There was a time, a time not long after history ended, when the narrative was clear. The Soviet Union collapsed, followed by a period too close to chaos for comfort. Finally Putin, picked out from backstage, and promising a firmer hand on the tiller; if no one was sure of the course he would set, how bad could it be? The past was past, after all.
In 2006, Peter Pomerantsev, the British son of Soviet-era émigrés, flew into Moscow set on a career in Russian TV. His book tells what happened next. Vivid, gripping, and deeply disturbing, it intertwines fragments of memoir with a beautifully written depiction of a fevered, frenzied society, of a city glittering at the edge of darkness.
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