Masha Gessen is the author of eleven other books, including the National Book Award–winning The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia and Surviving Autocracy. A staff writer at The New Yorker and the recipient of numerous awards, including Guggenheim and Carnegie fellowships, Gessen teaches at Bard College and lives in New York City.
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
“Thanks to her fearless reporting and acute psychological insights,
Masha Gessen has done the impossible in writing a highly readable,
compelling life of Russia's mysterious president-for-life.” –Tina
Brown, The Daily Beast
"Powerful and gracefully written… Gessen's book flows on multiple
tracks, tracing Putin's life back to boyhood, the story of his
hometown of St. Petersburg, and finally the last quarter-century of
Russian history… For all of the ghoulish detail, Gessen's account
of Russia is not overwrought… [she] displays impressive control of
her prose and her story, painting a portrait of a vile Putin
without sounding polemical." –San Francisco Chronicle
“Engrossing and insightful.” –Bloomberg
"Gessen shines a piercing light into every dark corner of Putin's
story… Fascinating, hard-hitting reading." –Foreign Affairs
“[An] incisive bildingsroman of Putin and his regime… Alongside an
acute apprehension of the post-Soviet dynamics that facilitated
Putin’s rise, Gessen balances narratives of Putin-as-bureaucrat and
Putin-as-kleptocrat with a wider indictment of the “Mafia clan”
that retains him solely as its Godfather.” –The Daily
“Illuminating… Gessen sprinkles telltale signs of the Putin who
would eventually emerge and rule Russia with an iron fist…It is
with these explosive revelations that Gessen truly excels… [She]
presents her case calmly, picking holes in Putin’s character, his
policies, and his rule without stooping to hysterical condemnation…
an electrifying read from what can only be described as an
incredibly brave writer.” –Columbia Journalism Review
“A chilling and brave work of nonfiction… Gessen has succeeded in
convincingly portraying the forces that made Putin who he is
today.” –Bookpage
"Although Gessen is enough of an outsider to write beautifully
clear and eloquent English, she is enough of an insider to convey,
accurately, the wild swings of emotions, the atmosphere of mad
speculation, the paranoia, and, yes, the hysteria that pervade all
political discussion and debate in Moscow today." –The New York
Review of Books
“What Gessen sees in Putin is a troubled childhood brawler who
became a paper-pushing KGB man and, by improbable twists and turns,
rose to the top in Russia… [She] does not attempt to weigh up
Putin’s record but rather examines his biography, mind-set and
methods… as a thug loyal to the KGB and the empire it served who
never had a clue about the Earth-shattering events that blew the
Soviet Union apart.” –The Washington Post
“An eye opening story with all the drama and intrigue of a novel.”
–Popmatters
“Written in English but with Russian heart, Gessen focuses on the
places and institutions that bred the nation's most resolute leader
since Stalin… Some might say that Gessen's interpretation is
political. Of course it is… but more importantly, it is thorough.
She has seen fellow journalists killed, has been harassed herself,
and yet continues to write from Russia… Her urgency is felt on
nearly every page.” –Bookforum
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