The Man Without a Face - Masha Gessen

National Book Award winner Masha Gessen's biography of a ruthless man's ascent to near-absolute power.

The Man Without a Face is the chilling account of how a low- level, small-minded KGB operative ascended to the Russian presidency
and, in an astonishingly short time, destroyed years of progress and
made his country once more a threat to her own people and to the world.

Handpicked as a successor by the "family" surrounding an ailing and
increasingly unpopular Boris Yeltsin, Vladimir Putin seemed like a perfect choice for the
oligarchy to shape according to its own designs. Suddenly the boy who
had stood in the shadows, dreaming of ruling the world, was a public
figure, and his popularity soared. Russia and an infatuated West were
determined to see the progressive leader of their dreams, even as he
seized control of media, sent political rivals and critics into exile
or to the grave, and smashed the country's fragile electoral system,
concentrating power in the hands of his cronies.

As a journalist living in Moscow, Masha Gessen experienced this
history firsthand, and for The Man Without a Face she has drawn
on information and sources no other writer has tapped. Her account of
how a "faceless" man maneuvered his way into absolute-and absolutely corrupt-power is the definitive biography of Vladimir Putin.