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TitleThe Man Without a Face
SubtitleThe Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin
AuthorMasha Gessen
Editor
Binding
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PublisherPenguin
Edition
Copyright Year
Publication Year2012
ISBN#1-10156-060-6
LCCN#
Pages336
Translator
Languageen
Genre
KeywordsBiography & Autobiography; Corruption & Misconduct; Political Science; Presidents & Heads of State; Russian & Former Soviet Union; World
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Front Cover62271df1fe2a64228a1c08915fd5e4fa.jpeg
Plot Summary
CommentsNational Book Award winner Masha Gessen's biography of a ruthless man's ascent to near-absolute power.

“In a country where journalists critical of the government have a way of meeting untimely deaths, Ms. Gessen has shown remarkable courage in researching and writing this unflinching indictment of the most powerful man in Russia.” —The Wall Street Journal

The Man Without a Face
is the chilling account of how a low- level, small-minded KGB operative ascended to the Russian presidency and, in an astonishingly short time, destroyed years of progress and made his country once more a threat to her own people and to the world.

Handpicked as a successor by the "family" surrounding an ailing and increasingly unpopular Boris Yeltsin, Vladimir Putin seemed like a perfect choice for the oligarchy to shape according to its own designs. Suddenly the boy who had stood in the shadows, dreaming of ruling the world, was a public figure, and his popularity soared. Russia and an infatuated West were determined to see the progressive leader of their dreams, even as he seized control of media, sent political rivals and critics into exile or to the grave, and smashed the country's fragile electoral system, concentrating power in the hands of his cronies.

As a journalist living in Moscow, Masha Gessen experienced this history firsthand, and for The Man Without a Face she has drawn on information and sources no other writer has tapped. Her account of how a "faceless" man maneuvered his way into absolute—and absolutely corrupt—power is the definitive biography of Vladimir Putin.

ID565
Date Created2021-08-20
Date Modified2021-08-20