"Terrifying ordeal." - Cincinnati Enquirer
"Gripping story." - Radio America
"An unimaginably horrific ordeal." - Mirror
"held hostage on the Chechen Frontline." - BBC
"Story of survival is inspiring others and raising awareness." - WCPO Cincinnati

Imagine walking home alone one evening. Suddenly, you are assaulted, drugged and kidnapped. Strange men drive you through the night and keep you prisoner. You don't know who they are. You don't know what they want. They speak a language you don't even understand.

This happened to me.

Just three weeks after my 21st birthday, on the evening of October 4th, 1994, I was abducted from the streets of my hometown in southern Russia while on my way home. They drugged me and drove to another country, where they held me captive in a tiny room at first, and then under a house in a pit.

A few weeks after my kidnapping, a brutal civil war broke out. The country plunged into darkness. I was one lost soul, powerless, and at the mercy of hardened killers in a land where innocent people were dying every day. I was always in darkness, always under threat. The captors threatened to cut me into pieces and shoot me. I witnessed the horror of war. I saw things I cannot allow myself to think about.

Through eight horrifying months of captivity, witnessing atrocities, surviving bombings and sexual violence, I fought desperately to stay alive, stay sane, and not to lose the one thing that kept me going: my hope.

I wrote a book about my experiences: Girl, Taken - A True Story of Abduction, Captivity and Survival.

Don't miss the continuation of the story in the second part, now available on Kindle: What Did Not Kill Me, Made Me