortgage, but I consider it my civic duty to do everything in my power to ensure that free media continues to exist in the Russian-speaking space. For me, this is a huge value. Alas, I don’t see how foreign-language media can occupy this niche.
I feel wildly enthusiastic about what Meduza is doing. Sometimes I strongly disagree with some articles and even with the prevailing opinion in Medusa on some issue. Sometimes completely. But that doesn’t change the above. We all need Medusa. If Medusa is gone, it will be a disaster, and it will be my personal disaster. We need three or four different Medusas, but there’s only one. We can’t lose it.
Anonymous reader
(Donut for the boatman)
Russia is a black ocean right now. A huge mass of territory, blown by cold winds, over which the sun never rises. And Medusa is a lighthouse. Lonely, but piercing the darkness for thousands of kilometers. I’m floating on the black ocean in a small boat, bobbing on hysterical waves, and without this lighthouse I’d be completely miserable.
But a lighthouse is still infrastructure. It needs to be maintained: changing light bulbs, wiping windows, fending off hooligans. These tasks require resources. I would be happy to provide them myself, but I can’t reach the lighthouse, and it works only on imported components. So please help.
Lydia
Dear Friend. We have not met, but since you are reading these lines, it means that you and I have something in common. This is “Medusa.” Today I am addressing you with a request to support her. “Meduza” is an important part of my life, I’ve been reading it regularly for six years (crazy, I didn’t realize it’s been that long). Every day in Russia it’s getting harder and harder to get adequate information, and I would love to contribute to the preservation of independent media. But I can’t do it, and you can. Please support Meduza with whatever amount is comfortable for you – and you’ll make this world a little better (heart emoji).
Lew
St. Petersburg
(Sends you a hello and a hug!)
I’ve been with Medusa literally since the first days. Yes, I’m aware of scandals and problems, but for me the whole editorial staff, former and present employees, are like pieces of a puzzle from which life is built. They are small pieces, but if you lose them, the puzzle won’t fit together. [By supporting Medusa], I invested in my mindset. And I would keep doing it because it’s for love.
Cotans! “Meduza” has been one of the few publications that has kept my cuckoo in place for years now. I’m still in Russia, still holding on, but on the thin side. And I know I’m not the only one. Support Medusa, save our cuckoos! Hugged, lifted ❤️
Varvara
Novosibirsk
I am in Russia. I have no opportunity to leave. Besides, I believe that I have no right to leave. I don’t have any unique skills to bring super benefits [abroad]. Besides, as far as I know, Europe has a rather tense attitude towards migrants. Also, let them better provide asylum and help those who need it more than I do – citizens of Ukraine who have left the war.
But in Russia it is very difficult to live with propaganda and lack of freedom of speech. When you read or listen to the official media, it seems that there is only evil around. Therefore, the work of independent journalists not only allows us to see events in their true light (which is extremely important), but also helps us realize that there are still people in Russia with “unwashed” brains. We are few in number, but we exist. And it is very important to know about it.
I read all the letters from Meduza readers, because I can sign almost every one of them. And if the letter is from Russia, I realize that somewhere there is a person who is as much as I am against the war, against the criminal authorities. And perhaps he is reading Meduza right now, just like me. This makes it possible not to fall into despair and hatred.
The Meduza staff and, most importantly, our readers in Russia are very grateful to everyone who decides to send us donations (even small, but monthly donations help us the most). And if you want to dedicate your donation to one of the heroes of this material, write to us at [email protected].
