First Person: An Astonishingly Frank Self-Portrait by Russia's President Vladimir Putin

I am very interested in Russian politics and especially in Vladimir Putin. This book caught my eye because it is 28 hours of interviews with him about many different subjects. It was a quick read and my only complaint is that I read it so quickly. One of the more personal books I have read about Putin. I recommend it highly.

This is a remarkable little book of questions and answers. If you read it, you will probably start to understand the enigma called Putin. Almost ten years ago the President of Russia Vladimir Putin left the KGB in the rank of a colonel. One might say that the KGB officer would not be the best person to head a new and democratic Russia. But Putin served in the foreign intelligence and that is the big difference. As he admits in the book, the foreign intelligence officers in the KGB due to many years they spent abroad, were the group most critical towards the Soviet system, because they were able to compare the living standards, economic growth etc.Soviet foreign intelligence as this type of organization in any other country used to hire the best people, whose tasks included gathering and analyzing information and feeding it back to Moscow. KGB officers saw very vividly the growing gap between the West and the East. Some people defected, but the majority honestly served to the hopeless cause and disintegrating, but their own country. Putin talks about his family in this book and the story is amazing, albeit not so unusual for a 50 year-old Russian man. His father served in a submarine before WW2, and went to the War as a volunteer. He was almost killed in encirclement. His wounds left him limping for the rest of his life. His mother Maria by miracle avoided death after fainting from hunger in the blockaded Leningrad, but fortunately she moaned and made people aware that she was still alive and was separated from the dead bodies. But the blockade took a life of their son. Vladimir Putin was the only survived child out of their three children. Life was tough after the war. They were poor. His father worked in a factory and his mother was a simple girl from the province. They lived for many years in a communal apartment in Leningrad, occupying one small room on the fifth floor and sharing the kitchen and facilities with two or three other families. Young Vladimir spent some time chasing rats with a stick in their staircase. Putin came from humble, decent, and hard-working family. His rise to the presidency and the speed of his ascendance is truly amazing considering his background. He is not and never been a professional politician, although he got a law degree from the Leningrad University. Political activism was never his passion, as it was with Stalin and other communist gangsters. It was not a quasi-religious passion as it was with Lenin. In fact Putin, who wares a little golden cross on his chest, had only two real passions: espionage (originally in a form of spy movies) and sport (judo). Given how apolitical and low-key he is, it is truly amazing that he left behind people, who eat, drink and sleep politics. One of Putin's favorite historic figures is Ludwig Erhard, who become famous for his pragmatic free-market philosophy in post war Germany. Russia seems to be tired of zealots, communist gangsters and political activists. For sur

Once upon a time, there was a belief in America that anyone could rise from the humblest of beginnings -- such as Abraham Lincoln, born in a cabin he built with his own hands -- to become President. In Russia, without political opinion polls, focus groups or special interest funding, Vladimir Putin rose from a rat-infested cold water apartment to become President of his nation. This book is about a man who spent his professional life assessing people and situations, and thus is not afraid to make tough decisions. In Russia, for the immediate future, tough decisions are needed. Putin's hero, Czar Peter the Great, used his regal power to make Russia a great, rich and powerful nation. Putin intends to provide similar dynamic leadership with democratic principles. An example may be Singapore, a mix of authority, discipline and prosperity. The question-and-answer format of this book is based on six four-hour interviews by three journalists. Putin admits he was, ". . . a pure and utterly successful product of Soviet patriotic education." He was smart, dedicated, hard-working and very good in his chosen career with the KGB. He wasn't a old cloak-and-dagger "sneak and peek" spy; he spent his time reading reports, assessing East German officials and skillfully pushing paper. Trained as a lawyer, he was appalled at how Communist officials assumed they were the law simply because they were Party members. Putin was never a dissident, he was the ultimate Organization Man whose goal was a richer, happier, stronger and freer Russia. He worked hard to become an insider, and as such saw the total incompetence of the Party. His wife says, "He always lived for the sake of something. There are some people who work hard for money, but he works hard for ideas." When first married, they had a 10-foot by 12-foot room in his parents' 275-square foot apartment. Try and think of any American president since Lincoln -- another idea man -- who lived in any similar conditions. Like Lincoln, whose greatest idea was "to preserve the Union," the prime challenge for Putin is to preserve Russia. His practical experience taught him that a free market economy is far superior to the chaos, conniving and cronyism of communism. He says the Soviets failed because they ". . . had a terminal disease without a cure -- a paralysis of power." Two things are clear; Putin is not afraid to act, and he will never betray Russia. He learned from his father's World War II experience, ". . . there are always a lot of mistakes made in war. That's inevitable. But when you are fighting, if you keep thinking that everybody around you is always making mistakes, you'll never win. You have to take a pragmatic attitude." He approaches life in that fashion. His political heroes also rebuilt shattered nations. Charles DeGaulle saved France from itself; while in Germany, Ludwig Erhard succeeded because ". . . his entire conception for the

The mysterious new Russian President gives us insight, in his own words, of his background, character, and personality. A series of interviews with his wife, daughters, friends, colleagues, mentors, and even former school-teachers gives a human dimension to this cold-eyed ex-KGB agent. Boris Yeltzin's hand-picked successor, hither-to unknown in the Russian political scene, might have been carefully "packaged" by the press to win the election. His KGB past, while a concern to many Russian citizens, ironically also gives him an image of incorruptability. His handling of the Chechnyan conflict has been popular in Russia while drawing criticism from abroad. Many of his interviewers' questions are quite pointed in regards to the War, and his answers are frank and revealing. His years of involvement in the martial-arts inspire his straight-forwardly aggressive but curiously humble approach to solving Russia's many problems. He might not be America's choice for the Russian leadership! But overall, it seems clear that he has a vision of a unified Russia, economically strong, and in partnership with the rest of Europe and the US. And he may be the only person who can unite the various bickering factions within the Duma, confront the oligarchs and mafiya, and bring internal reform to his country. Maybe of equal importance, after years of Yeltzin's embarrassing corruption, alcoholism, and failing health, the vigorous youthful Putin might instill new self-respect in Russia. I recommend "First Person". This is a very interesting and fast-reading book, giving us an unprecidented intimate look at a powerful new leader.