Yevgenia Markovna Albats (russian: Евге́ния Ма́рковна Альба́ц, born 5 September 1958Editorial dossier

Agentura.ru Agentura. Ru (Russian: Агентура.Ру) is a Russian web-site founded in 2000 as an online community of journalists who cover terrorism, and intelligence agencies. From 2000 to 2006 the web-site was supported by ISP Relcom and since 2006 Age ...

, referring to another web sit
Labyrinth
''The New Russia's Dictionary: a world of literature''
''

Znamya ''Znamya'' ( rus, Знамя, p=ˈznamʲə, a=Ru-знамя.ogg, lit. "The Banner") is a Russian monthly literary magazine, which was established in Moscow in 1931. In 1931–1932, the magazine was published under the name of ''Lokaf'' ("Лок� ...

'') is a Russian

investigative journalist Investigative journalism is a form of journalism in which reporters deeply investigate a single topic of interest, such as serious crimes, political corruption, or corporate wrongdoing. An investigative journalist may spend months or years rese ...

political scientist Political science is the science, scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of politics, political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated c ...

, writer and radio host. As of 2022, she works as a chief editor of '' The New Times'' magazine.

Early life and education

Albats' father, Mark Yefremovich Albats, was a member of a

GRU The Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, rus, Гла́вное управле́ние Генера́льного шта́ба Вооружённых сил Росси́йской Федера́ци ...

military

reconnaissance In military operations, reconnaissance or scouting is the exploration of an area by military forces to obtain information about enemy forces, terrain, and other activities. Examples of reconnaissance include patrolling by troops (skirmisher ...

team during World War II, residing in German-occupied Ukraine.Memories about family members of Echo of Moscow's guests
Yevgenia Albats, 7 July 2004
Machine translation
In 1943 he was wounded and discharged from the Army. Afterward he worked as an engineer at a scientific institution, designing

radiolocation Radiolocation, also known as radiolocating or radiopositioning, is the process of finding the location of something through the use of radio waves. It generally refers to passive uses, particularly radar—as well as detecting buried cables, w ...

systems for the Soviet Army.''We are here''
Albats' mother, Yelena Izmaylovskaya, was an actress and a radio news host.
Albats' elder sister, Tatyana Komarova, is a television host/anchor. Yevgenia Albats graduated from the Department of Journalism of

Moscow State University M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU; russian: Московский государственный университет имени М. В. Ломоносова) is a public research university in Moscow, Russia and the most prestigious ...

in 1980. One of her classmates and friends was

Anna Politkovskaya Anna Stepanovna Politkovskaya (;, ; uk, Ганна Степанівна Політковська , 30 August 1958 – 7 October 2006) was a Russian journalist and human rights activist, who reported on political events in Russia, in partic ...

, who would become an investigative journalist and was

assassinated Assassination is the murder of a prominent or important person, such as a head of state, head of government, politician, world leader, member of a royal family or CEO. The murder of a celebrity, activist, or artist, though they may not have a ...

in 2006.

Journalism career

Albats started her professional work as a free-lance reporter with

Komsomolskaya Pravda ''Komsomolskaya Pravda'' (russian: link=no, Комсомольская правда; lit. "Komsomol Truth") is a daily Russian tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper, founded on 13 March 1925. History and profile During the Soviet era, ...

, while she was still a senior at the Moscow State University's Department of Journalism. After graduation, she succeeded in getting a job as a low-paid assistant at the so-called "letters" desk ( the desk that was obliged to answer letters, which were coming from readers of the paper) at ''

Izvestia ''Izvestia'' ( rus, Известия, p=ɪzˈvʲesʲtʲɪjə, "The News") is a daily broadsheet newspaper in Russia. Founded in 1917, it was a newspaper of record in the Soviet Union until the Soviet Union's dissolution in 1991, and describes ...

'' Sunday supplement, ''Nedelya''. At the same time, she started writing about

astrophysics Astrophysics is a science that employs the methods and principles of physics and chemistry in the study of astronomical objects and phenomena. As one of the founders of the discipline said, Astrophysics "seeks to ascertain the nature of the h ...

and

particle physics Particle physics or high energy physics is the study of fundamental particles and forces that constitute matter and radiation. The fundamental particles in the universe are classified in the Standard Model as fermions (matter particles) an ...

for the same paper. From 1986 to 1992, she worked for ''The'' ''Moscow News'' as a special assignment correspondent, writing on the USSR's notorious political police, the KGB. In 1996 to 2006, she worked for ''Izvestia'' (led the weekly column ''We and Our Children'') and ''

Novaya Gazeta ''Novaya Gazeta'' ( rus, Новая газета, t=New Gazette, p=ˈnovəjə ɡɐˈzʲetə) is an independent Russian newspaper known for its critical and investigative coverage of Russian political and social affairs. It is published in Mo ...

''. She received the Golden Pen Award from the Russian Union of Journalists for exposing poor conditions in

maternity ward Childbirth, also known as labour and delivery, is the ending of pregnancy where one or more babies exits the internal environment of the mother via vaginal delivery or caesarean section. In 2019, there were about 140.11 million births global ...

s in 1989. Albats was fired from ''Izvestia'' in 1997 after she had completed a major article exposing alleged illegal activities by the FSB.Post-Soviet Media Law & Policy Newsletter
Issue No. 36,

Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law The Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law is the law school of Yeshiva University. Located in New York City and founded in 1976, the school is named for Supreme Court Justice Benjamin N. Cardozo. Cardozo graduated its first class in 1979. An LL.M. p ...

, 20 April 1997 She was restored to her position by a court decision on 15 March 1997. In 2007, Albats became a deputy chief editor of '' The New Times'' magazine. On 16 January 2009 she replaced

Irena Lesnevskaya The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) is an intergovernmental organization mandated to facilitate cooperation, advance knowledge, and promote the adoption and sustainable use of renewable energy. It is the first international organis ...

as the Chief Editor of the magazine. Since 2013, she is one of the jury members of the

European Press Prize The European Press Prize is an award programme for excellence in journalism across all 47 countries of Europe. It was founded in 2012 by seven European media foundations: The Guardian Foundation, Thomson Reuters Foundation, Jyllands-Posten Found ...

Political activities

From 1993 to 2000, she was a member of the Clemency Commission at the Executive Office of the President of the Russian Federation.

Research and works

Albats was a Fellow at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

Nieman Foundation for Journalism The Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University is the primary journalism institution at Harvard. It was founded in February 1938 as the result of a $1.4 million bequest by Agnes Wahl Nieman, the widow of Lucius W. Nieman, founder of ' ...

in 1993
Fellowship at the Nieman Foundation
. In 2004 Albats was awarded a PhD in political science from

. She works at the radio station ''

Echo of Moscow Echo of Moscow (russian: links=no, Эхо Москвы, translit=Ekho Moskvy) was a 24/7 commercial Russian radio station based in Moscow. It broadcast in many Russian cities, some of the former Soviet republics (through partnerships with local ra ...

'' and writes for ''The'' ''Moscow Times''. In 1992 Albats was appointed a consultant for a

Russian Duma The State Duma (russian: Госуда́рственная ду́ма, r=Gosudárstvennaja dúma), commonly abbreviated in Russian as Gosduma ( rus, Госду́ма), is the lower house of the Federal Assembly of Russia, while the upper house ...

commission to examine

KGB The KGB (russian: links=no, lit=Committee for State Security, Комитет государственной безопасности (КГБ), a=ru-KGB.ogg, p=kəmʲɪˈtʲet ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)əj bʲɪzɐˈpasnəsʲtʲɪ, Komitet gosud ...

involvement in

Soviet coup attempt of 1991 The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

. This commission was led by

Lev Ponomaryov Lev Aleksandrovich Ponomaryov (russian: Лев Алекса́ндрович Пономарёв, September 2, 1941) is a Russian political and civil activist. He is an executive director of the all-Russian movement "For Human Rights." He is a mem ...

.''The Spies Who Stayed Out in the Cold''
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', by Glenn Garelik, 27 November 1994 As a member of this commission she interviewed KGB officers. Albats described her findings in ''The State Within a State: The KGB and Its Hold on Russia – Past, Present, and Future''Albats.''KGB: The State Within a State''. Translated from Russian by Catherine A. Fitzpatrick. 1995. , . First edition in 1994, , . in 1994. KGB chairman

Vadim Bakatin Vadim Viktorovich Bakatin (russian: link=no, Вадим Викторович Бакатин; 6 November 1937 – 31 July 2022) was a Russian politician who served as the last chairman of the KGB in 1991. He was the last surviving former chairma ...

gave Albats the number of KGB officers as 180,000 in a post-1991 interview. Using the "rule of thumb", "four non-ranking KGB employees for every officer", Albats estimated that the number of KGB employees in Russia in 1992 approached 700,000, "one olitical police agentfor every 297 citizens of Russia", as opposed to "one Chekist for every 428 Soviet citizens." Albats described the

as a leading political force rather than a security organization. She wrote that KGB directors

Lavrenty Beria Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria (; rus, Лавре́нтий Па́влович Бе́рия, Lavréntiy Pávlovich Bériya, p=ˈbʲerʲiə; ka, ლავრენტი ბერია, tr, ; – 23 December 1953) was a Georgian Bolsheviks ...

Yuri Andropov Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov (– 9 February 1984) was the sixth paramount leader of the Soviet Union and the fourth General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. After Leonid Brezhnev's 18-year rule, Andropov served in the po ...

and

Vladimir Kryuchkov Vladimir Alexandrovich Kryuchkov (russian: Влади́мир Алекса́ндрович Крючко́в, link=no; 29 February 1924 – 23 November 2007) was a Soviet lawyer, diplomat, and head of the KGB, member of the Politburo of the ...

manipulated Communist Party leaders. She asserted that FSB, the successor of KGB, became a

totalitarian Totalitarianism is a form of government and a political system that prohibits all opposition parties, outlaws individual and group opposition to the state and its claims, and exercises an extremely high if not complete degree of control and regul ...

party. Journalist John Barron,''KGB: The Secret Work of Soviet Secret Agents'', New York:

Reader's Digest Press Reader's Digest Press was a United States publisher of the mid-1960s to early 1980s, owned by The Reader's Digest Association. It published full-length, original non-fiction books, often concerning military or political topics. (It thus differed ...

, 1974; London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1974. New York:

Bantam Books Bantam Books is an American publishing house owned entirely by parent company Random House, a subsidiary of Penguin Random House; it is an imprint of the Random House Publishing Group. It was formed in 1945 by Walter B. Pitkin, Jr., Sidney B. ...

, 1974 retired KGB Major General

Oleg Kalugin Oleg Danilovich Kalugin (russian: Олег Данилович Калугин; born 6 September 1934) is a former KGB general (stripped of his rank and awards by a Russian Court decision in 2002). He was during a time, head of KGB political ope ...

reportedly shared Albats's point of view. In 1992 Albats published an article in ''

'' quoting documents from KGB archives that

David Karr David Harold Karr, born David Katz (1918, Brooklyn, New York – 7 July 1979, Paris) was a controversial American journalist, businessman, Communist and NKVD agent. Early life Enthralled with the radical left, Karr began writing at a relativel ...

was "a competent KGB source" who "submitted information to the KGB on the technical capabilities of the United States and other capitalist countries"."Senator

Edward Kennedy Edward Moore Kennedy (February 22, 1932 – August 25, 2009) was an American lawyer and politician who served as a United States senator from Massachusetts for almost 47 years, from 1962 until his death in 2009. A member of the Democratic ...

requested KGB assistance with a profitable contract for his businessman-friend", ''

'', 24 June 1992, p. 5 She cited KGB notes describing transfers of money to communist parties of United States, Finland, France, Italy, as well as "commercial dealings" of

Rajiv Gandhi Rajiv Gandhi (; 20 August 1944 – 21 May 1991) was an Indian politician who served as the sixth prime minister of India from 1984 to 1989. He took office after the 1984 assassination of his mother, then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, to beco ...

's family with Soviet foreign trade. Albats learned that the KGB employed the future Russian

Patriarch Alexius II Patriarch Alexy II (or Alexius II, russian: link=no, Патриарх Алексий II; secular name Aleksei Mikhailovich Ridiger russian: link=no, Алексе́й Миха́йлович Ри́дигер; 23 February 1929 – 5 December ...

as an agent under a nickname Drozdov. KGB defector

Vasili Mitrokhin Vasili Nikitich Mitrokhin (russian: link=no, Васи́лий Ники́тич Митро́хин; March 3, 1922 – January 23, 2004) was a major and senior archivist for the Soviet Union's foreign intelligence service, the First Chief Dir ...

and dissident priest

Gleb Yakunin Gleb Pavlovich Yakunin (russian: Глеб Па́влович Яку́нин; 4 March 1936 – 25 December 2014) was a Russian priest and dissident, who fought for the principle of freedom of conscience in the Soviet Union. He was a member of ...

who had access to KGB archives reported the same. Christopher Andrew and

, ''The

Mitrokhin Archive The "Mitrokhin Archive" is a collection of handwritten notes which were secretly made by the KGB archivist Vasili Mitrokhin during the thirty years in which he served as a KGB archivist in the foreign intelligence service and the First Chief Direc ...

: The KGB in Europe and the West'', Gardners Books (2000), Albats published a book, ''The Jewish question'', in 1995.

Talk shows

As of 2004, Albats hosted a radio talk program at

. In February 2007, she held a talk with

Olga Kryshtanovskaya Olga Viktorovna Kryshtanovskaya (russian: О́льга Ви́кторовна Крыштано́вская; born 1954) is a Russian sociologist, activist and State Duma deputy from the United Russia party. Education and career Kryshtanovskaya wo ...

, director of the Moscow-based Centre for the Study of Elites. Kryshtanovskaya said that FSB members and other "

silovik In the Russian political lexicon, a ''silovik'' ( rus, силови́к, p=sʲɪlɐˈvʲik; plural: ''siloviki'', rus, силовики́, p=sʲɪləvʲɪˈkʲi) is a person who works in the Russian Armed Forces, the Russian national police, ...

s" took key positions in the Russian government, Parliament and business. These members share their military background and

nationalistic Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: T ...

views. She noted that most FSB members remain in the "acting reserve" even when they formally leave the organization. All "acting reserve" members receive an FSB salary, follow FSB instructions, and remain above the law because their organization protects them, according to Kryshtanovskaya.In Russia, A Secretive Force Widens
Finn, P., ''

Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'', 2006 In 2006, Albats criticized Anna Arutunyan who had written an article in ''The'' ''Moscow News'' about the murdered journalist

. Arutunyan wrote that Politkovskaya became an activist and that her articles contained "inaccuracies".

Family and personal life

Albats was married to journalist, writer and science popularizer Yaroslav Golovanov and had a daughter, Olga (b. 1988).Biography of Yaroslav Golovanov
/ref>"Tanya Albats"
poem by Semyon Ventzimerov

References

External links

;Books
''Bureaucrats and Russian Transition: Politics of Accommodation''

Harvard University Press Harvard University Press (HUP) is a publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University, and focused on academic publishing. It is a member of the Association of American University Presses. After the retirem ...

, 2004.
''The State Within a State: The KGB and Its Hold on Russia – Past, Present, and Future''
Yevgenia Albats and Catherine A. Fitzpatrick. 1994. . ;Articles by Albats

by

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...

.
''Reporting Stories in Russia That No One Will Publish''
23 April 2000,

Nieman Reports The Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University is the primary journalism institution at Harvard. It was founded in February 1938 as the result of a $1.4 million bequest by Agnes Wahl Nieman, the widow of Lucius W. Nieman, founder of ...

.
''The Day Democracy Died in Russia''
The Center for Public Integrity, 17 April 2001.
''The Chechen War Comes Home''

, 26 October 2002.
''Wielding the KGB's Tools''

The Moscow Times ''The Moscow Times'' is an independent English-language and Russian-language online newspaper. It was in print in Russia from 1992 until 2017 and was distributed free of charge at places frequented by English-speaking tourists and expatriates s ...

, 31 May 2004.
''The Kremlin Shows Its True Face''

, 2 August 2004.
''In Putin's Kremlin, It's All About Control''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

, 12 December 2004.
''The Shakedown State''
Higher School of Economics, Moscow, 2005.
''Seven Questions: Russia’s Cloaks and Daggers''

Foreign Policy A State (polity), state's foreign policy or external policy (as opposed to internal or domestic policy) is its objectives and activities in relation to its interactions with other states, unions, and other political entities, whether bilaterall ...

, November 2006.
''Interview with Y. Albats in English and German''
" Kontakt - Report", April 2007. ;Articles, talks by Albats in Russian
Higher School of Economics

Personal column
at

.
Personal column
in the online magazine YeZh.
Personal blog
;Articles about Albats
''Who is next?''
'' Publius Pundit''.
''Moscow Liberals Hold Demonstration''
Charles Gurin, ''

Jamestown Foundation The Jamestown Foundation is a Washington, D.C.-based conservative defense policy think tank. Founded in 1984 as a platform to support Soviet defectors, its stated mission today is to inform and educate policy makers about events and trends, which ...

''. {{DEFAULTSORT:Albats, Yevgenia 1958 births Nieman Fellows Living people Moscow State University alumni Writers from Moscow Russian investigative journalists Russian women journalists Russian political scientists Russian political writers Russian historians of espionage Echo of Moscow radio presenters Higher School of Economics faculty 20th-century women writers 20th-century Russian writers Russian women historians Women political scientists Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni Russian anti-communists 20th-century Russian women Jewish Russian writers Russian activists against the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine People listed in Russia as media foreign agents