Masha Moskaryova has spent a quarter of her life in danger or on the run because of a painting she made when she was 12 years old.
Four years later, she and her father are still living in hiding in a small village in eastern France, still fearing for their safety. One of the few things that still remains of their former life in Russia is the painting itself.
“Even if it’s a child’s drawing and it seems so simple, who could have predicted that it would have such an effect?” says Marcia, thinking about the drawing together. It is drawn in colored pencil and depicts a mother protecting her child from a bomb fired from Russia. The Ukrainian flag reads “Glory to Ukraine,” while the Russian flag next to it reads “No Putin, No War.”
Masha painted this painting just weeks after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. In her hometown of Efremov, about 300 kilometers (185 miles) south of Moscow and about halfway across the border with Ukraine, Masha’s teacher asked her class to draw a picture supporting the Russian military. Most of the children drew tanks, or the letter “Z”, which Russia uses as a symbol of its war efforts. Marcia, now 16, decided to try something different.
“I painted situations that I actually saw and believed to be true,” she says. “After class, one of my classmates came up to me after seeing the painting. I guess she reported it. That led to everything that followed. In any case, the painting ended up in the hands of the police, and that was the beginning of all our problems.”
Shortly thereafter, her father, Alexei Moskarev, was charged with “discrediting the Russian military” and sentenced to two years in a penal colony. Masha, who had been raised by a single woman, was sent to an orphanage.
After their release, they fled, traveling through Armenia to France, where they arrived earlier this year and were granted temporary visas.
Masha’s dog from the orphanage arrives from Armenia, and Masha is delighted. Still, what’s striking is how lonely they seem. Nothing about our previous lives is there, we just want to be with each other.
Alexei is in poor health due to his time in prison, and Masha is currently being educated in a language she does not speak. Both fear for their safety. But Alexei says he’s just proud of his daughter.
“Everything I lost in Russia, everything I had, was compensated for by the fact that we can now speak freely and tell the truth,” he says. “By the fact that we are now in a country where people are not persecuted for their words and opinions.”
And words are what Marcia will continue to use. Outside of school, Masha spends her time reaching audiences in Russia and abroad through YouTube and social media. And her criticism now extends to the handshake between US President Donald Trump and the Russian president.
“I want to say what Trump is doing is terrible,” she told CNN. “The fact that the president of a free country shakes hands with a murderer,” she said, holding Russian President Vladimir Putin responsible for the deaths from the Ukraine war. “The fact that he can say he’s under his control is another matter entirely.”
Returning to their hometown is still a long way off. “I will return to Russia with great joy,” says Masha. “But when will this regime change? I don’t know. How many decades will it take? How many decades will it take for Russia to become a democratic and free country?”
It’s hard to imagine that one child’s drawing could have so angered the Russian authorities, but Masha seems to understand. After all, the whole point of authoritarianism is that it does not tolerate dissent, no matter how childish.
“Here was a kid who spoke the truth and was unafraid,” she says. “And if there is not just one child, but many like her, not one but a thousand teenagers, not one but a million adults, then that will change Russia for the better.”
The past four years have clearly had a huge impact on Marsha. Masha is mature beyond her years and seems more serious than a 16-year-old should be.
Perhaps most surprising is that despite everything she endured, including being sent to an orphanage, her father’s imprisonment, and the time she spent traveling, she still has that painting in her possession.
As she was preparing to run away from home, she happened to find a book on the shelf among her childhood notebooks.
“It wasn’t confiscated,” she says. “They didn’t find it, they didn’t pay any attention to it, probably because the police didn’t think to search the child’s belongings.”
So today, one of Masha’s only possessions from her previous life is the painting that marked her very demise.
