Polina Zherebtsova (born March 20, 1985, in Grozny, USSR) is a nonfiction writer and poet. She is the author of Chechen Diaries, documentary novels, and short stories, which have been translated into 27 languages. In 2013, Polina received political asylum in Finland. Finalist of the 2012 Sakharov Prize “For Journalism as Action” and several other awards, Polina is engaged in human rights activities. Polina was born into a multi-ethnic family in the Chechen-Ingush ASSR. With the outbreak of the 1994 war in the Chechen Republic, nine-year-old Polina Zherebtsova began keeping a personal diary in which she described the historical events that took place around her. Her Chechen diary from 1994-2004 has come to symbolize the civilians who suffered in the war in Chechnya.