In the late 1990s, the quiet of a small Russian town was shattered when Irina Ganyushkina stumbled into a police station—an escapee from a living nightmare. Irina revealed to authorities that she was one of five women kidnapped and held captive in a secret underground bunker by a notorious serial killer: Aleksandr Komin, chillingly nicknamed ‘the maniac.’ For Irina and the other survivors, freedom was only the beginning. In a country where women’s stories of violence are too often dismissed, they now faced a new challenge: rebuilding their lives after unimaginable horror.
In this episode:
- Dariana Gryaznova, human rights lawyer
Episode credits:
This episode was written and produced by Anna Staufenberg and hosted by Halla Mohieddeen.
Executive Producer: Ney Alvarez.
Production Managers: Bronte Baskin.
Senior Producers: Marthe van der Wolf and Bronte Baskin.
Post-Production Supervisor: Andrés Rivera
Assistant Producers: Leo Danczak, Sophie McNulty, and Catherine Nouhan.
Fact-checking by Ruby Zaman, Catherine Nouhan, and Rached El-Moctar.
Audio editing by Alan Leer.
Music composition by Tom Biddle.
Lead of Engagement: Aya Elmileik.
Engagement Producers: Adam Abou-Gad, Munera AlDosari, and Vienna Maglio.
Al Jazeera’s Head of Audio: Ney Alvarez.
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