午夜剧场

"Nabokov once described a species of butterfly that had to learn how to change its color in the early stages of its development to hide from its natural enemies. Those enemies went extinct long ago, but the butterfly still changes color today for the pure pleasure of transformation. Something similar happened to the Russian elite." This description appears in a chapter discussing the bizarre personality of Surkov, the right-hand man of Putin, the founder of the new 'authoritarianism' regime.

Born in Kyiv in 1977, the author is a British citizen who went into exile from the Soviet Union shortly after birth with his Jewish dissident parents. He spent ten years in Russia starting from 2001, working for television stations and other organizations, a period that perfectly overlaps with Russia's oil bubble and the continuation of Putin's rule. Based on his observations during that time, he vividly depicts cross-sections of Russian society, the roots of the Russian mentality, and Russia's world-leading propaganda and theatrical politics, winning the Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize. Timothy Snyder, who visited the Juku and gave a lecture last January, also listed it as a must-read in his book "On Tyranny" (both the original and my translation published in 2017).

The dozens of Russians who appear are truly diverse, ranging from oligarchs who have become the new jet set, to a prostitute who rejoices at getting her sister out of Islamic extremism so they can work together, a former gang member turned film director, a supermodel preyed upon by a cult, and a young man nearly dying from hazing in the military. Furthermore, the reporting covers various regions across Russia's eleven time zones.

The world the author depicts is likely dystopian: a Russian social climate where one cannot survive without bribes (money) and connections, spin control, the destruction of old Moscow by land sharking because everyone wants to be as close to power (the Kremlin) as possible, and money laundering by the wealthy. However, his gaze toward individual human beings is warm, and the various episodes are filled with irony and humor, giving the impression of reading an excellent short story. As mentioned in the acknowledgments, I once again received wisdom from Naoki Suzumura regarding German and Nordic relations. I write this while remembering the smile he showed me when I delivered this book to his bedside.

Peter Pomerantsev (Author), Toshiho Ikeda (Translator)

午夜剧场 Press

324 pages, 2,800 yen (excluding tax)