Gessen is basically chronicling the rise of Putin and his mafia don status in Russia. She narrates the main events and steps leading up to the current situation, starting with the fall of the Soviet Union, and makes the links to economic, political and geopolitical events, and how they affected the development of the current system.
She also includes summaries and discussions of other interesting elements that she sees leading to the rise of Putin.
One interesting sub-theme revolves around the first Russian sociologist to actually conduct surveys to get a sense of the public's view and attitudes, and to chronicle the changes from the 90s on. (She also discusses the impossibility of sociology as a discipline during Soviet times.)
She also references a number of academics and articles which attempt to define the current Russian system of governance - totalitarian? fascist? dictatorship? Unfortunately none of the source material seems to be available in English. The one she seems to lean most strongly towards is a mafia system - I tend to agree. Ideology is irrelevant. The goal of "governanace" is to increase and control both wealth and power. The system is run by a Don (Putin) who distributes wealth, power, positions as he sees fit. (And also takes them away when he sees fit.) Ideology serves as a pacifying or distracting element - new Orthodox religion, family values, anti-immigrant and anti-gay policies.
She also chronicles a return to the Soviet system of almost random intimidation and punishment - the use of gay concept, the ever useful tax evasion charge - as a way of intimidating society to follow the leader and not challenge power.
There is also a psycho-analytical sub-theme, which explores the idea of trauma and how it affects a society, interpersonal relations, etc. The trauma in this case is, of course, the 18 odd years of terror under Stalin.
I find this particularly interesting, as she is exploring a governance model that is gaining prevalence in many countries currently. What lies behind the strong man phenomenon.
A complex book with lots of threads and ideas. Worth rereading, probably several times.
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