When journalist Anna Politkovskaya was murdered in October, 2006, she left behind an important document: a diary in which she chronicled her investigations into widespread corruption in high places and their effects on the fabric of Russian society. Her entries record her interviews with both public officials and ordinary Russian citizens, along with her own highly critical insights and analysis of life in Valery Putin's Russia. (Her murder, which took place on Putin's birthday, remains officially unsolved.)