The Invention of Russia

Arkady Ostrovsky is a Russian-born British journalist who has spent fifteen years reporting from Moscow first for the <i>Financial Times</i> and then as a bureau chief for <i>The Economist</i>. He studied Russian theatre history in Moscow and holds a PhD in English Literature from Cambridge University. His translation of Tom Stoppard's trilogy <i>The Coast of Utopia</i> has been published and staged in Russia. <b>The definitive and award-winning history of Vladimir Putin's rise to power following the collapse of the Soviet Union by <i>The Economist</i>'s Russia editor.</b><br><br><b>'Fast-paced and excellently written' <i>New York Times</i></b><br><br><b>'A real insiders' story of Russia's post-Soviet counter-revolution - an important and timely book.' Anne Applebaum</b><br><br><b>WINNER OF THE ORWELL PRIZE </b><br><b></b><br>How did a country that embraced freedom over twenty-five years ago end up as an autocratic police state bent once again on confrontation with the West? In this Orwell Prize-winning book Arkady Ostrovsky reaches back to the darkest days of the Cold War to tell the story of Russia's stealthy and largely unchronicled post-Soviet transformation.<br><br>Ostrovsky's knowledge of many of the key players allows him to explain the rise of Vladimir Putin and to reveal how he pioneered a new form of demagogic populism. In a new preface he examines Putin's influence on the US election and explores how his methods - weaponizing the media and serving up fake news - came to enter Western politics. <b>The timely and gripping story of Russia since the collapse of Communism by <i>The Economist</i>'s Russia editor. </b><b>Perfect for readers of <i>Putin's People</i> and <i>Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible</i>.</b> Ostrovsky has written a real insiders' story of Russia's post-Soviet counter-revolution - an important and timely book. How post-Soviet Russia got from there to here makes a gripping story told here brilliantly by a writer who watched it unfolding. A vivid account of the evolution of modern Russia... Ostrovsky shows how the liberal dreams of the Gorbachev era gave way to the authoritarian nationalism of the Putin period. Moving and brilliantly detailed Essential timely and always gripping Arkady Ostrovsky's book explains today's reinvention of Russia from the fall of the USSR to the rise of Putin by chronicling the power the money and the media with the nuanced analysis of a Moscow veteran and the narrative flair of a true chronicler of the mysteries of the Kremlin. For a decade Arkady Ostrovsky has been the most insightful foreign correspondent in Moscow and in <i>The Invention of Russia </i>he uses his deep understanding of the country he loves to tell the gripping tragic story of its recent history. A brilliantly original illuminating and essential book. Russia has always been a place where intellectuals propagandists viziers and prophets have played a grand role. All the gangster KGB and oligarch focused analyses of the country's recent history have overlooked the men of ideas behind the tumultuous changes. Now comes Arkady Ostrovsky with a detailed gripping intellectual history of the newspaper editors ideologues television gurus and spin doctors who invented post-Soviet Russia. Russia's surprisingly free media were once a powerful instrument of reform. In his illuminating and saddening account Arkady Ostrovsky tells how all but a very few have turned instead - deliberately cynically and on behalf of the state - to creating the distorted image of reality which shapes the country today. Arkady Ostrovsky's dazzling book flags up the conflicts over ideas morality and national destiny in Moscow politics from Gorbachev to Putin <b><i>-</i></b> a triumph of narrative skill and historical empathy based on personal experience and rigorous research.<b><i></i></b> For many Russians and most foreign observers the defeat of the coup against Gorbachev in the summer of 1991 seemed to herald an age in which liberty would triumph in Russia and the country would join the Western community of peoples. The turn to authoritarian nationalism at home and confrontation with the West is a source of dismay and even despair. Arkady Ostrovsky traces the descent from the heady days of 1991 with deep local knowledge a journalist's fluent style and sharp eye for detail and wit. He places much of the blame on those who owned and dominated the media in the fifteen years after the fall of the Soviet Union. I was gripped by Arkady Ostrovsky's book. This is essential reading for anyone wishing to be more precisely informed about Russia today. Compelling... Expertly told with an eye for colourful detail and interesting personalities Ostrovsky fashions a strong argument A focused bracing look at how the control of the media has helped plot the Russian political trajectory from dictatorship and back again... Astute accessible illuminating Fast-paced and excellently written... A much needed dispassionate and eminently readable explanation The reader feels as if on a grand tour with Ostrovsky at the elbow. . . He is particularly good at hearing the nuances and seeing how identity ideology and personal experience undermined hopes for democracy and reform. How did Putinism come to pervade the psyche of the nation?... Ostrovsky's sparkling prose and deep analysis provide not only a sweeping tour d'horizon of Russia's malaise but also a description of the process by which anti-modern ideas combine with postmodern actions to buttress the country's authoritarian kleptocratic system. Ostrovsky has written a real insiders' story of Russia's post-Soviet counter-revolution - an important and timely book. How post-Soviet Russia got from there to here makes a gripping story told here brilliantly by a writer who watched it unfolding. A vivid account of the evolution of modern Russia... Ostrovsky shows how the liberal dreams of the Gorbachev era gave way to the authoritarian nationalism of the Putin period. Moving and brilliantly detailed Essential timely and always gripping Arkady Ostrovsky's book explains today's reinvention of Russia from the fall of the USSR to the rise of Putin by chronicling the power the money and the media with the nuanced analysis of a Moscow veteran and the narrative flair of a true chronicler of the mysteries of the Kremlin. For a decade Arkady Ostrovsky has been the most insightful foreign correspondent in Moscow and in <i>The Invention of Russia </i>he uses his deep understanding of the country he loves to tell the gripping tragic story of its recent history. A brilliantly original illuminating and essential book. Russia has always been a place where intellectuals propagandists viziers and prophets have played a grand role. All the gangster KGB and oligarch focused analyses of the country's recent history have overlooked the men of ideas behind the tumultuous changes. Now comes Arkady Ostrovsky with a detailed gripping intellectual history of the newspaper editors ideologues television gurus and spin doctors who invented post-Soviet Russia. Russia's surprisingly free media were once a powerful instrument of reform. In his illuminating and saddening account Arkady Ostrovsky tells how all but a very few have turned instead - deliberately cynically and on behalf of the state - to creating the distorted image of reality which shapes the country today. Arkady Ostrovsky's dazzling book flags up the conflicts over ideas morality and national destiny in Moscow politics from Gorbachev to Putin <b><i>-</i></b> a triumph of narrative skill and historical empathy based on personal experience and rigorous research.<b><i></i></b> For many Russians and most foreign observers the defeat of the coup against Gorbachev in the summer of 1991 seemed to herald an age in which liberty would triumph in Russia and the country would join the Western community of peoples. The turn to authoritarian nationalism at home and confrontation with the West is a source of dismay and even despair. Arkady Ostrovsky traces the descent from the heady days of 1991 with deep local knowledge a journalist's fluent style and sharp eye for detail and wit. He places much of the blame on those who owned and dominated the media in the fifteen years after the fall of the Soviet Union. I was gripped by Arkady Ostrovsky's book. This is essential reading for anyone wishing to be more precisely informed about Russia today. Compelling... Expertly told with an eye for colourful detail and interesting personalities Ostrovsky fashions a strong argument A focused bracing look at how the control of the media has helped plot the Russian political trajectory from dictatorship and back again... Astute accessible illuminating Fast-paced and excellently written... A much needed dispassionate and eminently readable explanation The reader feels as if on a grand tour with Ostrovsky at the elbow. . . He is particularly good at hearing the nuances and seeing how identity ideology and personal experience undermined hopes for democracy and reform. How did Putinism come to pervade the psyche of the nation?... Ostrovsky's sparkling prose and deep analysis provide not only a sweeping tour d'horizon of Russia's malaise but also a description of the process by which anti-modern ideas combine with postmodern actions to buttress the country's authoritarian kleptocratic system.