Masha Gessen was born on 13 January 1967 and is a Russian-American journalist, author, translator and activist who has been an outspoken critic of Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, and Donald Trump, the former president of the United States.
13 Facts About Masha Gessen
2.
Masha Gessen worked as a translator on the FX TV channel historical drama The Americans.
3.
Masha Gessen was born into a Jewish family in Moscow to Alexander and Yelena Masha Gessen.
4.
Ruzya Solodovnik, Masha Gessen's maternal grandmother, was a Russian-born intellectual who worked as a censor for the Stalinist government until she was fired during an antisemitic purge.
5.
Masha Gessen's maternal grandfather Samuil was a committed Bolshevik who died during World War II, leaving Ruzya to raise Yelena alone.
6.
In 1981, when Masha Gessen was a teenager, their family moved via the US Refugee Resettlement Program to the United States.
7.
Masha Gessen was on the board of directors of the Moscow-based LGBT rights organization Triangle between 1993 and 1998.
8.
At his invitation, Masha Gessen met him and Masha Gessen's former publisher at the Kremlin and were offered their job back.
9.
In September 2012, Masha Gessen was appointed as director of the Russian Service for Radio Liberty, a US government-funded broadcaster based in Prague.
10.
Shortly after their appointment was announced and a few days after Masha Gessen met with Putin, more than 40 members of Radio Liberty's staff were fired.
11.
Masha Gessen wrote in February 2014 that Citibank had closed their bank account because of concern about Russian money-laundering operations.
12.
Masha Gessen married Svetlana Generalova, a Russian citizen who was involved in the LGBT movement in Moscow, in 2004.
13.
Masha Gessen tested positive for the BRCA mutation that is correlated with breast cancer and underwent a mastectomy in 2005.