The Dark Side of the Earth

This is history as experience, systems rendered through the lives they shape and often destroy . . . The Dark Side of the Earth shines

DAILY TELEGRAPH

Savage, comic and tragic. Mikhail Zygar's brilliant eye-witness account of the end of the Soviet Union takes you to the heart of modern Russia

JOHN CRACE, author of DEPRAVED NEW WORLD

Blends political history, cultural studies, and biographical narrative to illuminate the persistence of imperial ideology . . . The Dark Side of the Earth reads less like a history book and more like a strategic briefing disguised as cultural analysis. Zygar's central insight is that Russia's post-Soviet trajectory cannot be understood through policy alone - it must be decoded through the stories it tells itself

THE CIPHER BRIEF

A marathon effort to retell the story of perestroika through hundreds of interviews [Zygar] conducted over several years with many of the leading participants . . . The tale jumps from one personality to another, weaving world events in the background, meandering across Russia's vast landscape . . . It is a dramatic story, full of wonderful anecdotes . . . Perhaps it is the only way to write about a revolution

FINANCIAL TIMES

In Zygar's book, it's people who take center stage, not messiahs; individual characters, not abstract nations. We see that it wasn't dictators who saved the world from apocalypse, but humanists. And the contrast with today's rulers makes the book all the more bitter and revealing. And yes, it's brilliantly written - with a lively, sparkling wit

DMITRY MURATOV, winner of the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize

Shows definitively that some leading Russians were lionised by the West for their anti-Soviet views simply on the basis that "my enemy's enemy is my friend" rather than dealing with them in the round

IRISH TIMES

Zygar is one of the most brilliant observers of contemporary Russia. He is both a protagonist in his country's recent history and a skilled analyst of its politics. The Dark Side of the Earth showcases his unique perspectives, and considerable talent for vivid storytelling as he looks back at the collapse of the Soviet Union. This is also a deeply personal story, which makes for a particularly powerful narrative and a profoundly moving book

FIONA HILL, former White House Russia advisor and witness in the impeachment of Donald Trump

An idiosyncratic, insightful account of both the end of the Soviet Union and the rise of Putinism - a useful and timely reminder of how closely these two forms of dictatorship are connected

ANNE APPLEBAUM, author of AUTOCRACY INC

This is history as it should be: written like a novel and brimming with moral urgency. An extraordinary piece of work

IAN DUNT, author of HOW WESTMINSTER WORKS . . . AND WHY IT DOESN'T

Weaves the lives of die-hard apparatchiks with the dreams of young Russian musicians more inspired by Dylan than Dostoevsky . . . A challenging but rewarding read

IRISH EXAMIINER

A book that will surely endure as the definitive account of an historic era, and serve as a timely reminder that where political systems are concerned, we should perhaps be a little more careful what we wish for.

PRESS ASSOCIATION

Encased within a moving personal narrative, and with an honesty and genuine wit from start to finish, The Dark Side of the Earth is a story of a country's soul, as seen through the everyday lives of its people. A work of moral urgency, Zygar cuts through the illusions, lies and blurred lines, spelling out the truth of a country that seems caught between the present and the past.

UNSEEN HISTORIES

Exiled Russian journalist Zygar delivers a sobering portrait of Russia's brief moment in democratic sunlight . . . An extraordinarily revealing account of how the Russia we know from today's headlines came into being

KIRKUS