About

Holod is an independent media founded by Taisia Bekbulatova, a renowned Russian journalist, in the summer of 2019. Since then, Holod has grown from a one person project focused on longform literary journalism into a media outlet that employs over two dozen media professionals and covers a broad spectrum of topics—from domestic violence and corruption to war and culture.

Holod started as a media about Russia, focused solely on Russian affairs. This focus is reflected in our name, which literally means "cold", as in "endless cold snow-clad plains of Siberia". However, since the war broke out in Ukraine and due to repressive laws in our country that forced our team to leave Russia, Holod is now reporting to you from Ukraine and other countries as well.

You might notice that most of our content is signed simply as Holod. Since the war had started, we chose to hide most of our authors’ names—for their own protection as well as for the well-being of their families remaining in Russia.