The Past and Present of Totalitarianism in Russia: Examining How Totalitarianism Has Influenced Russia's History

Mario L.: Extremely useful to understand Russia's failed transition to freedom and democracy. Putin appears for what he is, an undemocratic autocrat. The pre-conditions for an invasion of Ukraine are all described in this book: from the hate for Western democracies to the nostalgia for the Russian Empire.

Italy on Oct 01, 2022

Enplaned: One of the things that you discover in this book is the use of pedophilia accusations as a political weapon is rife in Putin's Russia. We already knew that Putin has poisoned the US political system and in particular the Republican Party. But if you were wondering why QAnon and GOP nutcases like Marjorie Taylor Greene are so obsessed with this smear, wonder no longer. This is right out of the Putin playbook. It worked for him in Russia, he's trying to make it work for him here, both through his poisoning of social media and through his overt links with the religious right.

Gessen follows a handful of Russian families from the end of the Soviet era, through the collapse of the Soviet Union, through the chaotic, but free, 1990s and then through the return to totalitarianism after Putin comes from nowhere to become Russian president.

For the most part it works very well. It owes a lot to Tolstoy's War and Peace (don't be put off by that), which also explored the impact of profound historical change through the lens of its impact on families, except this is non-fiction. Gessen herself admits War and Peace was her model. War and Peace has philosophical sections - Gessen,...

United States on Apr 08, 2022

Francois Boudreau: If like me you were quite surprised by the recent events, and if like me you weren't paying much attention to Russia previously, you may be under the impression that somehow you missed some very important informations. This is the perfect book to catch up.

Covering russian society and politics since the USSR to 2017, it clearly shows that recent events were years in the making. Although written 5 years ago, some chapters are so relevant they feel they were written last week.

I highly recommend this book to anyone trying to figure out what's going on.

Canada on Mar 27, 2022

thegreenhillsofafrica: This book follows the lives of four different families (sometimes individuals) who were living in Russia during the old USSR, experienced a brief period of democracy in the 1990s, and then were swept up into Vladimir Putin’s new USSR in the 21st century.

It is set out like a novel and reads like one. And like a Russian one too - grim, painful, dark and tragic - something Dostoevsky might write. Often enough, experiencing vicariously the crushing weight of a repressive regime is too much to bear when you are immersed in this work. I took breaks from the book for days at a time. Yet I always returned. The tale is eminently readable, the writing excellent, and I had to find out what happened to all the real-life characters.

Unfortunately, the far right is on the rise. The autocracy of Putin’s Russia, its lies and misinformation and conspiracy theories used to snare the innocent and naive, sound all too familiar to events only recently past and still an ongoing part of the present in North America. Putin’s Russia is in the news regularly too, usually for nefarious reasons. Gessen’s book helps us understand not only Putin and his new USSR, but what is happening in...

Canada on Jan 27, 2021

Jason Adams: According to Masha Gessen, the reality of life within Russia is unfathomable. The brief shining moment of proto-democracy was engulfed in a wave of corruption and totalitarianism that persists to this day. Gessen shares this story by following the lives of seven Russians from the end of the Cold War through the Trump era. Though Russia is often described as an oligarchy, Gessen makes a compelling case that Vladimir Putin has taken advantage of favorable events and political savvy to entrench himself as a totalitarian.
A narrative that packs a punch, “The Future is History” creates an eyewitness feel that instills the same feeling of foreboding as the Russians that watch their fragile democracy melt away.

United States on Apr 18, 2019

Athan: Bought this on the back of an online recommendation, but it’s a bit too large to read in the tube, so it was gathering dust on my shelf for the better part of a year.

A month ago, it was officially banned in Russia!

Naturally, and hopefully this is representative of how others will react, I was immediately overcome by an urge to drop whatever else I was reading and pick it up. To say that I was very richly rewarded is an understatement.

“The Future is History” is as close as we will ever get to an insider’s account of the domestic resistance movement to Vladimir Putin. From the fall of Communism, all the way to 2016, it traces the lives of six Russians who one way or another were entangled (some deliberately and some by destiny) in the losing battle against the emergence of the modern Russian kleptocratic dictatorship. A cheerleader of the new regime is thrown in for free.

Let me get out of the way upfront the one thing that’s negative about this book: with the best of intentions, and with a post-it note affixed to page XII that lists the cast of characters, I found it impossible to remember who is who. Yes, Masha is the girl on the inside...

United Kingdom on Jan 06, 2019

Dr Ali Binazir: When I looked up “The Future Is History” on Amazon and saw the 1-star reviews left by obvious trolls, I just *knew* this book had to be dangerously good. So I bought it immediately. I had read several of Gessen's meticulous and eye-opening New Yorker pieces, but this book takes it to a whole new level.

Gessen tells the story through seven dramatis personae, each “both ‘regular’, in that their experiences exemplified the experiences of millions of others, and extraordinary: intelligent, passionate, introspective, able to tell their stories vividly.” They give first-person accounts of the everyday ordeal of surviving true to oneself in Russia. Like Zhanna, daughter of popular opposition politician Boris Nemtsov and activist in her own right, whose life demonstrates some of the consequences of opposing the regime -- like exile, incarceration and murder. The story of Masha the journalist illustrates the perils of truthtelling. Pioneering psychotherapist Marina Arutyunyan tries to shepherd modern mental health to Russia through lacerating thickets of state-mandated ideology. Openly gay Lyosha tries to advocate for oppressed minorities without getting fired from his...

United States on Dec 05, 2017

Rory Harden: This is an important book.

Its purpose is to explain how, and why, Russia returned to a state of totalitarianism despite the initial hope and democratisation of the Yeltsin period. Why did the Russian people not fasten on to their new freedoms in the way that the citizens of the Baltic republics and, to a lesser extent, those of Ukraine did?

Masha Gessen’s explanation explores, via the lives of seven individuals and through three disciplines which did not exist in the Soviet period – sociology, psychoanalysis and opinion polling – the persistence of what she calls Homo Sovieticus.

This character, the opinion polling and (a bit less plausibly) the psychoanalysis suggest, did not fade away after the collapse of the Soviet Union, nor even with the passing of generations. Putin era youth groups like Nashi differ little from their Soviets equivalents. Most citizens fear the open expanse of liberal freedom, preferring the ‘narrow corridor’ of the authoritarian State.

Most Russians, the book says, yearn not for change and opportunity (and the responsibility and anxiety that may go with them), but for order, imposed from above, and ‘strength and...

United Kingdom on Nov 13, 2017