NOVEMBER 2022 - AudioFile
In a deep, resonant voice, Jonathan Keeble gives a splendid narration of this long and well-researched biography of Vladimir Putin. While not depicting the Russian leader as “Putler,” as some have called him, the author presents Putin as a very dangerous man. This is certainly the prevailing view of him in the West and especially the Anglosphere. Still, many of my Russian émigré friends are big Putin admirers, and this may give them pause. Keeble, while giving a British pronunciation to some Russian words, is still quite splendid. His pacing is perfect, and his resonant voice gives a serious tone to this most serious of biographies. M.T.F. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine
From the Publisher
Praise for Philip Short's Putin
“A compelling, impressive and methodically researched account of Putin’s life so far. [It] extensively covers the dark moments of Putin’s career…. The Putin of Short’s book is not someone you would invite to dinner: he is crude and cold, arrogant and heartless.”
—Peter Baker, The New York Times
“Convincing. . . . The most comprehensive English-language biography to date of the Russian leader.”
—The New Yorker
“Anyone wanting to learn more about Putin’s personality, ideas, power and the threat he has come to pose to world peace should read this outstanding biography.”
—Ian Kershaw, author of Hitler
“A biography years in the making offers a thorough look at the Russian president’s life, career and concentration of power. Short…draws on hundreds of interviews for this portrait, charting Putin’s transformation into a ruthless autocrat.”
—The New York Times Book Review
“Magisterial…. Illuminating…. Short’s Putin is a man of violent emotions ruthlessly repressed; habitually late (a power play over those kept waiting); devoid of small talk; so inscrutable that when he proposed to his wife she initially thought he was dumping her.”
—The Guardian
“Philip Short’s elegantly written and pacy Putin is a doorstopper and the product of eight years of research. Its publication, a few months after the invasion, makes it the most up-to-date biography available of Vladimir Putin.”
—Gideon Rachman, Financial Times
“Compelling and nuanced.”
—San Francisco Chronicle
“An unflinching, comprehensive, up-to-date biography of autocratic Russian President Vladimir Putin as he wreaks havoc on the global stage, digging deep to reveal the man behind the mask.”
—USA Today
Praise for Biographies by Philip Short
“[Short] is excellent at coining pithy summations of political motives that ring humanly true.”
—The New York Times Book Review
“Achieves the near impossible feat of translating madness into logic. This biography is a tour de force.”
—David Levering Lewis, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of W.E.B. Du Bois
“Nowhere has the story . . . been told with greater authority.”
—The Washington Post
“Unerringly broadens the inquiry to the point where serious history begins, and serious judgments can be made.”
—Financial Times
“Masterfully prob[ing].”
—Wall Street Journal
“The best sort of biography—deeply informed, entirely readable, and at the level of sophistication and complexity needed for its particular subject.”
—Richard Bernstein, coauthor of The Coming Conflict with China
“Chillingly clear . . . Complete and unflinching.”
—The Economist
Library Journal
★ 07/02/2022
Vladimir Putin has had his finger in almost every international political pie of the 21st century. To understand what drives the man and how he controls post-Soviet Russia, journalist Short (Mao: A Life) explores the totality of Putin's life. Details of his infancy, childhood, and schooling in St. Petersburg, his marriage, life as a KGB operative in Dresden, and his nascent political career in St. Petersburg add context to the man who has presided over Russia for two decades. Extensive research including interviews with acquaintances from childhood through adulthood, observers from multiple countries, and information regarding his family life flesh out as closely as currently possible the truths and lies that comprise the Putin mystique. Sketches of Russian life during the Brezhnev, Gorbachev, and Yeltsin eras put Putin's obsession with regaining respect for Russia in context. VERDICT Short has written a remarkable biography, rich in facts and details, of Putin's life and career. This book will appeal to readers with an interest in Russia, world history, biographies of world leaders, and current events.—Laurie Unger Skinner
NOVEMBER 2022 - AudioFile
In a deep, resonant voice, Jonathan Keeble gives a splendid narration of this long and well-researched biography of Vladimir Putin. While not depicting the Russian leader as “Putler,” as some have called him, the author presents Putin as a very dangerous man. This is certainly the prevailing view of him in the West and especially the Anglosphere. Still, many of my Russian émigré friends are big Putin admirers, and this may give them pause. Keeble, while giving a British pronunciation to some Russian words, is still quite splendid. His pacing is perfect, and his resonant voice gives a serious tone to this most serious of biographies. M.T.F. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
★ 2022-05-18
The author of authoritative books on Mao and Pol Pot returns with another impressive yet disturbing account of a dangerous world leader.
Events in Ukraine will spur sales of this thick biography, but any praise is well deserved, as Short offers an insightful and often discouraging text on the Russian president. Born in 1952 in Leningrad, he grew up in a tiny, shabby apartment shared with two other families. Entering the KGB in 1975, he left in 1991 to join Leningrad’s city government in the exhilarating aftermath of Gorbachev’s perestroika. Diligent and efficient, Putin rose to prominence and moved to Moscow in 1996, becoming President Boris Yeltsin’s trusted assistant and then successor in 2000. Russia’s constitution (approved under Yeltsin) gives its president far more powers than America’s, but Short shows how Putin’s KGB background lowered his inhibitions on imprisoning or murdering political opponents; as time passed, his word became law. The author has no quarrel with the accusation that Putin destroyed the democratic liberties that followed glasnost, but he also points out that, for most Russians, the 1990s were a time of crushing poverty, crime, and disorder. Early on under Putin, living standards increased, and the streets became safer. Few Russians admire the Soviet Union, other than its status as an empire and great power. Many Russians, including Putin, are angry about how the U.S. boasted of victory during the Cold War, gave advice but little else during the lean years, and broke its promise not to expand NATO to former Soviet nations, thereby stoking Russia’s long-standing paranoia about being surrounded by enemies. Putin’s 2014 seizure of Crimea and backing of secessionists in eastern Ukraine remain popular, and many Russians support the invasion of Ukraine despite its difficulties. Having read obsessively and interviewed almost everyone, Putin included, Short delivers a consistently compelling account of Putin’s life so far. Contradictions abound, and the author is not shy about pointing out frank lies from sources that include Putin as well as his enemies.
Required reading for anyone interested in global affairs.
