导读:近日，俄罗斯著名的社交网络VK上涌现出很多自杀团体，许多青少年相继以相同方式终结了自己的生命。这其中的联系众说纷纭。
It’s a day like any other day in a provincial city in central Russia. A 12-year-old girl is getting ready to go to school. Suddenly her phone rings.
这一天，同俄国中部省会城市的任何一天无异。一个12岁的女孩正准备去学校。忽然，她的电话响了。
The next minute she is out of the door, saying she’s meeting a friend and they will go to school together.
下一刻，她走出家门，说要去见一个朋友，他们将一起去学校。
Later the same day, when her mother turns up at the school, there is no sign of her daughter.
同天晚些时候，当她的妈妈到学校时，却不见她的女儿。
No-one has seen her.
没人见过她。
Then the mother’s phone rings, and she can tell by the ring tone that it’s her daughter’s phone.
随后，母亲的电话响起，通过铃声，她能辨别出那是她女儿的手机。
"Where are you, darling?" she asks with relief.
她宽慰地问道：“亲爱的，你在哪里？”
"It’s not your daughter," a strange voice replies. "I’m a doctor from A&E. Your daughter is dead."
一个陌生的声音回答道：“我不是你的女儿。我是急诊室的医生。你的女儿死了。”
She had taken her own life.
她终结了自己的生命。
In the weeks and months that followed, the mother discovered how her daughter had been immersed in an online subculture of suicide involving images of self-harming, alternative reality games and a cult surrounding a 16-year-old girl who had killed herself in a violent fashion.
在随后的数周数月中，她母亲发现了自己的女儿如何沉浸于一个线上自杀亚文化群，该网站包括自虐图片，逃避现实游戏，以及一个16岁的女孩以暴力的手段以祭礼终结自己的生命。
This is the tragic story at the heart of a long, front-page article called Groups of Death in independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta on 16 May.
5月16日，独立报纸《新报》在显著位置用长篇专题文章刊登了这则名为《死亡群体》的悲剧故事。
Written by correspondent Galina Mursalieva, it alleges that Russia’s most popular social network VKontakte (VK) has numerous groups used by Svengali-type figures to encourage vulnerable young people to kill themselves.
这篇报道的撰稿记者是Galina Mursalieva，宣称，俄罗斯最受欢迎的社交网络VK拥有大利用量斯文加利型人物的群体，鼓励易受伤害的年轻人自杀。
These groups are regularly closed down, but others quickly spring up in their place.
这些群体经常被关闭，但是其他同类型的会迅速涌现。
The piece claims that a spate of at least 80 recent suicides can be linked to these online groups. Four of the deaths, including the one described above, occurred on the same day last December and in roughly the same manner.
文章声称，近期近80起自杀事件可能和这些线上群体有关。包括上述事件的四起自杀事件都于去年12月同天以近乎相同的方式发生。
Groups of Death has had an extraordinary impact. In little over a week, it has been viewed more than two million times and has sparked a stormy debate on social networks and beyond.
群体性自杀影响重大。一个多星期以来，访问量已经超过200万人次，在社交网络上引发了激烈的争论。
One of the reasons it has gone viral is undoubtedly the emotional intensity of Galina Mursalieva’s writing. But that has been singled out as one of its main shortcomings, too.
它迅速走火的原因之一无疑是Galina Mursalieva所写的情绪压力。但这也被挑选为主要缺陷之一。
Critics have accused her of treating a complex subject with tabloid sensationalism and allowing her personal involvement in the story to cloud her judgement.
批评人士控诉她用小报哗众取宠的姿态面对这一复杂的话题，并且以个人身份参与故事本身，蒙蔽了判断。
In particular, they question the emphasis that the writer and the bereaved parents have placed on the internet as a cause of juvenile suicide.
他们尤其质疑作者和受害者父母强调互联网是青少年自杀的元凶。
A follow-up investigation by the Lenta.ru website presented a more nuanced, although no less disturbing, picture of internet subculture.
Lenta.ru网站的后续调查呈现了一个更加微妙，但也同样令人疑惑的互联网亚文化群肖相。
It suggested that the people running the VK groups were not much older than their teenage members, and in many cases were exploiting suicide cults to boost their own egos or even earn money from online advertising.
该调查显示，运营VK团队的人和青少年差不多大，很多情况下，他们利用邪教自杀来来提升名气，通过线上广告赚钱。
But Lenta.ru also admitted that at least some of the deaths mentioned by Novaya Gazeta could be linked to online grooming.
但是Lenta.ru也承认，至少《新报》提到的一些死亡事件可能和线上诱拐有关。
