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The Man Without a Face
- The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin
- Narrated by: Masha Gessen
- Length: 10 hrs and 24 mins
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Publisher's summary
National Book Award-winner Masha Gessen's biography of a ruthless man's ascent to near-absolute power.
“In a country where journalists critical of the government have a way of meeting untimely deaths, Ms. Gessen has shown remarkable courage in researching and writing this unflinching indictment of the most powerful man in Russia.” (The Wall Street Journal)
The Man Without a Face is the chilling account of how a low-level, small-minded KGB operative ascended to the Russian presidency and, in an astonishingly short time, destroyed years of progress and made his country once more a threat to its own people and to the world.
Handpicked as a successor by the "family" surrounding an ailing and increasingly unpopular Boris Yeltsin, Vladimir Putin seemed like a perfect choice for the oligarchy to shape according to its own designs. Suddenly the boy who had stood in the shadows, dreaming of ruling the world, was a public figure, and his popularity soared. Russia and an infatuated West were determined to see the progressive leader of their dreams, even as he seized control of media, sent political rivals and critics into exile or to the grave, and smashed the country's fragile electoral system, concentrating power in the hands of his cronies.
As a journalist living in Moscow, Masha Gessen experienced this history firsthand, and for The Man Without a Face, she has drawn on information and sources no other writer has tapped. Her account of how a "faceless" man maneuvered his way into absolute - and absolutely corrupt - power is the definitive biography of Vladimir Putin.
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A Slate and San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of 2012
"[An] absorbing portrait.... Gessen is most illuminating when she details the historical accidents that allowed an unexceptional bureaucrat to rule Russia." (The New Yorker)
“Part psychological profile, part conspiracy study.... As a Moscow native who has written perceptively for both Russian and Western publications, Gessen knows the cultures and pathologies of Russia...[and has] a delicious command of the English language.... A fiercely independent journalist.... Gessen’s armchair psychoanalysis of Putin is speculative. But it is a clever and sometimes convincing speculation, based on a close reading of Putin’s own inadvertently revealing accounts of his life, and on interviews with people who knew Putin before he mattered.” (The New York Times Book Review)
“In a country where journalists critical of the government have a way of meeting untimely deaths, Ms. Gessen has shown remarkable courage in researching and writing this unflinching indictment of the most powerful man in Russia.... Although written before the recent protests erupted, the book helps to explain the anger and outrage driving that movement.” (The Wall Street Journal)
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The Assassins' Gate, so dubbed by American soldiers, is the entrance to the American zone in the city of Baghdad. In 2003, the United States blazed into Iraq to depose dictator Saddam Hussein. But after three years and unknown thousands killed, that country faces an escalating civil war and an uncertain fate. How did it get to this point?
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Highly Recommended
- By Drapeau on 02-01-07
By: George Packer
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A Kingdom of Their Own
- The Family Karzai and the Afghan Disaster
- By: Joshua Partlow
- Narrated by: P. J. Ochlan
- Length: 18 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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The key to understanding the calamitous Afghan war is the complex, ultimately failed relationship between the powerful, duplicitous Karzai family and the United States, brilliantly portrayed here by the former Kabul bureau chief for The Washington Post.
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Fabulous
- By Charles S. on 10-23-23
By: Joshua Partlow
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Moscow, December 25,1991
- The Last Day of the Soviet Union
- By: Conor O'Clery
- Narrated by: Don Hagen
- Length: 12 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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The implosion of the Soviet Union was the culmination of a gripping game played out between two men who intensely disliked each other and had different concepts for the future. Mikhail Gorbachev, a sophisticated and urbane reformer, sought to modernize and preserve the USSR; Boris Yeltsin, a coarse and a hard drinking “bulldozer,” wished to destroy the union and create a capitalist Russia. The defeat of the August 1991 coup attempt, carried out by hardline communists, shook Gorbachev’s authority and was a triumph for Yeltsin.
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Gorbachev is GOD!
- By Rodney on 03-07-19
By: Conor O'Clery
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The Glory and the Dream
- A Narrative History of America, 1932 - 1972
- By: William Manchester
- Narrated by: Jeff Riggenbach
- Length: 57 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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This great time capsule of a book captures the abundant popular history of the United States from 1932 to 1972. It encompasses politics, military history, economics, the lively arts, science, fashion, fads, social change, sexual mores, communications, graffiti...everything and anything indigenous that can be captured in print.
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Fabulous book, good narration, bad recording
- By Paula on 07-10-08
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Into the Hands of the Soldiers
- Freedom and Chaos in Egypt and the Middle East
- By: David D. Kirkpatrick
- Narrated by: David D. Kirkpatrick
- Length: 13 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Egypt has long set the paradigm for Arab autocracy. It is the keeper of the peace with Israel and the cornerstone of the American-backed regional order. So when Egyptians rose up to demand democracy in 2011, their 30 months of freedom convulsed the whole region. Now a new strongman, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, is building a dictatorship so severe some call it totalitarian. The economy sputters, an insurgency simmers, Christians suffer, and the Israeli military has been forced to intervene. But some in Washington - including President Trump - applaud Sisi as a crucial ally.
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may get better, but presentation is off putting
- By Fruggs on 08-28-18
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The Devil's Diary
- Alfred Rosenberg and the Stolen Secrets of the Third Reich
- By: Robert K. Wittman, David Kinney
- Narrated by: P. J. Ochlan
- Length: 15 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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A groundbreaking historical contribution, The Devil's Diary is a chilling window into the mind of Adolf Hitler's "chief social philosopher", Alfred Rosenberg, who formulated some of the guiding principles behind the Third Reich's genocidal crusade.
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Fresh perspective on terrible events.
- By Sparkly on 04-20-16
By: Robert K. Wittman, and others
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Killing a King
- The Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin and the Remaking of Israel
- By: Dan Ephron
- Narrated by: Assaf Cohen
- Length: 9 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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The assassination of Yitzhak Rabin remains the single most consequential event in Israel's recent history and one that fundamentally altered the trajectory for both Israel and the Palestinians. Killing a King relates the parallel stories of Rabin and his stalker, Yigal Amir, over the two years leading up to the assassination, as one of them planned political deals he hoped would lead to peace - and the other plotted murder.
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Tragic history well presented.
- By Mmday on 02-28-16
By: Dan Ephron
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The Invention of Russia
- From Gorbachev's Freedom to Putin's War
- By: Arkady Ostrovsky
- Narrated by: Michael Page
- Length: 12 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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The end of Communism and breakup of the Soviet Union was a time of euphoria around the world, but Russia today is violently anti-American and dangerously nationalistic. So how did we go from the promise of those days to the autocratic police state of Putin's new Russia? The Invention of Russia reaches back to the darkest days of the Cold War to tell the story of the fight for the soul of a nation.
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Sad Story of Russia's Abandonment of Liberalism
- By Amazon Customer on 10-03-16
By: Arkady Ostrovsky
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The Terror Years
- From al-Qaeda to the Islamic State
- By: Lawrence Wright
- Narrated by: John H. Mayer, Lawrence Wright
- Length: 17 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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With the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Looming Tower, Lawrence Wright became generally acknowledged as one of our major journalists writing on terrorism in the Middle East. This collection draws on several articles he wrote while researching that book as well as many that he's written since, following where and how al-Qaeda and its core cultlike beliefs have morphed and spread.
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Contains much old material from "Looming Tower"
- By peter on 09-21-16
By: Lawrence Wright
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The Exception to the Rulers
- Exposing Oily Politicians, War Profiteers, and the Media that Love Them
- By: Amy Goodman, David Goodman
- Narrated by: Amy Goodman
- Length: 10 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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In The Exception to the Rulers, award-winning journalists Amy and David Goodman expose the lies, corruption, and crimes of the power elite, an elite bolstered by large media conglomerates. Her goal is “to go where the silence is, to give voice to the silenced majority.” This audiobook includes numerous archival audio excerpts, including statements from filmmaker Michael Moore, civil liberties victims describing their harrowing ordeals in the United States after 9/11, and more.
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lacks balance
- By Amazon Customer on 04-19-23
By: Amy Goodman, and others
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The Less You Know, the Better You Sleep
- Russia's Road to Terror and Dictatorship Under Yeltsin and Putin
- By: David Satter
- Narrated by: Victor Bevine
- Length: 5 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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In this book Satter tells the story of the apartment bombings and how Boris Yeltsin presided over the criminalization of Russia, why Vladimir Putin was chosen as his sucessor, and how Putin has suppressed all opposition while retaining the appearance of a pluralist state. As the threat represented by Russia becomes increasingly clear, Satter's description of where Russia is and how it got there will be of vital interest to anyone concerned about the dangers facing the world today.
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David understands Russia better than Russians do
- By Grigory on 04-05-17
By: David Satter
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All the Kremlin's Men
- Inside the Court of Vladimir Putin
- By: Mikhail Zygar
- Narrated by: Dan Woren
- Length: 16 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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All the Kremlin's Men is a gripping narrative of an accidental king and a court out of control. Based on an unprecedented series of interviews with Vladimir Putin's inner circle, this book presents a radically different view of power and politics in Russia. The image of Putin as a strongman is dissolved. In its place is a weary figurehead buffeted - if not controlled - by the men who at once advise and deceive him. The regional governors and bureaucratic leaders are immovable objects, far more powerful in their fiefdoms than the president himself.
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Enough with the Russian accents!
- By Emma Jane Top on 12-17-17
By: Mikhail Zygar
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Good But . . .
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very good
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A retelling of facts without much added info
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for once a balanced book concerning a world leade
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Worth the time
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The author is an international treasure
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very good
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Politicians and pundits on both sides of the aisle have accused Russia of interfering with our elections and our intelligence agencies. But the war Russia is waging against America is very different from anything you have heard in the press, as Russian-born US intelligence expert Rebekah Koffler reveals. In Putin’s Playbook, Koffler details how Vladimir Putin is orchestrating a wide-ranging, multifaceted campaign to retake his country’s role as a superpower and to defeat America in the process.
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Pure Right Wing Propaganda. Right out of Putins Playbook
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Overreach
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The Russo-Ukrainian War is the most serious geopolitical crisis since the Second World War—and yet at the heart of the conflict is a mystery. Vladimir Putin lurched from a calculating, subtle master of opportunity to a reckless gambler, putting his regime—and Russia itself—at risk of destruction. Why? Drawing on over 25 years’ experience working in Moscow, journalist Owen Matthews provides the answer. He takes us inside the COVID bubble where Putin conceived his invasion plans in a fog of nationalist fantasy and bad information.
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Comprehensive Account of the War Through September 2022
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The Vory
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Mark Galeotti is the go-to expert on organized crime in Russia, consulted by governments and police around the world. Now, Western listeners can explore the fascinating history of the vory v zakone, a group that has survived and thrived amid the changes brought on by Stalinism, the Cold War, the Afghan War, and the end of the Soviet experiment.
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Great
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Where the Jews Aren't
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In 1929, the Soviet government set aside a sparsely populated area in the Soviet Far East for settlement by Jews. The place was called Birobidzhan. The idea of an autonomous Jewish region was championed by Jewish Communists, Yiddishists, and intellectuals, who envisioned a haven of post-oppression Jewish culture. By the mid-1930s tens of thousands of Soviet Jews, as well as about a thousand Jews from abroad, had moved there.
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The Jewish World of Our Ancestors
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Freezing Order
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When Browder’s young Russian lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, was beaten to death in a Moscow jail in 2009, Browder cast aside his business career and made it his life’s mission to pursue justice for Sergei. One of the first steps of that mission was to uncover who had killed Sergei and profited from the $230 million corruption scheme that he had exposed. As Browder and his team tracked the money that flowed out of Russia—through the Baltics and Cyprus and on to Western Europe and the Americas—they discovered that Vladimir Putin himself was one of the beneficiaries of the crime.
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Red Notice Part II —- The Empire Struck Out
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Words Will Break Cement
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The heroic story of Pussy Riot, who resurrected the power of truth in a society built on lies. On February 21, 2012, five young women entered the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow. In neon-colored dresses, tights, and balaclavas, they performed a “punk prayer” beseeching the “Mother of God” to “get rid of Putin.” They were quickly shut down by security, and in the weeks and months that followed, three of the women were arrested and tried, and two were sentenced to a remote prison colony. But the incident captured international headlines, and footage of it went viral.
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Therapy in these authoritarian times
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Lessons from the Edge
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By the time she became US Ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch had seen her share of corruption, instability, and tragedy in developing countries. But it came as a shock when, in early 2019, she was recalled from her post after a smear campaign by President Trump’s personal attorney and his associates—men operating outside of normal governmental channels, and apparently motivated by personal gain. Her courageous participation in the subsequent impeachment inquiry earned Yovanovitch the nation’s respect, and her dignified response to the president’s attacks won our hearts.
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Heroic patriot's amazing story
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The Gates of Europe
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Ukraine is currently embroiled in a tense fight with Russia to preserve its territorial integrity and political independence. But today's conflict is only the latest in a long history of battles over Ukraine's territory and its existence as a sovereign nation. As the award-winning historian Serhii Plokhy argues in The Gates of Europe, we must examine Ukraine's past in order to understand its present and future.
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An extraordinarily good book
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Putin's Wars
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Putin's Wars is a timely overview of the conflicts in which Russia has been involved since Vladimir Putin became prime minister and then president of Russia, from the First Chechen War to the two military incursions into Georgia, the annexation of Crimea and the eventual invasion of Ukraine itself. But it also looks more broadly at Putin's recreation of Russian military power and its expansion to include a range of new capabilities, from mercenaries to operatives in a relentless information war against Western powers.
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Botched Attempt on Russian Stress
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Black Earth
- The Holocaust as History and Warning
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In this epic history of extermination and survival, Timothy Snyder presents a new explanation of the great atrocity of the twentieth century, and reveals the risks that we face in the twenty-first. Based on untapped sources from eastern Europe and forgotten testimonies from Jewish survivors, Black Earth recounts the mass murder of the Jews as an event that is still close to us, more comprehensible than we would like to think and thus all the more terrifying.
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Tough book but worth it!
- By Amazon customer on 11-20-15
By: Timothy Snyder
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Never Remember
- Searching for Stalin's Gulags in Putin's Russia
- By: Masha Gessen
- Narrated by: Masha Gessen
- Length: 3 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Story
The Gulag was a monstrous network of labor camps that held and killed millions of prisoners from the 1930s to the 1950s. More than half a century after the end of Stalinist terror, the geography of the Gulag has been barely sketched and the number of its victims remains unknown. Has the Gulag been forgotten? Writer Masha Gessen and photographer Misha Friedman set out across Russia in search of the memory of the Gulag.
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a wonderful reminder never to forget
- By Privet on 05-25-19
By: Masha Gessen
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All the Kremlin's Men
- Inside the Court of Vladimir Putin
- By: Mikhail Zygar
- Narrated by: Dan Woren
- Length: 16 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
All the Kremlin's Men is a gripping narrative of an accidental king and a court out of control. Based on an unprecedented series of interviews with Vladimir Putin's inner circle, this book presents a radically different view of power and politics in Russia. The image of Putin as a strongman is dissolved. In its place is a weary figurehead buffeted - if not controlled - by the men who at once advise and deceive him. The regional governors and bureaucratic leaders are immovable objects, far more powerful in their fiefdoms than the president himself.
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Enough with the Russian accents!
- By Emma Jane Top on 12-17-17
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What listeners say about The Man Without a Face
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- tomasito
- 06-23-19
Clear and intelligent political reporting
Gessen is an excellent writer and witness of Russia's return to the totalitarian failed state of Lenin and Stalin. In a precise, direct narrative she chronicles how KGB operative Putin, with sullen cunning, stumbled into his dictatorship thereby completely closing any hope of individual political freedom opened by the collapse of the Soviet Union.
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6 people found this helpful
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- Oluwatosin falade
- 01-04-22
Glimpse into the rise of Vladimir Putin
Eye opener for anyone interested in Putin rise from FSB stooge to perhaps the most dangerous man against Democracy
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- Anne S. Johansen
- 03-25-22
This a must read book
I wish western leaders had read this book when it was written; perhaps we would have been better prepared for the war in Ukraine and what will sure come. This book is simply incredible. Anyone who wishes to understand Putin and his actions should read it.
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- Victoria Eriksson
- 01-02-22
Another brilliant MG book
I love Masha Gessen 's writing. She truly is a master of succinctly and eloquently detailing the history of Russia since 1991 & in this book, Gessen details the mess that Vladimir Putin has made of the Russian political and economic landscape during his reign. I also read Gessen 's The Future is History so I know that ironically, that we Americans have lucked out to have Masha's amazing brain in the US due to more of the same repression by Putin detailed in both books- that his hateful persecution of LGBT community and independent journalists have inadvertently, blessed the West with another exiled genius coming to work here, and Gessen is such a vital voice on Russia and authoritarian rule. Thank you Masha for your patient tutelage of Westerners and Russians alike of the rise of the world's worst dictator in the 21st century.
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- Anna G.
- 07-28-22
Still relevant
This is a s an excellent book and still relevant and insightful as to explain how the war in Ukraine is unfolding. As a Russian born in the same generation as The author, I really enjoyed and was troubled (the paradox of two contradictory emotions) to relive the 1990s and the first decade of the 21st century.
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- alexis michelle sandoval
- 10-03-23
Thank you
I appreciate this book and especially it’s author. Masha Gesson is an important resource in these times.
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- Nancy LaPlaca
- 12-06-20
Masha Gessen has the key to understanding Putin
This was an outstanding book, and it was wonderful to hear Masha’s Narration. The storytelling was fantastic, and the insights and sidebars fascinating. I feel like I just learned about what made Russia tick from Yeltsin to today. Thank you Masha for so courageously covering Putin, the thug.
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- Frequent buyer
- 01-29-20
A remarkable story about the rise of a dictator.
Gessen writes in a somewhat dry and matter of fact style that seem to be very Russian. The subject matter is also very Russian of course. It is a fascinating story with an incredible amount of detail exposing the rise of a not too sofisticated street thug to become the head of the Russian federation. He later develops into a worldwide egomaniac. The connection to the present authoritarian US President makes it even more contemporary and interesting for any American who wants to understand the relationship between US and Russia.
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- Allen M. Sokal
- 04-24-22
Excellent history and analysis and Putin
I already knew, as does everyone in the free world now, that Putin is a monster. This excellent book, written and narrated by a courageous Russian reporter who had to flee the country, is nevertheless an eye-opener. It should be required reading by everyone, especially, to the extent possible, by Russians. Unfortunately it will be impossible for most Russians for obvious reasons. The author provides a detailed account and analysis of Putin’s life, thinking, and character that is incredibly insightful and frightening.
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- Michael D. Nickerson
- 07-13-21
Great read!
Most informative as it reveals a world we are not familiar with in western civilization. It is a continuation of the bizarre study of Russian history.
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