He was raised by émigré Soviet parents in New Jersey but returned to work in their native land, only to be trapped in the repressive machinery that they had sought to escape.
The parents of Evan Gershkovich, The Wall Street Journal reporter released on Thursday in a far-reaching prisoner exchange with Russia, left the Soviet Union separately in 1979, fleeing antisemitism and a lack of opportunity.
Mikhail Gershkovich and Ella Milman met and married in the United States, where they raised Evan and his older sister, Danielle, with a foot in both cultures, teaching them fluent Russian.
In 2017, the younger Mr. Gershkovich moved to Moscow to work for The Moscow Times, a local English-language daily, and worked his way through various news agencies until he joined The Journal as a reporter in January 2022.
He was fulfilling his dream of becoming a foreign correspondent, but he ended up spending his 32nd birthday in Lefortovo, a notorious Moscow prison.
Persons:
Evan Gershkovich, Mikhail Gershkovich, Ella Milman, Evan, Danielle, Gershkovich
Organizations:
Street, Moscow Times
Locations:
Soviet, New Jersey, Russia, Soviet Union, United States, Moscow, Lefortovo