Podcast Then & Now #42: Teresa Cherfas in conversation with Masha Slonim

Pictured: Masha Slonim

28 May 2026

Welcome to the 42nd edition of the Russian-language podcast Then & Now with me, Teresa Cherfas

I’m one of thousands of Facebook followers of Russian-British journalist Masha Slonim. Masha and I met forty years ago when we were colleagues at the BBC Russian Service.

Scrolling through Facebook a couple of weeks ago, I unexpectedly discovered that Masha’s cousin, Nina Litvinova, had died. It was May 13. The next day, May 14, Masha posted again:

“Today, RIA Novosti reported, citing law enforcement sources, that our sister Nina Litvinova had taken her own life. In other words, the cops leaked this information. They also wrote that Nina had left a handwritten suicide note.”

Masha then published excerpts from Nina’s suicide note, explaining: “Of course, no one—neither RIA nor Gazeta.ru, which reported this—will publish the note…’

The note speaks of a feeling of helplessness, of the number of people in prison for not supporting the war against Ukraine, of how life had become unbearable.  Of her shame that she had given up, surrendered. 

On the evening of 12 May 2026, at the age of 80, Nina, a human rights activist and academic, was found unconscious beneath the windows of her apartment building on 3rd Frunzenskaya Street in Moscow. Clearly,  Nina had thrown herself out of the window.

I found the story haunting,  and not just because I could imagine where and how it happened—I had lived on 3rd Frunzenskaya Street when I worked in Moscow in 1998.

I wanted to understand why Nina Litvinova’s act had had such an effect not only on me, but on so many others—both those who knew her and those who didn’t—in Putin’s Russia and beyond.

I asked Masha to talk about her sister and the significance of her decision to take her own life.

• Masha, how did you find out that Nina had died? Did you understand straightaway what had happened?
• You published excerpts from the letter Nina left her family and loved ones. What do you make of her final note?
• You grew up with Nina in Moscow—tell us about your family. Your grandfather was Maxim Litvinov, Stalin’s People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs from 1930 to 1939. How did you understand his role in the history of the Soviet Union?
• Nina’s older brother was Pavel Litvinov, who on August 25, 1968, took part in the “Demonstration of Eight” on Red Square, protesting the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia. Did his actions influence the direction of Nina’s future life?
• Pavel Litvinov left for America; you and your sister Vera also left, first to America and then to England. Why did Nina stay in Russia? What kept her there?
• What did Nina do in her professional life?
• Many people came to the wake for Nina in Moscow. What was your impression of it? 
• You wrote on Facebook that by publishing excerpts from Nina’s last note, you had taken the decision to reveal the real cause of her death and you accused Putin of Nina’s murder. What exactly did you mean?
• Do you remember Irina Slavina, who died in 2020 after setting herself on fire in Nizhny Novgorod? She blamed the Russian Federation for her death…. And then there was Alexander Okunev in Kaliningrad who also committed an act of self-immolation on the third anniversary of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine—his death was hushed up and only came to light a little over a year later. How many more martyrs are needed for Russia to rid itself of its illusions about its president?
• How would you put into a few words your feelings about Nina and what the nature of her death symbolises?