"The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia" with Masha Gessen

Harvard Book Store and Mass Humanities welcome award-winning journalist Masha Gessen. Hailed for her “fearless indictment of the most powerful man in Russia” (The Wall Street Journal), award-winning journalist Masha Gessen is unparalleled in her understanding of the events and forces that have wracked her native country in recent times. In The Future Is History, she follows the lives of four people born at what promised to be the dawn of democracy. Alexandra Vacroux, Executive Director at the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, talks with Gessen about Russia's history, identity narrative, and the current political climate.
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[@blisspop6193]

What we learn from history is that we don't learn from history! 😥

[@arthurdont1478]

Masha, do you have anything to say about a rise of totalitarianism in China?

[@neilhasid3407]

Brilliant talk.

[@vinzholton]

Good job Masha!

[@CrazyLeiFeng]

Russia is a country with unpredictible past

[@robertshonk518]

Google closed caption: "rabid Putinite" = "rabbit poo tonight"

[@emilykrahn3185]

Thank you very interesting

[@sot11cat]

6 years later: things are *10 times worse for both russia itself and most of its neighbours.

[@warreng3813]

Ah, the Hegelian Dialectic is strong in this one.

[@seanmoran2743]

Putin isn’t Lenin 🙄 A potential Czar yes but not Lenin And before we throw stones we should look at our own houses !

[@monicaalvaradogrijalva8533]

Masha Gessen excellent as always! Very poor traduccion.

[@erik_carter_art]

The host is practically holding the microphone in the opposite direction of her mouth...

[@arthurdont1478]

Masha, you know that Russia was close to democracy in 90-s, but American friends took advantage and bought Yeltsin another term in the office, democracy in Russia was killed with a help from the White House; Russians still remember how terrible was live in 90-s, how many young soldiers were killed in Chechnya because of an incompetence of the central democratic government in Moscow. Do you remember Beslan, Budennovsk, Dubrovka Theater in Moscow?

[@MrFram]

Oh yeah, it was the Americans, not the leftover nomenklatura, the "former" KGB agents and "former" КПСС members who were in power. Yeltsin, Putin, and many other high ranking govt officials were part of the nomenklatura that needed to be lustrated in the 90s, like in Poland or Czech republic or other normal postsoviet countries, but not in Russia ofcourse

[@NorthernObserver]

@@MrFram you have a choice. Truth or Lies. You’ve chosen lies. And we must suffer your choice.

[@MrFram]

@@NorthernObserver well suffer then, in the two years between that comment and this one, I already stole the tractor

[@seanmoran2743]

@@MrFram America brought in aggressive capitalism and created the oligarchs instead of doing what the western allies did to Germany after 1945 American policy over the last decades has been to rub Russia’s nose in the dirt when ever it can.

[@mudchair16]

Projecting.

[@flugsven]

Yes, that is a very populair tool to deflect and confuse. Trumpers use it Constantly. Then again, I guess Putin tought him.

[@NorthernObserver]

Liberalism is always innocent …. in its own mind and the minds of its believers.

[@NorthernObserver]

@@flugsven the fact you referenced trump shows how under control you are.

[@flugsven]

@@NorthernObserver So you deny trump was putins trainee?

[@andreneto7898]

try vanezuela in the next book, or maybe cuba, china ... this is not journalism.

[@brandgardner211]

Poisonous little lesbian. Dear Langley, Thank you for all the funny clowns you have been sending lately. They are too numerous to name, but rest assured, we do appreciate your efforts. Laughter is always good. Even when it is not intended.

[@davidlewisjohnson4235]

Poisonous little Duginist homophobe! You sure sound triggered, buttercup.

[@markofsaltburn]

Thank you, GBH, for not deleting this comment - let’s not deny or push away what we’re dealing with here.

[@NorthernObserver]

I wanted to love Masha, I have a soft spot for East European dissidents as they bring a unique perspective western intellectuals often lack. Unfortunately Ms Gessen has very sharp anti natalist, anti family views that can only be described as pure Nihilism. I find she harms the queer movement by embracing such viewpoints. Go listen to her interview with Sam Harris on the waking up podcast. It’s unbelievable, she’s quite stubborn on her points; she can’t imagine a positive heterosexuality. How can this be progressive? How is this a way forward? Masha simply says these questions are unimportant.

[@jackellsworthsavage5384]

ohh, brand - you again? try not to be bitter?

[@kaitykaity]

Ad hominem. Get over it.