The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin Paperback – March 5, 2013

This is a very entertaining history of the life and leadership of Vladimir Putin. It raises serious questions as to the ability to reach an equitable settlement of the Russia/Ukraine War. It highlights the terrifying personality defects in Putin's personality.

This is an interesting book from an interesting perspective: it's not a chronological narrative of Vladimir Putin's rise to power as you would expect from the title. Instead, it's Masha Gessen's first-person account and assessment of Putin's methods and actions. And, along with that, you get the author's opinions, theories and personal experiences.Were I the editor of the this book, I might have named it "A Small and Vengeful Man." Not because I necessarily second that opinion, but because that's more reflective of the book's tone and the author's sharply-worded assessment. The "man without a face" theme isn't something that I can recall from the book. It's a neutral assessment - Putin as blank slate. The book is anything but neutral. I take note of the number of times Gessen tags Putin as small. And she's not limiting that comment to his noted vertically challenged stature (he's about 5' 5" by most estimates). In Gessen's account, Putin is in all respects "a small and vengeful man."All the seminal events are covered in some fashion in Gessen's book: Putin's years in Germany and Leningrad, the Kursk, Beslan, Chechnya, the Moscow Theater takeover, the apartment bombings, Litvinenko, Medvedev. Of Medvedev, it speaks volumes that Gessen dismisses his four years as president with a few, curt paragraphs. In her opinion, history has already judged him as a figurehead and placeholder...a device to pay lip service to the Constitution's limits on presidential power.

I didn't want put this exciting book down. I love books which have an amazing story, suspense, drama of a great novel but the added qualities of being faithfully true. The exciting drama continues today and in coming months and years. It's about an important struggle of courage and suffering for freedom and democracy. Some may argue that it's biased -- anti-Putin propaganda with inaccuracies. I don't agree. I have some knowledge about the subject and it checks out regarding the parts that I'm sure of. Gessen is a well-reputed top-notch journalist who writes objective news stories for major internationally respected publications, including a major U.S. newsweekly, etc. As a professional journalist she is meticulous about objectively stating what she knows, and alerts you to what is uncertain -- for example, what some specific source had stated to her but which she feels is lacking in evidence. In other words, this is not conspiracy theory, innuendo, or embellishment to sell a book. This part of history is so interesting that the truth will sell more books than anything one might fabricate -- the detail of her research is amazing. She was there, she has the contacts, and obviously talked with many "inside" people. One may argue that Russia was never a Democracy, so Putin could not have turned a democracy into a more totalitarian country, but if you look at history, you see that Putin very significantly dismantled several key democratic-transparency characteristics of the society and government. The fact that these characteristics had been relatively recently created doesn't diminish the reality or significance of what Putin did. Gessen is also a major author and journalist on the subjects of math and science, which is consistent with a high level of objectivity and intellectual honesty. The book is in perfect English even though she is a native Russian living in Russia. The writing style and composition are first class - she's an important scholar, activist, and literary master. Almost everyone will know a lot more about the recent history of Russia after reading this.

Reading this book, I have learned a great deal about the history of Russia beginning with the post-war period when Putin first began his career as a low-level government bureaucrat, leading to what seems, given the circumstances of the time, a very improbable rise to the highest position in Russia, where he has since been firmly entrenched.Putin's early career seems very undistinguished, and revisiting the Yeltsin years and learning of how Putin kept a low profile in St. Petersburg, it is fascinating to follow how someone who was apparently completely off the radar screen ended up where he is now - and that he is so strongly in control, at that.As a bureaucrat in St. Petersburg, it seems that Putin (like many in Russia at the time) took advantage of the changing circumstances to fatten his own bank account. He also seems to have been deft in deciding who to support as various leaders came and went, without allowing himself to be taken down with them as they eventually fell from power. It led to his eventually being in a sense the last man standing, as the Russian party sought a leader to succeed Yeltsin.What is also illuminating is the brutality and viscousness of Putin throughout, something that I find particularly relevant given how our world looks today and the role that Putin has, more influential than anyone might have expected.In addition to telling the story of Putin's rise, I found the book to be very informative in reviewing the modern history of post-Soviet Russia, reminding me of many of the events of the past few decades as well as filling in many details I was not previously aware of.