Changes

Irina is a practising Christian, a faith that has sustained her alongside her writing (even when she can only write on roll-up papers). Yet this isn't a religious testimonial. Religion hardly gets mentioned at all, bringing to the fore a story of human spirit, determination and humour conquering extreme adversity. Unfortunately, although Irina was released, some of her fellow prisoners are still serving the exile portion of their sentences. The bigger sadness is that recent clamp-downs under the new Russian Federation seem to suggest that such prisoners of conscience will go on being taken for the foreseeable future.

Further Reading: To get the full story leading up to these moments in Irina's life, we suggest you go back to [[In the Beginning by Irina Ratushinskaya|the beginning]]. If you'd like to read a slightly fictionalised account of the life of a dissident, written by a dissident, we recommend [[The Year of Miracle and Grief by Leonid Borodin]].