Kremlin Rising: Vladimir Putin's Russia and the End of Revolution

Peter Baker, Susan Glasser

Simon and Schuster, Jun 7, 2005 - Political Science - 464 pages

In the tradition of Hedrick Smith's The Russians, Robert G. Kaiser's Russia: The People and the Power, and David Remnick's Lenin's Tomb comes an eloquent and eye-opening chronicle of Vladimir Putin's Russia, from this generation's leading Moscow correspondents.
With the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia launched itself on a fitful transition to Western-style democracy. But a decade later, Boris Yeltsin's handpicked successor, Vladimir Putin, a childhood hooligan turned KGB officer who rose from nowhere determined to restore the order of the Soviet past, resolved to bring an end to the revolution. Kremlin Rising goes behind the scenes of contemporary Russia to reveal the culmination of Project Putin, the secret plot to reconsolidate power in the Kremlin.
During their four years as Moscow bureau chiefs for The Washington Post, Peter Baker and Susan Glasser witnessed firsthand the methodical campaign to reverse the post-Soviet revolution and transform Russia back into an authoritarian state. Their gripping narrative moves from the unlikely rise of Putin through the key moments of his tenure that re-centralized power into his hands, from his decision to take over Russia's only independent television network to the Moscow theater siege of 2002 to the "managed democracy" elections of 2003 and 2004 to the horrific slaughter of Beslan's schoolchildren in 2004, recounting a four-year period that has changed the direction of modern Russia.
But the authors also go beyond the politics to draw a moving and vivid portrait of the Russian people they encountered -- both those who have prospered and those barely surviving -- and show how the political flux has shaped individual lives. Opening a window to a country on the brink, where behind the gleaming new shopping malls all things Soviet are chic again and even high school students wonder if Lenin was right after all, Kremlin Rising features the personal stories of Russians at all levels of society, including frightened army deserters, an imprisoned oil billionaire, Chechen villagers, a trendy Moscow restaurant king, a reluctant underwear salesman, and anguished AIDS patients in Siberia.
With shrewd reporting and unprecedented access to Putin's insiders, Kremlin Rising offers both unsettling new revelations about Russia's leader and a compelling inside look at life in the land that he is building. As the first major book on Russia in years, it is an extraordinary contribution to our understanding of the country and promises to shape the debate about Russia, its uncertain future, and its relationship with the United States.

What people are saying

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - justindtapp - LibraryThing

If you love Russia, or know someone who does, or have concern for someone who lives there then this book is for you. A great record of what's happened in the last 6 years under Putin. Things are ...

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - VGAHarris - LibraryThing

This takes you through 2005. The early years of the Putin dictatorship when he took control of the media, kept stoking the fires in the former republics and established his government of cronyism ...

Contents

• 6: 6
• 8: 7
• Fiftytwo Hours in Beslan: 15
• Project Putin: 38
• Time of the Patriots: 63
• The Takeover Will Be Televised: 78
• Just an Ordinary Crime: 99
• Soul Mates: 121
• Boomtown: 139
• Fiftyseven Hours in Moscow: 156
• Sick Man of Europe: 179
• Runaway Army: 197
• What Sort of Allies?: 219
• Dictatorship of the: 231
• Back in the USSR: 251
• Twilight of the Oligarchs: 272
• Agitation: 293
• Putins Russia: 413
• Scam of the Year: 427
• Lenin Was Right After: 429
• After Beslan Acknowledgments Notes: 430
• Selected Bibliography: 433
• Index CONTENTS: 437
• 121: 438
• 156: 440
• 214: 442
• 293: 443
• 312: 444
• 433: 445

About the author

Peter Baker and Susan Glasser were Moscow bureau chiefs for The Washington Post from January 2001 to November 2004. They are married and live in Washington, D.C., with their son, Theodore.

Peter Baker and Susan Glasser were Moscow bureau chiefs for The Washington Post from January 2001 to November 2004. They are married and live in Washington, D.C., with their son, Theodore.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Kremlin Rising: Vladimir Putin's Russia and the End of Revolution
• Authors: Peter Baker, Susan Glasser
• Publisher: Simon and Schuster, 2005
• ISBN: 0743281799, 9780743281799
• Length: 464 pages
• Subjects: Political Science / General; Social Science / General