The Future Is History (National Book Award Winner)

How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia

By: Masha Gessen

Narrated by: Masha Gessen

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 BY THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW, LOS ANGELES TIMES, WASHINGTON POST, BOSTON GLOBE, SEATTLE TIMES, CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, NEWSWEEK, PASTE, and POP SUGAR

The essential journalist and bestselling biographer of Vladimir Putin reveals how, in the space of a generation, Russia surrendered to a more virulent and invincible new strain of autocracy.

Award-winning journalist Masha Gessen's understanding of the events and forces that have wracked Russia in recent times is unparalleled. In The Future Is History, Gessen follows the lives of four people born at what promised to be the dawn of democracy. Each of them came of age with unprecedented expectations, some as the children and grandchildren of the very architects of the new Russia, each with newfound aspirations of their own--as entrepreneurs, activists, thinkers, and writers, sexual and social beings.

Gessen charts their paths against the machinations of the regime that would crush them all, and against the war it waged on understanding itself, which ensured the unobstructed reemergence of the old Soviet order in the form of today's terrifying and seemingly unstoppable mafia state. Powerful and urgent, The Future Is History is a cautionary tale for our time and for all time.

Gessen humanizes modern Russians

A human history of post Soviet Union Russia told through the intimate coming of age stories of seven Russian youths. Though her characters are real the telling of their stories reads more like a great Russian novel. Brilliant work of history, psychology, and, sadly, effective statecraft.

Solid Perspective on a relevant topic

Adds to the Putin hates the Clinton story and why Trump.
There's value in looking a bit deeper into the current Russian politics and events from a Russian perspective. Enjoyed the time spent.

Good read.

I really enjoyed this book but something about the narration made this book seem harder to follow than I expected. Perhaps I need to see Russian names as I hear them?

Ms Gessen is my special favorite author

I am a special fan of all Marsha’s work.
A great American with a great Russian heritage.
Thank you for all your story.
Welcome to America.
Gordon Flygare

The Marriage of Depth and Detail

The author does a great job covering Russian politics and Russian characters from the end of the Soviet Union to around 2015. They do a great job of giving detail of life through the lens of modern-day Russia.