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

4.3 out of 5 stars 1,966

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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, Gessen has shown remarkable courage in researching and writing this unflinching indictment of the most powerful man in Russia.” —The Wall Street Journal

“Thanks to fearless reporting and acute psychological insights, Masha Gessen has done the impossible in writing a highly readable, compelling life of Russia's mysterious president-for-life.” –Tina Brown,
The Daily Beast

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 his 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 has drawn on information and sources no other writer has tapped. This account of how a "faceless" man maneuvered his way into absolute—and absolutely corrupt—power is the definitive biography of Vladimir Putin.


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Editorial Reviews

Review

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

“Thanks to her fearless reporting and acute psychological insights, Masha Gessen has done the impossible in writing a highly readable, compelling life of Russia's mysterious president-for-life.”
–Tina Brown, The Daily Beast 

"Powerful and gracefully written… Gessen's book flows on multiple tracks, tracing Putin's life back to boyhood, the story of his hometown of St. Petersburg, and finally the last quarter-century of Russian history… For all of the ghoulish detail, Gessen's account of Russia is not overwrought… [she] displays impressive control of her prose and her story, painting a portrait of a vile Putin without sounding polemical."
San Francisco Chronicle

“Engrossing and insightful.”
Bloomberg

"Gessen shines a piercing light into every dark corner of Putin's story… Fascinating, hard-hitting reading."
Foreign Affairs

“[An] incisive bildingsroman of Putin and his regime… Alongside an acute apprehension of the post-Soviet dynamics that facilitated Putin’s rise, Gessen balances narratives of Putin-as-bureaucrat and Putin-as-kleptocrat with a wider indictment of the “Mafia clan” that retains him solely as its Godfather.”
The Daily

“Illuminating… Gessen sprinkles telltale signs of the Putin who would eventually emerge and rule Russia with an iron fist…It is with these explosive revelations that Gessen truly excels… [She] presents her case calmly, picking holes in Putin’s character, his policies, and his rule without stooping to hysterical condemnation… an electrifying read from what can only be described as an incredibly brave writer.”
Columbia Journalism Review

“A chilling and brave work of nonfiction… Gessen has succeeded in convincingly portraying the forces that made Putin who he is today.”
Bookpage

"Although Gessen is enough of an outsider to write beautifully clear and eloquent English, she is enough of an insider to convey, accurately, the wild swings of emotions, the atmosphere of mad speculation, the paranoia, and, yes, the hysteria that pervade all political discussion and debate in Moscow today."
The New York Review of Books

“What Gessen sees in Putin is a troubled childhood brawler who became a paper-pushing KGB man and, by improbable twists and turns, rose to the top in Russia… [She] does not attempt to weigh up Putin’s record but rather examines his biography, mind-set and methods… as a thug loyal to the KGB and the empire it served who never had a clue about the Earth-shattering events that blew the Soviet Union apart.”
The Washington Post


“An eye opening story with all the drama and intrigue of a novel.”
Popmatters

“Written in English but with Russian heart, Gessen focuses on the places and institutions that bred the nation's most resolute leader since Stalin… Some might say that Gessen's interpretation is political. Of course it is… but more importantly, it is thorough. She has seen fellow journalists killed, has been harassed herself, and yet continues to write from Russia… Her urgency is felt on nearly every page.”
Bookforum

About the Author

Masha Gessen is the author of eleven other books, including the National Book Award–winning The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia and Surviving Autocracy.A staff writer at The New Yorker and the recipient of numerous awards, including Guggenheim and Carnegie fellowships, Gessen teaches at Bard College and lives in New York City.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Riverhead Books; Reprint edition (March 5, 2013)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 352 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1594486514
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1594486517
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 12.4 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.05 x 0.92 x 8.98 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.3 out of 5 stars 1,966

About the author

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Masha Gessen
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Masha Gessen is the author of eleven books, including the National Book Award-winning The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia and The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin. A staff writer at the New Yorker and the recipient of numerous awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship and a Carnegie Fellowship, Gessen teaches at Amherst College and lives in New York City.

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Top reviews from the United States

Reviewed in the United States on July 14, 2015
The book reads much better than the "Pussy Riot" book, it is simply better written. There is no question that many new things happened in Russia between 2012 and 2015 but the book will for many years serve as an excellent introduction. I suspect that Western readers will be shocked by the scale and the magnitude of the problem. Many will refuse to take it seriously. The key to the understanding of the book is being aware that many of the stories are still under investigation. Indeed, they might forever remain in that stage. This is one of these countries where nobody really knows what's going on and nobody is ready (or willing) to face the truth. People have their suspicions and usually keep them to themselves. The book forces Russian and non-Russian people to face reality and that's indeed the book's major accomplishment.
3 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on November 7, 2014
The book was definitely an interesting read! As someone who was growing up in the 90s, I had mostly childish memories of the posy-soviet Russia, and Masha Gessen's book put a lot of things that were happening at that time into place for me While the book unveils many facts about Putin's rise to power and sheds light on his current political style, it fails to draw a strong conclusive line and sort of loses focus on the main figure towards the end. At the same time, the author's anti-Putin position is obviously tangible, which prevents the book from being objective. Granted, one would expect an analytical book on Vladimir Putin written by this author to be somewhat biased, but for my taste the bias was a little bit too strong, sometimes steering away from the main story.
In addition, one should keep in mind that the book ends citing some events taking place in 2011, and quite a few changes have occurred since then; and it would be interesting to see a new edition of the book with some commentary about the current affairs.
2 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on March 10, 2012
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.
17 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on March 7, 2024
The author analyses and illuminates the threat that Putin poses to Russia and the globe. Putin, a former KGB agent, has suppressed any freedom in Russia and introduced a new Russian imperialism. It is a luminous study. Gessen has written a brave book, destroying and demolishing the numerous myths and stories around Putin.
One person found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on March 20, 2012
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.
9 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

Ann Quevillon
5.0 out of 5 stars The Essential Primer on Putin
Reviewed in Canada on August 4, 2022
Ignore publication date because this is so well researched and documented, the book stands as verification to this day. Essential to understand the Putin of today and the future.
One person found this helpful
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Nandhini Ilamaran
5.0 out of 5 stars Memorable treasure
Reviewed in India on December 28, 2023
To be read by upcoming fireballs !
B
5.0 out of 5 stars Easy, informative and chilling read
Reviewed in Germany on July 9, 2019
A captivating read about the chilling rise of one of the world's most powerful men. Page-turner.
Mitchell
5.0 out of 5 stars Great read
Reviewed in Australia on July 28, 2023
Absolutely damming account of the life and times of Vladimir Putin. Well researched and well done written.
Bernd
5.0 out of 5 stars Interesting insight to Russia
Reviewed in Spain on January 25, 2016
Interesting book. It gives you some insights of the Russian recent history and it confirms previous publications I have read.