---
product_id: 152601816
title: "The Future Is History (National Book Award Winner): How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia Paperback – October 2, 2018"
brand: "masha gessen"
price: "R573"
currency: ZAR
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 5
url: https://www.desertcart.co.za/products/152601816-the-future-is-history-national-book-award-winner-how-totalitarianism
store_origin: ZA
region: South Africa
---

# The Future Is History (National Book Award Winner): How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia Paperback – October 2, 2018

**Brand:** masha gessen
**Price:** R573
**Availability:** ✅ In Stock

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- **What is this?** The Future Is History (National Book Award Winner): How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia Paperback – October 2, 2018 by masha gessen
- **How much does it cost?** R573 with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.co.za](https://www.desertcart.co.za/products/152601816-the-future-is-history-national-book-award-winner-how-totalitarianism)

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## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Explaining the catastrophe that is today's Russia though the eyes of a few families
*by E***D on April 8, 2022*

One of the things that you discover in this book is the use of pedophilia accusations as a political weapon is rife in Putin's Russia. We already knew that Putin has poisoned the US political system and in particular the Republican Party. But if you were wondering why QAnon and GOP nutcases like Marjorie Taylor Greene are so obsessed with this smear, wonder no longer. This is right out of the Putin playbook. It worked for him in Russia, he's trying to make it work for him here, both through his poisoning of social media and through his overt links with the religious right.Gessen follows a handful of Russian families from the end of the Soviet era, through the collapse of the Soviet Union, through the chaotic, but free, 1990s and then through the return to totalitarianism after Putin comes from nowhere to become Russian president.For the most part it works very well. It owes a lot to Tolstoy's War and Peace (don't be put off by that), which also explored the impact of profound historical change through the lens of its impact on families, except this is non-fiction. Gessen herself admits War and Peace was her model. War and Peace has philosophical sections - Gessen, instead, and I think rightly so, analogously tries to explain the psychological reasons why many Russians have willingly returned to totalitarianism. I found some of the psychology stuff to be a bit heavy going, but ultimately I thought it was worthwhile and it's very much a minority of the book. You could, if you want, skim that material and still take a lot away.The Soviet era lasted 70 years, at least a couple generations. What happens when you take 150 million Russians who grew up in an utterly stultifying and static environment, where very little was subject to individual initiative, where your place in society was largely fixed based on who your parents were, where very little change was possible, where your entire life was subject to the state and where they were told they were the best in the world - and now, "set them free", in a country which has been stripped of its empire and is clearly, now, at best, a second-rate power.And the answer is you've got a situation ripe for disaster.It's interesting to contrast (Gessen touches briefly on contrasts with the former Soviet satellite states, but not specifically on East Germany) with the East German experience. Germany was very lucky that East Germany was so small relative to West, that it had only 40 years under a Soviet system (not 70), that it had near constant exposure to the West through West German TV, and that totalitarianism was done by the Soviets to them (rather than being homegrown), that West Germany was rich enough to fund a very generous safety net for East Germany, and that in joining West Germany, East Germany was joining an undoubted success.United Germany has still had to deal with pathologies (extreme right wing/extreme left wing movements) that have taken root in the former East Germany, but, by-and-large, those have been diluted by the healthier west. None of these things were true in Russia.And so, you have an entire country, in Russia, that is unable to reconcile itself to the changes that have occurred, and which is profoundly susceptible to anyone who can spin them a story of recaptured glory. We've seen that movie many times before.If you want to understand just how screwed up Russia is, and why it backs Putin in his insane ventures, this is, I think, required reading.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Great history
*by D***E on June 19, 2025*

This is the best book I've ever read about any history. It explains Russian thinking and their cultural attitude and their lack of modern growth

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ No matter how broken you thought Russia was...
*by J***S on April 18, 2019*

According to Masha Gessen, the reality of life within Russia is unfathomable. The brief shining moment of proto-democracy was engulfed in a wave of corruption and totalitarianism that persists to this day. Gessen shares this story by following the lives of seven Russians from the end of the Cold War through the Trump era. Though Russia is often described as an oligarchy, Gessen makes a compelling case that Vladimir Putin has taken advantage of favorable events and political savvy to entrench himself as a totalitarian.A narrative that packs a punch, “The Future is History” creates an eyewitness feel that instills the same feeling of foreboding as the Russians that watch their fragile democracy melt away.

## Frequently Bought Together

- The Future Is History (National Book Award Winner): How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia
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- Mr. Churchill in the White House: The Untold Story of a Prime Minister and Two Presidents

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*Product available on Desertcart South Africa*
*Store origin: ZA*
*Last updated: 2026-03-12*