I lived in Russia for three years and found that Kremlin Rising did not in fact reflect either my experiences or those of my friends. The authors have a clear bias against Russian culture and the facts of life there, and seem to expect everyone to embrace American values and ideologies regardless of their historical and social experiences. For a much better book covering the same era, try Andrew Jack's 'Inside Putin's Russia'. You'll find balance and a decent understanding of both sides of the story, not just one which perpetuates Cold War mentalities.

I can still remember the heady days of 1989 that marked the end of the Cold War. Then came the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

The conventional wisdom back then was that Russia would evolve into a Western-style democracy. (The Communism gig had clearly run its course, after all.) Everyone was giddy about Russia. Great, we all thought. The Ruskies don't want to bomb us anymore. And they've given up on the idea of turning Western Europe into a sausage and boiled bean-eating worker's paradise. The German heavy metal band Scorpions even waxed poetic on the changes with a song, "Winds of Change", in 1991. That song got a lot of airplay.

We didn't consider that there was a third alternative: a Russia which is neither democratic nor Communist. This is the nation described in "Kremlin Rising".

Baker and Glasser describe a Russian economy that is recovering from ten years of mismanagement under Boris Yeltsin. Vladamir Putin's Russia is regaining its place in the world---but not necessarily as the liberal democratic partner of our post-Glasnost visions. Putin has firmly reestablished a system of one-party rule within Russia; now the one party is his own United Russia party instead of the Communists.

This is a book about geopolitics and power struggles in high places. But it is also a book that explores the new Russia on the ground, at an intensely personal level. There are many individual stories in Kremlin Rising. As the authors describe, some Russians are successfully becoming nouveau riche capitalists. (Moscow reportedly boasts more billionaires than any other city in the world.) Others are flailing about without direction or a social safety net, unable to cope with the Russian version of capitalism.

This is a book that no one would have predicted in 1991. It is a must-read for those of you have been watching Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union.

KREMLIN RISING: VLADIMIR PUTIN'S RUSSIA AND THE END OF REVOLUTION appears in an updated edition to offer a behind-the-scenes look at modern Russia. The authors were Moscow bureau chiefs for the Washington Post and witnessed firsthand the campaign to change Russia back to an authoritarian state: their observations of Putin's rise reads with the drama of fiction and the authority of fact, and is key to understanding today's Russia, making it a top pick not just for college-level holdings but for any library including modern Russian history in its collection.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch