Svetlana Anokhina

Svetlana Anokhina, a journalist from Dagestan, has published a book "There Was Such A City. Makhachkala". In 2015, she continued her publicist project in other books of the series. Ms Anokhina is widely known as the author of the Daptar.ru portal, which posts resonant stories of Caucasian women.

She was nominated for the "Hero of the Caucasus-2015" contest of the "Caucasian Knot" for her courage to publicize the facts, which are usually silenced by others.

Biography

She was born in 1962 in Makhachkala.

In 1999, Svetlana Anokhina began publishing her articles in the "Novoye Delo" newspaper; in 2002, she became a staff journalist of the edition.

In 2003, she passed to work for the "Chernovik" newspaper; then, she cooperated with the newspapers "MK in Dagestan" (Moskovsky Komsomolets), "Svobodnaya Respublika", "Nastoyashchee Vremya", and with the "Dagestan" magazine. At the same time, she worked with the local TV Company as the author of the programme "Hopscotch", and the co-author of the programme "Zone Of Influence". Now, she runs the Daptar.ru portal.

In 2007, Svetlana Anokhina and Polina Sanaeva launched the project "There Was Such A City", dedicated to the past of Dagestani cities; she continued her regular publications in Dagestani media.

In 2010, based on the materials of the project, Svetlana Anokhina and Zarema Gasanova made a 40-minute documentary "There Was Such A City. Makhachkala".

In 2015, Svetlana Anokhina continued her series of books about Dagestan by published a book "There Was Such A City. Derbent" co-authored with Anna Gadjieva. The book was styled as a family album, where each page presents persons and stories of those who lived in Derbent in the 19^th and 20^th centuries.

Also in 2015, Svetlana Anokhina became a Laureate of the State Award of the Republic of Dagestan for her book-album "There Was Such A City. Makhachkala" (2013), published jointly with Polina Sanaeva. The book was printed by the Dagestani Publishing House "Epokha" in circulation of two thousand copies. It has 83 heroes and over 1500 photos from museum and private archives.

The book about Makhachkala was recognized as "The Book Of The Year" at the book exhibition-fair "Tarki-Tau-2013"; it was awarded the Diploma "The 2013 Leader of Sales" from the "Epokha" Publishers, and a grant from the Dagestani President. Also, the book won the Grand Prix "Golden Eagle" of the Dagestani Union of Journalists; and was awarded the Diploma of the Fund named after Khadjimurad Kamalov in the nomination "The Best Project Of The Year".

In 2016, Ms Anokhina took the second place in the nomination "Internet Editions" of the North-Caucasian stage of the All-Russian "SMIrotvorets" contest for the best coverage of the inter-confessional and ethno-confessional relations, as the author of the Daptar.ru portal for her publications about women’s life in the Caucasus.

One of Svetlana Anokhina's publications ("Circumcised Women Cut Their Daughters" co-authored with Zainab Ibragimova) covered the problem of female circumcision in Dagestan; this and other articles by Anokhina caused a broad public resonance.