September 25, 2017
In his first book, Walker, the Guardian’s Moscow correspondent, explores the way Vladimir Putin exploits a sanitized version of Russia’s history, especially its role in WWII, to unite its populace behind the goal of returning to major-power status. The book mixes historical analysis with original reporting, using the modern-
day Russia-Ukraine conflict as its central example. Walker proves an able historian and clearly guides the reader through the context necessary to support his thesis. For instance, as a counterexample to the Kremlin’s straightforwardly heroic account of the Soviet WWII record, he recounts Stalin’s relocation of an entire ethnic group, the Kalmyks, accused of backing Hitler. Walker’s original reporting is exemplary and differentiates the book from equally well-informed but more scholarly analyses with its eye for the idiosyncratic and telling detail. While interviewing a prominent Crimean supporter of Putin, he observes that the man “seemed defensive, almost angry, as he answered my questions while doodling stick trees in his notebook.” Walker proves an empathetic interviewer throughout, willing to hear both pro- and anti-Putin viewpoints but also willing to hold his subjects accountable. Intelligent and ambitious, Walker’s book succeeds in providing insight into the recent history of a nation at the center of world attention.
Starred review from November 15, 2017
Walker (Moscow correspondent, the Guardian) explores the complex way in which many Russians perceive the relation of the Russian Federation to the former Soviet Union, and provides a compelling account of Vladimir Putin's use of the that legacy in forging his popularity. This book contains relatively little about Putin or the Kremlin and much more about the political role of Soviet legacies that have defined his regime. Chechnya, Crimea, and Eastern Ukraine, among other themes, are interpreted through powerful and revealing interviews, and as Walker approaches each as a problem rooted in the Soviet past, its meaning emerges in the present. For example, we learn about how the "cult" of Soviet victory in World War II became relevant to mobilizing support for Moscow in Eastern Ukraine's rebellion against Kiev. An astonishing dialog between a Russian commander and Ukrainian officer typifies the author's perceptive use of subjects confronting a contradictory legacy. The pro-Moscow "warlord" Ramzan Kadyrov reveals an authoritarian brutality in a broken Chechnya, while the wartime deportation of its people remains unmentioned. A trip to the Siberian camp Kolyma underscores the enduring need to explain Stalinism. VERDICT Some of the finest journalism of the post-Soviet era. Highly recommended.--Zachary Irwin, Behrend Coll., Pennsylvania State Erie
Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
November 1, 2017
A British journalist offers a searching account of contemporary Russia, a nation bent on recapturing a more glorious past.People crave meaning and security in their lives. Both vanished for citizens of the Soviet Union when that storied country dissolved, replaced by a much weaker Russia and a ring of former satellites and conquered states. As Guardian Moscow correspondent Walker chronicles, much of the last quarter-century has been an exercise, among Russians from Vladimir Putin to ordinary citizens on the street, of recapturing past glories; says one anti-Ukrainian Russian nationalist, "we need to rebuild the country. The Soviet Union, the Russian Empire, it doesn't matter what you call it." the author documents the rise of Putin from middle-management KGB type to supreme ruler, abetted by a Boris Yeltsin who had abandoned the democratic experiment, ruing his former belief that "we would leap from the gray, stagnating totalitarian past into a bright, prosperous and civilized future." Much of Walker's solid reporting is from trouble spots that have been much in the news lately, including Crimea, where he looks at the fate of Crimean Tatars, who have essentially been stripped of citizenship on Russia's reclamation of contested territory, and eastern Ukraine, where Russian rebels shot down a Malaysian Airlines flight, thinking it an aircraft of the Ukrainian air force--an event that Putin's government hotly denied. "The downing of MH17 and the subsequent brazen lying was probably the Kremlin's lowest point in all my years covering Russia," writes Walker. Using techniques from the old Soviet propaganda machine, the Putin regime has successfully branded the enemies along its borders as Nazis, evoking memories that only the oldest Russians have while also recapturing some of the old sense of exceptionalist nationhood, "using fear of political unrest to quash opposition, equating 'patriotism' with support for Putin, and using a simplified narrative of the Second World War to imply Russia must unite once again against a foreign threat."Essential reading for Russia watchers.
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March 5, 2018
Actor Page brings a clear and relaxed style of reading to this eye-opening look at political machinations in modern-day Russia. Walker, Moscow correspondent for the Guardian, examines the way Vladimir Putin exploits a sanitized version of Russian history to solidify the country’s national identity under his leadership. Page reads in a breezy, conversational tone, which, along with his steady pacing, helps guide listeners through Walker’s dense political and historical analysis, jumping between Russian history and its present. Page also nails the pronunciations of Russian words, names, regions, and townships. It’s a skillful reading that renders Walker’s complex and provocative book into a comprehensive audio edition. An Oxford Univ. hardcover.