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A review by joaniemaloney
The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin by Masha Gessen
4.0
A real eye-opener.
I'll be honest, I'm still very much a newbie at Russian history so this is just the start of what I'll be reading to learn more. And it's a good start. I can't really look at any of this with a critical eye since I have next to no background information and am acknowledging this by putting the book on my 're-read potential' list, which I can revisit when I've done more research.
That said, it doesn't take an expert to see the passion Masha Gessen puts in her writing, which means it isn't exactly objective. It still served its purpose though. It's tricky to separate the author from many of the events because she was there living through it or directly reporting on it at the time and also did know quite a few of the people/targets/victims, so inevitably, there is that initial surprise at the personal seeping through in the book, but it doesn't distract from the goal of this book. Even the most casual reader can be informed by this book of what has occurred under Putin's regime: the dismantling of democratic forums and the gains made after the fall of the USSR, censorship and control of media, acts of terror, arrests of dissidents from journalists to the very rich who dare to speak out and/or attempt change to the system, outright attacks (Marina Litvinovich, beaten unconscious) and murders of these dissidents whether through prison (Sergei Magnitsky, peritonitis) or poison (Alexander Litvinenko, polonium) or other weapons (Anna Politkovskaya, shot dead in the elevator in her apartment building, but not before being poisoned but survived that), and so on and so forth.
This may not be the most subjective read out there but the important thing is that books like these exist and the events and names of the lives lost are marked and not forgotten. I never knew about events like the bombings of September 1999, the Kursk disaster of August 2000, the Beslan hostage crisis of September 2004, the Moscow theatre siege of October 2002, and so on during this brief period. It's horrifying that it isn't even that long ago. I hear enough vague statements made about the country but didn't have a mind to look into it, so for that, this book is a concrete beginning for me.
I'll be honest, I'm still very much a newbie at Russian history so this is just the start of what I'll be reading to learn more. And it's a good start. I can't really look at any of this with a critical eye since I have next to no background information and am acknowledging this by putting the book on my 're-read potential' list, which I can revisit when I've done more research.
That said, it doesn't take an expert to see the passion Masha Gessen puts in her writing, which means it isn't exactly objective. It still served its purpose though. It's tricky to separate the author from many of the events because she was there living through it or directly reporting on it at the time and also did know quite a few of the people/targets/victims, so inevitably, there is that initial surprise at the personal seeping through in the book, but it doesn't distract from the goal of this book. Even the most casual reader can be informed by this book of what has occurred under Putin's regime: the dismantling of democratic forums and the gains made after the fall of the USSR, censorship and control of media, acts of terror, arrests of dissidents from journalists to the very rich who dare to speak out and/or attempt change to the system, outright attacks (Marina Litvinovich, beaten unconscious) and murders of these dissidents whether through prison (Sergei Magnitsky, peritonitis) or poison (Alexander Litvinenko, polonium) or other weapons (Anna Politkovskaya, shot dead in the elevator in her apartment building, but not before being poisoned but survived that), and so on and so forth.
This may not be the most subjective read out there but the important thing is that books like these exist and the events and names of the lives lost are marked and not forgotten. I never knew about events like the bombings of September 1999, the Kursk disaster of August 2000, the Beslan hostage crisis of September 2004, the Moscow theatre siege of October 2002, and so on during this brief period. It's horrifying that it isn't even that long ago. I hear enough vague statements made about the country but didn't have a mind to look into it, so for that, this book is a concrete beginning for me.