Masha Gessen

Masha Gessen hails from a family of German Jews. She was born in Russia in 1967 and, as a product of the Cold War Soviet educational system, experienced the same school conditions that shaped the character of Grigori Perelman. In 1981, she emigrated to America to escape the effects of anti-Semitism, where she studied mathematics and journalism. In 1991, she returned to Moscow as a journalist-correspondent for Russian, American, and British print media. She is the editor of the Russian magazine "Snob."