Moscow Diary

Moscow Diary is the diary kept by Marjorie Farquharson during the period in which she established Amnesty International's Information Office in Moscow, a unique venture during a fascinating period of change. In 1991, Marjorie was the first westerner working on human rights with a permanent base. It was particularly important because for years the USSR had considered Amnesty an anti-Soviet organisation - 'a nest of spies' so to speak. Marjorie s role together with her penetrating perceptions and her entertaining style of writing make this a very interesting account which combines insights into the politics of human rights and into the unusually wide range of people Marjorie encountered. Most westerners in Moscow lived a life apart with access to foreign currency shops and good-quality food. Marjorie chose instead to live as an ordinary Muscovite, in one room with a small kitchen, even when, in 1992, the inflation rate in Russia soared to more than 2000%. The fact that the diary was written 25 years ago doesn t in any way undermine the author s efforts to help Russia become a normal country , nor does it hide the author s true passion for the Russian people. A gem of a book capturing a moment in time by a truly humble, self-sacrificing woman.