The Future Is History (National Book Award Winner): How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia

This book is mistitled, because as it makes abundantly clear, totalitarianism DIDN'T reclaim Russia: Russia abandoned totalitarian internationalism in favor of nationalist authoritarianism. But that isn't the book's real focus anyway: it's the story of several people who lived through the collapse of the USSR, the triumph of Yeltsin, and the emergence of Putin. There's a good deal of historical description, but the narrative is all about how their lives were impacted by the neo-fascism of the Putin regime. It's very interesting, but extremely tendentious as it's told strictly from what might be described as an American liberal perspective intent on painting the new Russia as an evil empire. Only one of the subjects is pro-Putin and is presented in a completely dismissive way. It's all a little too one-sided for me, but nevertheless a fascinating picture of the wheel of history as it cycles back through one of its many phases.