The Dark Side of the Earth

A TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR 'Tells the story with a mordant eye, weaving together the disintegration of Mikhail Gorbachev's reformist ambitions, the implosion of the Soviet economy and the plight of ordinary people'
DOMINIC SANDBROOK 'Savage, comic and tragic . . . Brilliant' JOHN CRACE
Who won the Cold War? All my life I thought I knew the answer . . . In 1961, the Soviet Union put the first man into space. By 1991, it had disappeared. How could just a single generation separate the apex of a civilisation from its collapse? And what remained stirring in its ruins? Through the lives of that last generation, renowned Kremlin critic Mikhail Zygar reveals the truth about how everything came crashing down. A tale of epic hubris, told with jaw-dropping candour via the memories of its protagonists and victims, this is a masterpiece of narrative history, essential for understanding modern Russia. 'This is history as it should be: written like a novel and brimming with moral urgency. Extraordinary'
IAN DUNT 'Pointed, novel, and profoundly relevant' FOREIGN POLICY 'One of the most thoughtful Russian writers of our time . . . You may think you know how it all ends, but still, you simply can't put it down'
YULIA NAVALNAYA

Mikhail Zygar was the founding editor-in-chief of Russia's only independent news TV channel, Dozhd, which gave a platform to opposition voices. He won the International Press Freedom Award in 2014. He is the author of War and Punishment, The Empire Must Die, and All the Kremlin's Men, a #1 bestseller in Russia that has been translated into over twenty languages and was called one of 'nine books that can help you understand Russia right now' by Time.