The wizard of Kremlin by French Italian writer Guiliano Da Empoli originally published in French and later translated to English is page turner and has been winning accolades and rave reviews since publication.
Its after a long time that I have read fiction and was completely blown away by the book that I completed this in a single day cover to cover.
Even though the genre is fiction ,reality and politics are intervened and most of the characters take their original name.
The books protagonist is Vadim Baranov who is supposed to be a reflection of Vladislav Surkov who was part of Putins inner circle for a long time , who helped install Putin in the chaotic 90s after the formation of Russia and subsequent disintegration under Boris Yeltsins second term. He is called as Putins Rasputin and the Grey Cardinal.
What makes this book an absolute delight to read is the wise cracks, quotes from high literature and above all its perspective that is different from the western take on Russia’s troubled history right from the formation of an empire under Peter the Great to Ivan the terrible to Katheryn the great to the Tsars and then to the Soviets most notably Stalin and to the present Tsar Vladimir Putin (He is referenced as Tsar in most of the book).
The author drives the point that Russia when viewed from the western lens in a violent nation which is barbaric , but viewed from the insider perspective all of things happening and has happened in this great and vast countries’ history makes perfect sense.
"You can invent whatever you like—a proletarian revolution or unfettered liberalism—but the result is always the same: The oprichniki , the tsar’s elite watchdogs, are at the top.”
The Russians (or the Russ people) always wanted strong leadership, command and control mechanisms and to be directed by a father figure. Its only taken different forms as Tsars, communist dictators and under Putin as Soverign Democracy (Whatever that means )
"No one ever escapes his fate, and the fate of the Russians is that they are ruled by descendants of Ivan the Terrible,” says Vadim Baranov.
Putin found Surkov’s theories on “vertical power” and “sovereign democracy”—which involved plans to set up an autocratic system that looked like a democracy, complete with fake opposition parties controlled by the Kremlin—highly appealing. These theories and many others of Surkov’s that Putin put into practice, slowly turning Russia into a dictatorship over the years and starting to subjugate neighboring countries such as Ukraine, are center stage in the novel.
Baranov’s description of the restlessness and boundlessness of the “new Russia” under Yeltsin is marvelous and provides essential context to the subsequent rise of the tsar. “You could leave home in the afternoon to buy cigarettes,” Baranov remembers, “meet a friend, and wake up two days later in a chalet in Courchevel [in the French Alps], half-naked, surrounded by sleeping beauties, with no idea whatsoever how you had gotten there.”
I will not discuss further details of this wonderful book and rip you all of the pleasure of exploring this one that I enjoyed thoroughly.
Highly Recommended read
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