2022.05.17七本关于普京的重要书籍

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Economist Reads | Russia
Our former Moscow correspondent picks the seven essential books on Vladimir Putin
What to read to understand Russia’s president
MOSCOW, RUSSIA - MAY 16: (RUSSIA OUT) Russian President Vladimir Putin smiles during the Summit of Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) at the Grand Kremlin Palace, May, 16, 2022, in Moscow, Russia. Leaders of post-Soviet states have gathered at the Kremlin for the summit of CSTO marking its 30th anniversary this year. (Photo by Contributor/Getty Images)
May 17th 2022 (Updated Jun 28th 2022)

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First Person. By Vladimir Putin. PublicAffairs; 208 pages; $16 and £11.99

Vladimir Putin gave notice of who he was, and what he was capable of, in “First Person”, a transcript of interviews published in 2000, at the start of his overlong rule. In his youth, he recalled, he had been a tough little hoodlum who fought rats in the stairwell of his communal-apartment building and, later, brawled with strangers on the streets of Leningrad. “A dog senses when somebody is afraid of it,” he had learned, “and bites.” He prized loyalty and feared betrayal. He was hypersensitive to slights, to both his country and himself. He bore grudges. Sometimes the Mr Putin of “First Person” appears frank, at others, cagey and withdrawn. Few people knew him well; he was seen as a grey man, inscrutable. Read our longer review of this and other books.


Darkness at Dawn: The Rise of the Russian Criminal State. By David Satter. Yale University Press; 326 pages; $30 and £23

David Satter was among the first Anglophone analysts to gauge the evil in Mr Putin’s system. In “Darkness at Dawn” (2004) he accused the FSB, the domestic security service, of orchestrating a string of bombings in Russia in 1999 that killed around 300 people and ignited the second Chechen war—thus helping Mr Putin, who oversaw the fighting, to secure the presidency. Few were ready to digest that theory; several Russians who pursued it came to a sticky end.

Dig deeper
* Writers have grappled with Vladimir Putin for two decades
* Alexander Gabuev explains why Vladimir Putin and his entourage want war
* From the archive: A leader on how the West should respond to the Russian president (2013)

The Man Without a Face. By Masha Gessen. Riverhead; 314 pages; $27.95. Granta; £20

In this polemical biography, Masha Gessen characterised Mr Putin, then set to reclaim the presidency after a pro-forma stint as prime minister, as a killer and extortionist. This version of him—a KGB thug turned mafia godfather—had been “hidden in plain sight”, but obscured by wishful thinking and that grey veneer. Death and terror were politically useful to Mr Putin, the author wrote. He made no distinction between the state’s interests and his own. Read our review from 2012.

Putin’s People. By Catherine Belton. Farrar, Straus and Giroux; 640 pages; $35. William Collins; £21.99

The gangster network that oversees Russia was definitively elaborated in “Putin’s People”. In the system of “KGB capitalism” that Catherine Belton described, government was a machine for extracting rents and expropriating assets, politics a squabble over who got them, and the president its referee. The siloviki (strongmen) were bound together by a regime of mutual blackmail, in which secrets were both weapons and liabilities; for his part, Mr Putin had spilled too much blood and made too many enemies to retire. Besides self-enrichment, the spoils were used to undermine the West, black cash sloshing around the world to fund “active measures” and the “restoration of the country’s global position”. We reviewed the book, and included it as one of our Books of 2020.


The New Tsar. By Steven Lee Myers. Vintage; 592 pages; $22. Simon & Schuster; £9.99

The author perceptively identified the Orange revolution in Ukraine in 2004 as a breaking-point. Huge protests overturned the result of an election rigged in favour of Mr Putin’s candidate. The reversal combined personal humiliation with a geopolitical rebuff; his fear of crowds, and sense of the jeopardy of democracy, were inflamed. He “nursed the experience like a grudge”, Mr Lee Myers wrote, tightening the screws in Russia, ramping up his propaganda and setting up tame youth movements to dominate the streets. Mr Putin’s bleak Chekist mindset could not admit the possibility that Ukrainians were turning West—and rejecting him—of their own volition. Convinced that the CIA had paid or cajoled them, he embarked on a spiral of meddling that culminated in the latest invasion. By 2014, thought Mr Lee Myers, he had found a “millenarian” mission as the indispensable leader of an exceptional power. “The question now was where would Putin’s policy stop?”

Mr Putin: Operative in the Kremlin. By Fiona Hill and Clifford Gaddy. Brookings Institution Press; 400 pages; $29.95 and £19.99

The authors saw Mr Putin’s efforts to make Russia’s economy more resilient, and to eliminate domestic opposition, as a long-haul preparation for confronting the West. His bid to undermine Western democracies through fifth columnists, bribery and kompromat was part of the same strategy. The greyness, they wrote, had always been tactical: Mr Putin was “the ultimate political performance artist”, his mercurial public persona a way to keep his adversaries off-balance. Mr Gaddy and Ms Hill—who became the top Russia adviser in Donald Trump’s National Security Council—concluded that he was more than an avaricious gangster. His objective was to survive and overcome his foes, who, in his view, were Russia’s enemies too; to that end he was waging a long, hybrid war against the West. He would pounce on weaknesses, the pair warned, and fulfil his threats. “He won’t give up, and he will fight dirty.” Yet even these authors judged that, if only for reasons of trade, Mr Putin “does not want Russia to end up being a pariah state”. Read our 2013 review of an early edition of the book.

Day of the Oprichnik. By Vladimir Sorokin. Translated by Jamey Gambrell. Farrar, Straus and Giroux; 208 pages; $16. Penguin Classics; £9.99

The book that most clearly saw where Putinism was heading was not a history or biography but a novel (first published in 2006) set in 2028. The Russia it depicts seems to exist in two time-frames at once, futuristic technology jostling with medieval barbarity and obscurantism. The country is walled off from Europe and the tsar has been restored. His word is law, but even he must “bow and cringe before China”, which (along with gas exports) props up the economy. The oprichnik of the title is one of his elite henchmen—the name comes from an order of pitiless enforcers under Ivan the Terrible. Their methods are murder and torture, their sidelines extortion and theft. Vladimir Sorokin’s satirical dystopia has come to seem more prescient than outlandish. The details are grotesque, but also, sometimes, horribly familiar. In the story, when the wall was built “opponents began to crawl out of the cracks like noxious centipedes”—imagery that anticipates Mr Putin’s dehumanisation of his critics as gnats. Chillingly, when the oprichniks gather for a debauch, one of their toasts is “Hail the Purge!”

Do you have your own recommendations? Send them to summer@economist.com with the subject line “Putin” and your name, city and country. We will publish a selection of reader suggestions.




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经济学人读物｜俄罗斯
我们的前莫斯科记者挑选了七本关于普京的重要书籍
要了解俄罗斯总统应该读什么书
俄罗斯莫斯科--5月16日：（俄罗斯报道）2022年5月16日，俄罗斯总统普京在克里姆林宫举行的集体安全条约组织（CSTO）峰会上微笑着。后苏联国家的领导人聚集在克里姆林宫，参加今年纪念集体安全条约组织成立30周年的峰会。(Photo by Contributor/Getty Images)
2022年5月17日 (2022年6月28日更新)


第一人称。作者：弗拉基米尔-普京。PublicAffairs；208页；16美元和11.99英镑

弗拉基米尔-普京在《第一人称》中说明了他是谁，以及他的能力，这是一份2000年出版的采访记录，当时他的统治时间过长。他回忆说，在年轻时，他曾是一个强悍的小流氓，在公共公寓楼的楼梯间与老鼠搏斗，后来又在列宁格勒的街道上与陌生人斗殴。"他知道，"当有人害怕它的时候，狗就会察觉，然后咬人"。他珍视忠诚，惧怕背叛。他对他的国家和他自己所受的侮辱都很敏感。他心怀怨恨。有时，"第一人称 "中的普京先生显得很坦率，而在其他时候，他又很狡猾和退缩。很少有人了解他；他被视为一个灰色的人，难以捉摸。阅读我们对这本书和其他书籍的长篇评论。


黎明时分的黑暗：俄罗斯犯罪国家的崛起。作者：大卫-萨特。耶鲁大学出版社；326页；30美元和23英镑

大卫-萨特是第一批评估普京先生体系中的邪恶的英语分析家之一。在《黎明时分的黑暗》（2004年）中，他指责国内安全局（FSB）于1999年在俄罗斯策划了一系列爆炸事件，造成约300人死亡，并引发了第二次车臣战争，从而帮助监督战斗的普京先生获得总统职位。很少有人准备好消化这一理论；几个追求这一理论的俄罗斯人落得了一个尴尬的结局。

深入挖掘
* 作家们与弗拉基米尔-普京斗争了20年。
* 亚历山大-加布耶夫解释了为什么普京及其随行人员想要战争
* 从档案中。一位领导人谈到西方应该如何应对俄罗斯总统（2013）。

没有脸的人。作者：玛莎-格森。Riverhead；314页；27.95美元。格兰塔出版社；20英镑

在这本论战性的传记中，玛莎-格森将普京先生描述为一个杀手和勒索者，当时他在经历了形式上的总理任期后，准备重新获得总统职位。这个版本的普京--克格勃暴徒变成了黑手党教父--一直 "隐藏在众目睽睽之下"，但被一厢情愿的想法和灰色的外衣所掩盖。作者写道，死亡和恐怖在政治上对普京先生是有用的。他对国家的利益和自己的利益不加区分。阅读我们2012年的评论。

普京的人民。凯瑟琳-贝尔顿著。Farrar, Straus and Giroux；640页；35美元。威廉-柯林斯出版社；21.99英镑

监管俄罗斯的黑帮网络在《普京的人民》中得到了明确的阐述。在凯瑟琳-贝尔顿描述的 "克格勃资本主义 "体系中，政府是一台榨取租金和征用资产的机器，政治是关于谁得到这些资产的争吵，而总统是裁判。强人（siloviki）被一种相互敲诈的制度捆绑在一起，在这种制度下，秘密既是武器，也是责任；就普京先生而言，他已经流了太多的血，树了太多的敌人，无法退休。除了自我充实之外，这些战利品还被用来破坏西方，黑色的现金在世界范围内晃动，以资助 "积极的措施 "和 "恢复国家的全球地位"。我们审查了这本书，并将其列为我们2020年的书籍之一。


新沙皇》。作者：史蒂文-李-迈尔斯。Vintage；592页；22美元，Simon & Schuster；9.99英镑

作者敏锐地发现2004年乌克兰的橙色革命是一个突破点。巨大的抗议活动推翻了被操纵的有利于普京先生候选人的选举结果。这一逆转将个人的耻辱与地缘政治的挫败结合在一起；他对人群的恐惧和对民主的危险性的感觉被激起。李-迈尔斯先生写道，他 "像记仇一样记着这段经历"，在俄罗斯拧紧了螺丝，加大了宣传力度，并建立了驯服的青年运动来支配街道。普京先生暗淡的切克主义心态无法承认乌克兰人正在转向西方并拒绝他的可能性，这是他们自己的意愿。他确信美国中央情报局贿赂或哄骗了他们，于是开始了螺旋式的干涉，最终导致了最近的入侵。李-迈尔斯先生认为，到2014年，他已经找到了一个 "千禧年 "的使命，成为一个特殊国家不可或缺的领导人。"现在的问题是，普京的政策会在哪里停止？"

普京先生。克里姆林宫中的行动者。作者：菲奥娜-希尔和克利福德-加迪。布鲁金斯学会出版社；400页；29.95美元和19.99英镑

作者认为，普京先生努力使俄罗斯的经济更具弹性，并消除国内反对派，是为对抗西方而做的长期准备。他通过第五纵队、贿赂和间谍活动破坏西方民主国家的努力也是这一战略的一部分。他们写道，灰色一直是战术性的。普京先生是 "最终的政治表演艺术家"，他那反复无常的公众形象是让他的对手失去平衡的一种方式。加迪先生和希尔女士--她成为唐纳德-特朗普国家安全委员会的最高俄罗斯顾问--得出结论，他不仅仅是一个贪婪的黑帮分子。他的目标是生存并战胜他的敌人，在他看来，这些敌人也是俄罗斯的敌人；为此，他正在对西方发动一场长期的混合战争。这对夫妇警告说，他将扑灭弱点，并履行他的威胁。"他不会放弃，而且会打得很脏。" 然而，即使是这些作者也判断，即使只是出于贸易的原因，普京先生 "也不希望俄罗斯最终成为一个被抛弃的国家"。阅读我们2013年对该书早期版本的评论。

Oprichnik之日。作者：弗拉基米尔-索罗金。翻译：Jamey Gambrell。Farrar, Straus and Giroux出版社；208页；16美元。 企鹅经典；9.99英镑

最清楚地看到普京主义走向的书不是历史或传记，而是一部以2028年为背景的小说（首次出版于2006年）。它所描绘的俄罗斯似乎同时存在于两个时间框架中，未来的技术与中世纪的野蛮和蒙昧混杂在一起。这个国家与欧洲隔绝，沙皇已经复辟。他的话就是法律，但即使是他也必须 "在中国面前卑躬屈膝"，因为中国（与天然气出口一起）支撑着经济。标题中的奥普里奇尼克是他的精英心腹之一--这个名字来自于伊凡雷帝时期的一个无情执法者的命令。他们的方法是谋杀和酷刑，他们的副业是敲诈和偷窃。弗拉基米尔-索罗金（Vladimir Sorokin）的讽刺性反乌托邦作品看起来更有预见性，而不是离奇的。细节是怪诞的，但有时也是可怕的熟悉。在故事中，当隔离墙建成后，"反对者开始像有毒的蜈蚣一样从缝隙中爬出来"--这一想象预示着普京先生把他的批评者当作小白鼠来对待。令人不寒而栗的是，当这些人聚集在一起喝酒时，他们的祝酒词之一是 "大清洗万岁"。

你有自己的建议吗？请将它们发送至 summer@economist.com，标题为 "普京 "并注明你的姓名、城市和国家。我们将公布读者建议的一部分。