Books About Russian President Putin and the Forces that Shaped Him – The New York Times

In an interview more than two decades ago, Vladimir V. Putin described his younger self, with a hint of self-congratulation, as a hooligan. When the interviewer asked if he was exaggerating about his tendency to get into brawls as a schoolboy, Putin took offense.

You are trying to insult me, he said. I was a real thug.

Masha Gessen, a Russian American journalist and Moscow native, recounts this exchange in a 2012 biography, The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin, which was praised as part psychological profile, part conspiracy study in The New York Times Book Review. To Gessen, Putins unabashed description of himself as a thug was key to his self-image: someone who could not be bullied, who would lash out unpredictably if he felt slighted and who relished violence.

Understanding Putin and the forces that shaped him has become an urgent global concern, as leaders around the world try to determine his motivations in launching an unprovoked and disastrous invasion of Ukraine, how to best engage with him and how the conflict might evolve.

So far, the military assault appears to be a catastrophic misstep, one that has resulted in crippling economic sanctions and heavy military losses for Russia, as well as mass civilian casualties and destruction in the very Ukrainian cities Putin claims he wants to liberate.

To all this, Putin has said, repeatedly, in public comments that the war is going according to plan.

As the conflict escalates, the question of what is driving Putin has become an increasingly perplexing one, with no obvious answers, but with enormous consequences: The war will end, some experts say, when the Russian president allows it to end.

Gessen set out to understand the Russian leaders mind-set more than a decade ago, first in an article for Vanity Fair, then in The Man Without a Face. Tracing Putins rise from a petulant and unruly schoolboy to a KGB operative who ascended to the Russian presidency, Gessen examined the post-Soviet political, cultural and economic forces that enabled Putins rise, and the way he vilified the West to solidify his grip on power.

After Russias 2014 annexation of Crimea, Gessen wrote a postscript summarizing Putins increasingly aggressive stance toward Western democracies, and his evolution from a bureaucrat who had accidentally been entrusted with a huge country into a megalomaniacal dictator who believed he was on a civilizational mission.

In a recent phone interview, Gessen, a staff writer for The New Yorker, discussed several books that offer insights into Putins psychology, as well as titles that illuminate the cultural and geopolitical context that helped shape Putins Russia.

Below are Gessens recommendations, which have been lightly edited for clarity.

Kasparov thinks about life as chess. And he looks at this as a series of plays. He doesnt look at Putins psychology so much as he looks at the logic of his actions and says, OK, well, this is how we game it out. And it is not uplifting. I mean, the book is not recent, and he was quite sure then that Putin was at war with the west at that point.

March 29, 2022, 11:43 a.m. ET

Its funny, because one didnt really have to press in to see that, one just had to pay attention and not be beholden to the conventional wisdom that says, but thats not possible, thats crazy, he doesnt really mean it. Were going to look at this period between 2012 and 2022 as a period when theres a lot of that happening, when the war was slowly ramping up in plain view and most of the world was in denial about it.

I found it incredibly illuminating because, if you read it as a document of what this man wants to tell the world about himself, you learn a lot. Its not a very long book and it doesnt have a lot of variety, but he recounts three different fights that he had. One was when he was a kid and he felt mistreated by a teacher, if I remember correctly. One was when he was a student and one was when he was a young officer. And in all three cases, he lashes out. He basically loses his temper and then he goes quiet for a bit, and then he strikes again.

Ongoing peace talks. Russia said that it would sharply reduce military activity near Kyiv and the northern city of Chernihiv. The announcement was the first sign of progressto emerge from peace talks between Ukraine and Russia in Istanbul.

On the ground. Russiasapparent concessions in the north of Ukraine reflected a successful Ukrainian resistancethat has bogged down Russias forces around Kyivs suburbs and retaken territorynear the capital and cities closer to the Russian border.

Bidens comments. During a speech in Warsawon Saturday, President Biden said that President Vladimir V. Putin cannot remain in power, sendingU.S. officials scrambling to walk backthe ad-lib. On Monday, Mr. Biden stood by his remark, but said it was a personal expression of his moral outrage.

This is what it communicates: that this is somebody who has no desire to control his temper. He thinks of himself as somebody who will lash out, somebody whos vengeful. Somebody who likes to strike out of the blue, but also and this is the thing that Im most worried about now he will go quiet for a bit and then he will strike again. Thats actually an M.O. that is important to his self-conception.

I recommend anything by Alexander Etkind, who is a cultural historian of Russia. His latest book is called Natures Evil and its a cultural history of natural resources. Its not entirely limited to Russia, but I think it actually goes a very long way to explaining how Russia works.

Anything by Balint Magyar. He is a Hungarian social scientist and he has this tome, its this huge book called The Anatomy of Post-Communist Regimes. Its a little on the technical side, but its so incredibly illuminating. I think my favorite book of his is called The Post-Communist Mafia State, which pretends to be about Hungary, but is the best book for understanding post-Communist Russia and how the regime works.

See the original post:

Books About Russian President Putin and the Forces that Shaped Him - The New York Times