Gessen, a well-respected journalist and an activist herself, is all grit and groundwork, and zero slouch she plumbs the depths of her subjects' lives, unearthing grievances big and small, laying bare their insecurities and desires and, for some, the way their rights as citizens are repeatedly stomped on by Vladimir Putin's ongoing crackdowns. To achieve what she ambitiously envisioned as a 'long Russian (nonfiction) novel,' Gessen employs a whole host of protagonists - four young people born in the Soviet Union in the 1980s as well as sociologist Lev Gudkov, psychoanalyst Marina Arutyunyan and philosopher/political activist Alexander Dugin, folks who are 'neither 'regular people' … nor 'powerful people': they are people who try to understand.' The book's narrative unfolds into a particular kind of history-steeped, intergenerational Russian tale in which political consciousness meets internal strife and - more frequently than not, when the future itself appears to be a foregone conclusion - angst and despair.

Indeed, Russia continues to dominate the headlines the specter of its meddling in the 2016 presidential elections lingers, ever threatening to tip us into a frosty era in which 'an information war is waged against Western democracy as a concept and a reality.'īut Western democracy, which is itself embattled in America, is not exactly Gessen's main focus - rather it is democracy unrealized and undesired in post-Communist Russia it is its eventual, unconscionable death. No doubt, Gessen's 'The Future Is History,' arrives at an opportune time - a time, she writes, when Russia has 'reclaimed the role of evil and existentialist threat in America.' Even the subtitle, 'How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia,' sends an urgent, alarming message to the world. Its cover - a black-and-white photograph of a woman sitting inside what appears to be a booth, her face partly obscured by an intercom - gives off a foreboding air. Masha Gessen's latest book about modern-day Russia, which comes in at more than 500 pages, is unapologetically loud, a protest against complacency.

The future is history masha