Anna Politkovskaya

On Oct. 7, journalist Anna Politkovskaya was found shot dead in the elevator of her Moscow home. One of Russia's most courageous and respected reporters had been silenced by four bullets. As a correspondent for the semiweekly Novaya Gazeta , Politkovskaya was an unflinching observer of the war in Chechnya, dedicated to telling the stories of those caught in the long and vicious conflict, and fiercely critical of the Kremlin's policies on it.

Politkovskaya's dogged search for truth made her a formidable journalist, but her compassion made her even more than that. The war-battered Chechens came to...