Summary of Masha Gessen's The Man Without a Face

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.

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#1 In 1999, Boris Yeltsin, Russia’s president, was very ill. He had suffered several heart attacks and had undergone open-heart surgery soon after he was elected for a second term in 1996. He was not half the politician he had been, and his popularity rating was dipping into the single digits.

#2 After the fall of communism in Russia, the country was battered, traumatized, and disappointed. The Yeltsin government made the grave mistake of not addressing the country’s pain and fear. The people sought solace in nostalgia, and many were blinded by hurt and aggression.

#3 The government seemed incapable of convincing the people that things were better than they had been a couple of years earlier, and certainly better than a decade ago. The only thing the people wanted was someone to prosecute Yeltsin and the Family.

#4 Putin and Berezovsky began to see each other more frequently in 1996, when Putin moved to Moscow to take an administrative job at the Kremlin. By 1999, Berezovsky was a man under siege, and he had become something of a pariah.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Mar 24, 2022
• ISBN: 9781669368601

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Insights on Masha Gessen's The Man Without a Face

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 5

Insights from Chapter 6

Insights from Chapter 7

Insights from Chapter 8

Insights from Chapter 9

Insights from Chapter 10

Insights from Chapter 11

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

In 1999, Boris Yeltsin, Russia’s president, was very ill. He had suffered several heart attacks and had undergone open-heart surgery soon after he was elected for a second term in 1996. He was not half the politician he had been, and his popularity rating was dipping into the single digits.

#2

After the fall of communism in Russia, the country was battered, traumatized, and disappointed. The Yeltsin government made the grave mistake of not addressing the country’s pain and fear. The people sought solace in nostalgia, and many were blinded by hurt and aggression.

#3

The government seemed incapable of convincing the people that things were better than they had been a couple of years earlier, and certainly better than a decade ago. The only thing the people wanted was someone to prosecute Yeltsin and the Family.

#4

Putin and Berezovsky began to see each other more frequently in 1996, when Putin moved to Moscow to take an administrative job at the Kremlin. By 1999, Berezovsky was a man under siege, and he had become something of a pariah.

#5

As the Family looked for Russia’s next leader, meetings between Berezovsky and Putin commenced. Putin was the head of Russia’s secret police, and he began appointing people he knew from the Leningrad KGB to top positions in the federal structure.

#6

In 1999, Berezovsky flew to Biarritz to meet with Putin and convince him to accept the position of prime minister. He said Yeltsin sent him there to make sure there was no misunderstanding, so that Yeltsin would not have to say the words himself.

#7

The people who chose Putin to be president knew very little about him. He was seemingly devoid of personality and personal interest, which made him both malleable and disciplined.

#8

On August 9,