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3.85 AVERAGE
3.85 AVERAGE
A personal look at how Putin has shaped Russia to be what it is today. I don't know much about Russia's history so I thought it was interesting.
A must read for anyone interested in an insightful perspective on Putin and Russian history since Perestroika. Gassen's investigative journalism background makes for a well articulated and eye opening look into a man who's Stalin-like image has made him appear an international supervillain worthy of a Captain America comic. Instead, we get a much more grounded image of Russia's president and the country he largely owns and mismanages through bureaucracy, grandstanding, and brutality.
Read less like a biography of Putin and more of a history of the USSR/Russian government during his lifetime. Still interesting though.
this is an excellent book. i hadn't realized just how little the world knows about putin, how strange and sly his rise to power had been, and how fast and aggressively he was able to consolidate power, and how he was able to get away with it. this book is 10 years old already, but it serves as a great foundation for anyone trying to understand putin. masha gessen is an excellent writer, and she made a book about such heavy and complex topics easy to read and absorb. it was also really disappointing to see the final chapter end on such a hopeful note, and realize that things had only gotten much, much worse since then.
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
I should’ve paid more attention to the publication date and looked for a newer book, but this well-written account of Putin’s rise to power, and everything he dismantled in the process, was still worthwhile. He is, and seemingly always has been, a manipulative, corrupt, garbage human.
I enjoyed this, and the dip into patches of Russian politics since the early 90s, but patches were a bit too speculative for me and I haven't come away any closer to understanding the mystery that is Putin or Russia. The personal reflections near the end of the book, as it approached present day, were amongst the most interesting parts for me
Slow start with Putin's well-known history. The book picks up into a great account which weaves in the Chechnyan conflict and Putin's response. The author provides an interesting theoretical explanation for Putin's often mismatched personality and actions. Reads much like a novel vs. a political non-fiction.
When truth is stranger than fiction. It is also much much scarier.