The Future Is History (National Book Award Winner): How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia

by Masha Gessen

Book Overview

WINNER OF THE 2017 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD IN NONFICTION FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARDS WINNER OF THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY'S HELEN BERNSTEIN BOOK AWARD NAMED A BEST BOOK OF 2017... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 159463453X
• ISBN13: 9781594634536
• Release Date: October 2017
• Publisher: Riverhead Books
• Length: 528 Pages
• Weight: 2.08 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.6" x 6.3" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Personal Accounts of the Transition from the USSR to Putin

This book is mistitled, because as it makes abundantly clear, totalitarianism DIDN'T reclaim Russia: Russia abandoned totalitarian internationalism in favor of nationalist authoritarianism. But that isn't the book's real focus anyway: it's the story of several people who lived through the collapse of the USSR, the triumph of Yeltsin, and the emergence of Putin. There's a good deal of historical description, but the narrative is all about how their lives were impacted by the neo-fascism of the Putin regime. It's very interesting, but extremely tendentious as it's told strictly from what might be described as an American liberal perspective intent on painting the new Russia as an evil empire. Only one of the subjects is pro-Putin and is presented in a completely dismissive way. It's all a little too one-sided for me, but nevertheless a fascinating picture of the wheel of history as it cycles back through one of its many phases.