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The Man Without A Face: The Unlikely Rise Of Vladimir Putin (2010)

by Masha Gessen(Favorite Author)

3.75 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

1594488428 (ISBN13: 9781594488429)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Riverhead Hardcover

review 1: Well written book that not only describes the life of the current president of Russia, but also brings some light into how he came to power, what undercurrents helped him do that and how life in Russia changed since Putin became a president. The book's extremely relevant now when Ukraine (and Russia) is a victim of Putin's arrogance and principles. Because nobody puts Putin in the corner and in his mind that's exactly what EU tried to do inviting Ukraine to sign an association agreement. Some people in Western Europe and USA still believe that Russia is a great place to live with a kind-hearted government and honest media but that hasn't been a case since Putin came to power in 2000. The book gives you an idea of what living in Russia would be like, what doing business the... morere is like, tells us how freedom of speech is only a meaningless notion in Russia and how unhealthy ambitions of one man can destroy lives of those in his way.The book ends on a very hopeful note and it breaks my heart to think that all those protests in 2012 were for nothing. However, the author Masha Gessen believes it's the beginning of the end of Putin's reign.
review 2: A single quote is what best describes the subject of this book: "At a press conference after the meetings [a 2002 European Union-Russia summit devoted principally to the discussion of the international Islamic threat], a reporter for the French newspaper Le Monde asked a question about the use of heavy artillery against civilians in Chechnya. Putin, looking calm and even smiling slightly with the corners of his mouth, said, 'If you are ready to become a radical adherent of Islam and you are ready to be circumcised, I invite you to come to Moscow. We are a country of many faiths. We have specialists in this. I will recommend that the operation be performed in such a way that nothing will grow there again.' The interpreter did not dare translate Putin's response in full, and it did not even make it into the following day's edition of the New York Times: the paper demurely translated his late sentence as: 'You are welcome and everything and everyone is tolerated in Moscow.' But the video of him lashing out at the reporter was still viral on RuTube nine years after Putin made his threat".This is a powerful, understated, and well-written account of Putin's rise to power in the post-Soviet Russia, as well as a social-historical analysis of this period of change. Fascinating, impressive, and executed with rare class, this is a first rate account of the man who now seems keen to take the Ukraine. less

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