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3.85 AVERAGE
3.85 AVERAGE
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Everything Masha Gessen writes is worth reading. This isn't quite as good as their brilliant The Future Is History, and it was written twelve years ago so it feels a bit outdated, especially in light of recent events. But still a valuable contribution to our understanding of Putin's ascendancy.
challenging
reflective
sad
medium-paced
(3.5) An entry level look at the rise of Vladimir Putin and how Russia came under his thrall after he took the Premiership. I would have liked for it to have been more detailed in some areas but I finished feeling like I grasped the basics of the man, the country, and what has happened over there up to this book's conclusion in 2011 (setting the stage for what has happened since).
challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
a biography of Putin, but as he has tried to control his image and his history tightly, Gessen reads him through the news, the uncanny and terrying circumstances of his acquaintances, and the inevitable slips in his controlled persona, and provides a psychological portrait of a man whose primary personal goals have been power and prevention of humiliation. Gessen suggests that the first ~10 years of his rule were without idology, only coming to an ideological state dictatorship circa 2012 with his embrace of anti-gay measures--but it seems to me from this book that his ideology is unchanged: power and self-aggrandizement. At times the details are hard to follow--partially the nature of the censored stories, and partially due to Gessen's preference to put a prominent event first in the narrative and to follow it up with evidence and then give a cautious (but convincing) explanation of the events. A smart and trustworthy approach to the journalistic challenges, but also a challenge to the reader. Nonetheless, a compelling and readable book about contemporary Russian political conditions.
challenging
dark
informative
medium-paced
dark
informative
sad
tense
medium-paced
informative
dark
informative
sad
medium-paced
Book says Putin’s bubble will burst sometime, but the people have no real way to hold their government (Putin) accountable.
informative