The Man Without a Face
The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin
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The Man Without a Face
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Narrated by:
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Masha Gessen
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Written by:
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Masha Gessen
About this listen
National 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 its 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.
©2012 Masha Gessen (P)2019 Penguin AudioYou may also enjoy...
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- How the KGB Took Back Russia and Then Took On the West
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- Narrated by: Dugald Bruce-Lockhart
- Length: 18 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 53
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 45
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 45
In Putin’s People, the investigative journalist and former Moscow correspondent Catherine Belton reveals the untold story of how Vladimir Putin and the small group of KGB men surrounding him rose to power and looted their country. Delving deep into the workings of Putin’s Kremlin, Belton accesses key inside players to reveal how Putin replaced the freewheeling tycoons of the Yeltsin era with a new generation of loyal oligarchs, who in turn subverted Russia’s economy and legal system and extended the Kremlin's reach into the United States and Europe.
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Read the printed book.
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Written by: Catherine Belton
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- How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia
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All the Kremlin's Men
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- Written by: Mikhail Zygar
- Narrated by: Dan Woren
- Length: 16 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 10
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 9
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 9
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Written by: Mikhail Zygar
-
On Tyranny (Expanded Audio Edition)
- Updated with Twenty New Lessons from Russia's War on Ukraine
- Written by: Timothy Snyder
- Narrated by: Timothy Snyder
- Length: 9 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 40
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 35
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 35
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-
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- By R. Ward on 2022-11-06
Written by: Timothy Snyder
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The New Tsar
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- Written by: Steven Lee Myers
- Narrated by: René Ruiz
- Length: 22 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 50
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 39
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 37
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Timely
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The Origins of Totalitarianism
- Written by: Hannah Arendt
- Narrated by: Nadia May
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-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 41
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 33
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 33
This classic, definitive account of totalitarianism traces the emergence of modern racism as an "ideological weapon for imperialism", beginning with the rise of anti-Semitism in Europe in the 19th century and continuing through the New Imperialism period from 1884 to World War I.
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What the critics say
A Slate and San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of 2012
"[An] absorbing portrait.... Gessen is most illuminating when she details the historical accidents that allowed an unexceptional bureaucrat to rule Russia." (The New Yorker)
“Part psychological profile, part conspiracy study.... As a Moscow native who has written perceptively for both Russian and Western publications, Gessen knows the cultures and pathologies of Russia...[and has] a delicious command of the English language.... A fiercely independent journalist.... Gessen’s armchair psychoanalysis of Putin is speculative. But it is a clever and sometimes convincing speculation, based on a close reading of Putin’s own inadvertently revealing accounts of his life, and on interviews with people who knew Putin before he mattered.” (The New York Times Book Review)
“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.... Although written before the recent protests erupted, the book helps to explain the anger and outrage driving that movement.” (The Wall Street Journal)
What listeners say about The Man Without a Face
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
- Alec Brookes
- 2022-04-29
Good weaving of Putin's story
Masha Gessen is a good writer. I knew most of these things as isolated incidents, but they craft a whole picture. I was skeptical because I am rarely interested in liberal perspectives that vaunt capitalism amd make a caricature of the non liberal. However, after pushing through some head scratching analysis, in which every Oligarch (e.g. Berezovsky, Prokhorov) and former KGB agent who is not Putin is ultimately a good, principled person and heavy handed pop psych portraits of Putin...well, yes, the story is a good one. I connected many dots and was left with a convincingly haunting portrait. The post script about the "conservative turn" - esp. in light of the recent invasion of Ukraine - was also very welcome.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- A User
- 2022-04-16
Insights from someone who lived the reality!
I am not a student of history and it’s n many ways regret that. I learned slot from the author’s view, experience and context.
I’m so happy she agreed to do the recording. I’ve seen her lately many places which lead me to the book and it’s wonderful have by her own voice here.
Read/listen to this book. It won’t be a waste of your time.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Samantha
- 2024-07-09
one of the best
This is of the best non-fictions I have ever read. Masha is a masterful writer. It's even better with them narrating it.
This reads more like a thriller, sometimes it doesn't even seem real. And when the author weaves their own lived experiences, things get crazy.
read this, you won't regret it.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Sophie Daoust
- 2022-03-25
An excellent book I recommend.
I really loved this book;it is well resarched and beautifully writtit is the kind of nonfiction book that you want read without on and on. The audiobook is read by the autor, and it was excellent! listening to her was great. Me . Masha Gessen gives a a a better understanding of Putin’s Russia and its contexte
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- HRPuff&Stuff
- 2020-02-12
Masha Gessen has a chilling view of the early Vlad
The Man Without A Face is filled in as both a happy accident and a perfect storm for the times within an early Russian democracy, and the potential for Russia to go in two different directions. Unfortunately for Russians and for the rest of us, they went down the dark path of a corrupt petrostate.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Barry Blanchard
- 2021-05-17
Grasping
So much info in the book and was well read, definitely going to listen to again.
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