Professor Daniel Treisman answers some of scholars' most pressing questions that haunt modern day Russia. Why did the Soviet Union disintegrate, and could its collapse have been avoided? Did Yeltsin destroy too much or too little of the Soviet political order? What explains Putin's unprecedented popularity with the Russian public? How did the "oligarchs" reshape the Russian economy?

Treisman suggests that these questions can be answered by looking back through the dynamic political and social traditions of the region. Rigorous rather than rhetorical, this book uses historically documented evidence with modern day conditions to paint a complete picture of Russia today. In a time when global politics are more important than ever, it is critical for us to understand the inner workings.

Daniel Treisman has written a book about Russia today that is calm, sane, judicious, very well informed, and written in the kind of prose that makes you want to read on. It is a welcome and necessary antidote to much fashionable Western writing that portrays Russia as a kleptocracy ruled by a secret policeman intent on victory in a new Cold War.... Russia has certainly returned. Whether we like it or not we are likely, if we want to achieve our own objectives, to find ourselves having to treat the Russians with the respect they believe they deserve, and can increasingly command.

--Rodric Braithwaite, former UK ambassador to the Soviet Union and Russia, author of Across the Moscow River: The World Turned Upside Down and Moscow 1941: A City and Its People at War

This excellent book provides both an elegant and comprehensive account of Russia's turbulent history over the last quarter century and penetrating and sometimes surprising analyses of the main political and economic issues that that history raises.

--Michael Mandelbaum, author, The Frugal Superpower: America's Global Leadership in a Cash-Strapped Era

Possessing both deft storytelling abilities and deep scholarly knowledge, Treisman provides a truly masterful exposition of the tumultuous past two decades in Russian history, politics, and society. Anyone interested in Russia and its leaders should read this book.

--James Goldgeier, George Washington University

Daniel Treisman treats us to an elegant and learned history that demystifies Russia's transformation from a communist state to a normal country. This is the best and most readable account of Russia's rebirth.

--Anders Aslund, Senior Fellow, Peterson Institute for International Economics

Daniel Treisman is a professor of political science at the University of California, Los Angeles, and a leading specialist on post-communist Russia’s politics and economics. A recipient of fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, the German Marshall Fund of the United States, and the Hoover Institution, he is the author of two previous acclaimed books on Russia. He lives with his family in Malibu, California.