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.

My study of Russia was incomplete until this book

Learned much of current double-think attitudes of Russian people today and why it will take generations to erode its seductive qualities

Great, but hard to follow for a novice

Going myself struggling to keep up. Well written and super interesting, though tough read for someone like me who isn't well versed in either Russian history or sociology

Absolutely brilliant

The best book I listened to all year. Not only is Masha Gessen a talented reporter, she is also a top notch political theorist. Her philosophical analysis and historical insight are coupled with the incredible true stories of real Russian citizens. Her narration is also well done and a delight to listen to. You won't be disappointed

More From a Great Russia Scholar and Storyteller

Answers so many questions about modern Russia and
paints the context picture in wonderful detail.

Great Insight Into Modern Russia

Great listen; highly recommended insight into the modern state of Russian politics and society. It's quite troubling, to say the least.