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| Beslan article wins MIchael Kelley Award |
| 2007-04-26 |
| On Thursday, April 19, Esquire contributor C.J. Chivers won the Michael Kelly Award for "The School," his chilling hour-by-hour reconstruction of the 2004 Beslan school massacre. Here's an excerpt from the prize-winning article: The terrorist was sick of Larisa Kudziyeva. She had been shouting, even after they had ordered everyone to be quiet. She was lean and beautiful in a quintessentially Caucasus way, with fine skin and dark hair and brown eyes, a look intensified by her black blouse and skirt. She did not look her thirty-eight years. The terrorist was one of the young men guarding the hostages. He wore his mask. He walked toward her to quiet her, for good. Larisa had spent the first hours of captivity tending to Vadim Bolloyev, a father who had been shot near the right shoulder. He lay on the basketball court silently, holding in his pain. His white shirt was soaked red. He was growing weak. "Why did they shoot you?" she had asked him. "I refused to kneel," he said. Larisa urged him to lie back and placed her purse under his head. She inspected his wound. The bone had been shattered. Blood flowed freely. She tried using a belt as a tourniquet but could not position it. Sweat beaded his forehead. His son, Sarmat, six, sat beside him in a white shirt and black vest, watching his father slip away. Larisa had not wanted to come to school that day. Her six-year-old son, Zaurbek, was starting first grade, but she had asked Madina, her nineteen-year-old daughter, to bring him. Her husband had died of stomach cancer in April. She was in mourning and felt no urge to celebrate. But after they left, Larisa looked outside at the crowds moving to the school. Go with them, a voice told her, and she rushed to her balcony. "Wait for me!" she called down. Now she leaned over a bleeding man, struggling to save him. Her daughter was enrolled at a medical academy. "You are a future doctor," Larisa whispered. "What do I do?" "There is no way to save him," Madina said. "His artery is damaged. He needs an operation." Larisa felt fury. She would not let him die. She shouted at a terrorist across the room. "We need water and bandages!" she said. No one answered. She shouted again. She was breaking rules. The terrorist approached. "Why are you yelling?" he said. "I need bandages," she said. "Are you the bravest person here, or the smartest?" he said. "We will check." His voice turned sharp: "Stand up!" Bolloyev grabbed her shirt. "Do not go," he said. Larisa slipped free and stood, and the terrorist shoved her with his rifle toward a corner where confiscated cameras and phones had been piled and smashed. "What are you doing?" she demanded. He ordered her to kneel. "No," she said. For this Bolloyev had been shot. "I told you," he said. "Get on your knees." "No," she said. For a moment they faced each other, the terrorist and the mother, locked in mental battle. She looked into his mask; freckles were visible near his eyes. A hush fell over the gym. The hostages had seen Betrozov's murder. Now came Larisa's turn. The terrorist raised his Kalashnikov, past her chest, past her face, stopping at her forehead. He pressed the muzzle against her brow. Larisa felt the circle of steel on her skin. Bolloyev propped himself on an elbow. Larisa's children looked on. She reached up, grasped the barrel, and moved it away. "What kind of spectacle are you playing here, and in front of whom?" she snapped. "There are women and children here who are already scared." The terrorist paused. Thinking quickly, she tried to convince him that Ossetians were not enemies of Chechens, a difficult task, given that enmity between Ossetians, a Christian people with a history of fidelity to Moscow, and the Islamic Chechens and Ingush, who have long been persecuted, is deep. "Your children rest in our sanatoriums," she said. "Your women give birth here." "Not our wives and children," the terrorist said. "They are the spawn of Kadyrov." The word stung. Kadyrov-the surname of former rebels who aligned with Russia and became the Kremlin's proxies. The separatists despised them with a loathing reserved for traitors. Larisa was stumped. Abdullah had been rushing across the gym; he stepped beside them. "What is happening here?" he said. "This guy wants to execute me because I asked for water and bandages for the wounded," she said. Abdullah studied the two: his young gunman, the woman who stared him down. "There is nothing for you here," he said. "Go back and sit down and shut up." She pointed to his bloodied arm. "Your arm is bandaged," she said. "Give me some of those bandages." "You did not understand me?" he said. "There is nothing for you here. Go back and sit down and shut up." Larisa returned to her place. Her children stared at her. Bolloyev lay back down. His lips were violet, his forehead coated in sweat. His death could not be far away. She was enraged. Go read it all. |
| Posted by:Mike |
| #5 Basayev's death counts not a rat fart against this intolerable atrocity. When will some real retribution take place? Were the nationalities of the "Arab" perpetrators ever identified? So many, many young lives cut short before they even began. Beslan was my own personal tipping point. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2007-04-26 20:45 |
| #4 Yeah, The Atlantic has really gone downhill since his death. |
| Posted by: Parabellum 2007-04-26 18:15 |
| #3 IfI was Russian I would want the Chechens exterminated to the last man. |
| Posted by: Mac 2007-04-26 13:25 |
| #2 me too - his wit was rapier-sharp, and he called it as he saw it. A great writer and from all accounts a great man |
| Posted by: Frank G 2007-04-26 10:10 |
| #1 I miss Michael Kelly. :-( |
| Posted by: Seafarious 2007-04-26 10:05 |