A book that had nothing to do with Putin opened up discussion of taboo topics.
 | By Tim Schneider Senior Staff Editor, Opinion |
From afar, Russia can look like a terrible, terrifying place. |
Repression rules the land and propaganda distorts it: Between the threat of punishment and the insistence on praise, the space for dissent — or even mildly critical thinking — is vanishingly small. The hopes for a better Russia can seem as doomed as the conscripts pressed into Vladimir Putin's war. |
But that's not the full story, and occasionally something comes my way that testifies to the country's complexity. This time, it was an email from Alexander Baunov, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center (whose Moscow office was shut down by the authorities last year). He wanted to write about the International Criminal Court's warrant for Putin — remember that? — but mentioned in passing that a book he wrote had, very unexpectedly, become a best seller in Russia. My ears pricked up. |
What's interesting is that the book, "The End of the Regime: How Three European Dictatorships Ended," is not about Russia or Putin. Instead, it's a historical account of how the regimes of Franco in Spain, Salazar in Portugal and the colonels in Greece fell — not the sort of undertaking that usually tops the charts. But in Russia, it has been a sensation. There have been several print runs and bookshops across the country have put it on prominent display. |
Surreptitiously, the book has given rise to "the discussion of taboo topics," Baunov writes in a guest essay. Questions about how dictatorships end and whether Russia can become a democracy are in the air, and not just among those who oppose the regime. Despite everything, he says, "Russians have not stopped asking questions about what comes next." This remarkable reception offers a fascinating glimpse of Russian reality, so often shrouded in mist. |
"I did not expect it," he told me of the book's success. "It gives hope." |
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