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Between Two Fires: Truth, Ambition, and Compromise in Putin’s Russia
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54
/100
I Index Overall Rating
Readers
64/100Critics
43/100Scholars
Author:
Joshua Yaffa
Publisher:
Tim Duggan Books
Date:
January 14, 2020
Yaffa, a correspondent for The New Yorker, introduces readers to some of the countryâs most remarkable figuresâfrom politicians and entrepreneurs to artists and historiansâwho have built their careers and constructed their identities in the shadow of the Putin system. Torn between their own ambitions and the omnipresent demands of the state, each walks an individual path of compromise.
What The Reviewers Say
...a fascinating and nuanced account that illuminates the myriad conflicting and often contradictory forces that have shaped the Russia of today.
Yaffa builds on...deeply reported and detailed profiles of Russians who have rationalized the constraints imposed on them and yet have learned how to become adept at what readers might call in the U.S. 'gaming the system.' It’s a fascinating exploration into the beliefs and psyches of Russians in many different career fields who reveal their souls to Yaffa, often to a surprising degree but with little apparent fear of reprisal..
...vivid depictions of extraordinary Russians’ heroic efforts to do something for their communities.
Yaffa isn’t interested primarily in Putin’s misdeeds, but rather in the responses of ordinary people to the society he’s shaped. He seeks the compromisers in contemporary Russia.
