WINNER OF THE ORWELL PRIZE 2016 How did a country that liberated itself from seventy years of Soviet rule end up as one of the biggest threats to the West & above all to its own future? Why did the people who rejected Communist ideology come to accept state propaganda? In this bold & important book Arkady Ostrovsky takes the reader on an enthralling journey through Russia's tumultuous post-Soviet transformation & illuminates the key turning points that often took the world by surprise As a foreign correspondent in his own country Ostrovsky has experienced Russia's modern history first-hand & through original research & interviews he reveals the ideological conflicts compromises & temptations that have left Russia on a knife-edge