Monica Attard OAM is a renowned Australian journalist and the winner of five Walkley Awards including the 1991 Gold Walkley Award.  She was honoured with the Medal of the Order of Australia in 1992 for her work as a Russian correspondent during the fall of the USSR. She is also the author of Russia: Which way Paradise? Published in 1997, which documented some of her experiences and interactions with Russians during a period of rapid change.