The Successor - by Mikhail Fishman (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

HOW RUSSIA LOST ITS CHANCE OF FREEDOM: A landmark work of political history detailing the decline of modern Russia, taking us right up to Putin's invasion of Ukraine.

Brilliantly told through the tumultuous life and brutal assassination of Boris Nemtsov (1959-2015).

When Russia emerged from the debris of 70 years of Communist party rule, the country offered signs of hope it would become a democracy and a respected player on the international scene. Instead, it turned into a dictatorship, one which has no respect for human rights, murders and imprisons its political opponents, and launched a war on a scale not seen in Europe since the end of World War II.

How did this happen?

The Successor explores recent Russian history through the life of the Russian liberal leader Boris Nemtsov, who started his political career in the late 80s--at the height of Gorbachev's Perestroika--and was assassinated in early 2015 beside his Ukrainian partner Anna Durytska, on a bridge near the Kremlin.

Nemtsov took part in or witnessed all the landmark events that shaped Russia and its political trajectory, from the first free national elections and the coup attempt of 1991 to the annexation of Crimea in 2014. Nemtsov's fate reflects Russia's fate. At the time of his assassination, Nemtsov was helping to organize a rally against the Russian military intervention in Ukraine and the Russian financial crisis.

Drawing on vast numbers of archival materials and off-the-record interviews with figures such as Alexey Navalny, exiled Russian journalist Mikhail Fishman constructs a comprehensive, landmark work of political journalism. As engrossing as it is disturbing, The Successor is both a biography of Nemtsov and of Russia itself.

Review Quotes

"Mikhail Fishman, a veteran journalist of the Putin era, tells the Nemtsov story with extraordinary reportorial detail and a profound sense of what could have been."
--David Remnick, author of Lenin's Tomb

"Searching, propulsive.... Offers a glimpse of the open, pluralist Russia that almost was--and may yet be."
--The New York Times

"An engrossing account of Russia's fleeting brush with democracy and its slide back into authoritarian rule, told through the life of a man once expected to succeed Yeltsin. Fishman brilliantly evokes the charged atmosphere of those years, a time when anything seemed possible--until it wasn't."
--Daniel Treisman, co-author of Spin Dictators: The Changing Face of Tyranny in the 21st Century

"[A] fascinating account of two men--and two irreconcilable visions--for Russia's future... An intimate portrait of political rivals at the moment Russia's fragile freedom gave way to authoritarian rule."
--Kirkus Reviews

"Richly detailed... An intricate, political cautionary tale."
--Publishers Weekly

"For anyone who wants to understand how, despite all the hopes for freedom and democracy as Soviet communism was dying in the 1980s, Russia has turned back into one of the world's worst tyrannies, this excellent book is as good a place as any to start. It is less a biography of Nemtsov than the story of modern Russia seen through his subject's eyes... A vaulable reminder of one of Russia's important martyrs for freedom."
--The Sunday Times

"Much more than a biography... A fascinating insider account of Russia's descent from imitation democracy to fully-fledged tyranny, with Nemtsov's life as a connecting thread."
--The Irish Times

About the Author

Mikhail Fishman is one of Russia's leading political journalists. Active since the late 1990s, he has chronicled Russia's dramatic political life. He served as editor-in-chief of Russian Newsweek and The Moscow Times, as well as hosting the Friday night news round-up at TV Rain, Russia's leading independent news network. In 2017, Fishman and Vera Krichevskaya released The Man Who Was Too Free, a documentary feature on Boris Nemtsov. It was the highest-grossing documentary in Russia in at least a decade and laid the groundwork for this book, which was an instant bestseller on Russian publication in 2022. Fishman faced increasing intimidation and suppression from the state; when Putin launched the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, he left for Amsterdam, where he now lives and works in exile with his family.

Michele A Berdy is a writer, translator and journalist who lived in Russia for over 40 years.