Marx had an idea, and it was implemented in Russia, and it mutated by Russia and its imperial past into a nightmarish totalitarian view that we in the west call Stalinism, but it was Russian communism lamentably it was the only example of communism that spread through the world with the same nightmarish consequences.

We have never understood the power of a culture too reshape an ideology into its own soul and how that influence acts like a prism that separates and reconfigures the source. It will appear entirely alien to a western mind as it grows out a totalitarian logic and has been rumbling better minds than mine from the beginning of the century. This book is the best book I have read about modern Russia aspirations and the philosophy that propels fuels its motivations. It is necessary listening for any citizen of a democracy.įrom Russian communism to Russian fascism & chaosĮssential and a must read, the best nonfiction book of 2018 A nation that has never had actual freedom grows to create a culture that distrusts the very idea of democracy and individual rights it has no place in its soul or in the very institutions that hold it together, and such a nation has been an empire it sees this very fact as a successful formula, a reason to conquer to dominate. The Road to Unfreedom helps us to see our world as if for the first time. History never ends, and this new challenge forces us to face the choices that will determine the future: equality or oligarchy, individualism or totalitarianism, truth or lies. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the creation of Donald Trump, an American failure deployed as a Russian weapon.īut this threat presents an opportunity to better understand the pillars of our freedoms, confront our own complacency and seek renewal. In this visionary work of contemporary history, Timothy Snyder shows how Russia works within the West to destroy the West: by supporting the far right in Europe, invading Ukraine in 2014, and waging a cyberwar during the 2016 presidential campaign and the EU referendum.

And if Moscow's drive to dissolve Western states and values succeeds, this could become our reality, too.

But it also represents the fulfilment of tendencies already present in the West. Today's Russia is an oligarchy propped up by illusions and repression. But which country? For Europeans and Americans today, the answer is Russia. The past is another country, the old saying goes. Random House presents the audiobook edition of The Road to Unfreedom, written and read by Timothy Snyder.

The road to unfreedom book