Kagarlitsky’s book presents an account of Russia’s twentieth-century political past in order to analyze how and why the post-Soviet period has unfolded as so aggressive and undemocratic, driven by a merciless capitalism of oligarchs and primitive accumulation. Particular attention is paid to the regimes of Yeltsin and Putin, the linkages between the media and politics, and the disintegration of the Russian left. Essential for an understanding of Russia’s relationship to the ‘West’, particularly in light of the developments in the post-Soviet period.