The Descent

An extraordinary first-hand account of Russia's descent into totalitarianism, paranoia and madness.

Marc Bennetts, Russia correspondent for The Times, moved to Russia in the final years of President Yeltsin's rule - settling in what was then the most exciting new free country in the world after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Thirty years later, The Times pulled him out of Russia over concerns for his security. He is now banned by the Kremlin. His Russian wife and Russian-born daughter, meanwhile, have returned to Moscow, a place he may never be able to go to again.

Beginning with the Prodigy's legendary concert in Red Square, which seemed to signal a new era of freedom for the Russian people, and ending with the author narrowly escaping death under Russian fire in Eastern Ukraine, this book is a unique and personal diary of a descent into totalitarianism, from a man whom in his own words, once loved Russia.

He witnessed the often-terrifying events in Russia up close, observing how slowly but surely freedoms were stripped away and how the Kremlin's ubiquitous propaganda warped minds and fomented hatred of Putin's foes, both real and imagined.

Bennetts meets a vast array of characters, from Russian MPs, Chechnyan rebels, influential Russian Orthodox Church officials and violent Kremlin activists to opposition figures and a Siberian shaman. In this extraordinary panorama of a place gone mad, he shows exactly how a democracy becomes a totalitarian state, as democracies around the world elect strongmen as their leaders. This book shows how easily it can happen.