The jury of the German Non-Fiction Prize 2026:
Many people currently associate Russia primarily with Vladimir Putin and war. Irina Scherbakova's book is so brilliant because it brings Russia closer to us in a personal, engaging, and insightful way. Scherbakova, one of the few remaining voices of the Russian opposition, combines 100 years of Russian history with personal experiences, professional life, and a wealth of unique anecdotes. The narrative from Moscow ends in 2022, when even the resolute author, who loves her home country above all else, is forced out of her country. Scherbakova quotes: "In the darkest hour, one can hope, even if one does not know what for." This book, featuring all the brave people, great and small, who appear in it, is not only brilliantly written; it offers hope.
Nominated for the German Non-Fiction Prize 2026
For readers of Catherine Belton, Sabine Adler, and Lyudmila Ulitskaya
In The Key Would Still Fit, Irina Scherbakowa tells the story of the brief years of Perestroika. She reports on everyday life and the political awakening in Moscow and the countryside at the beginning of the 1990s. She describes the unfamiliar freedom and how people learned to cope with it, for better or worse. Scherbakowa’s subject also includes her active political work, which continues to this day, and Russia’s seemingly unstoppable slide into dictatorship. Her impressive Moscow memoirs are closely interwoven with the history of Russia in the 20th century and her lifelong struggle against state terror and for remembrance.