The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia

by Masha Gessen

Totalitarianism establishes its own social contract, in which most people will be safe from violence most of the time, provided they stay within certain boundaries and shoulder some of the responsibility for keeping other citizens within the same boundaries. The

The crackdown proceeded swiftly. After the law on public gatherings came a law that required nongovernmental organizations that received foreign funding to register as “foreign agents,” which, in turn, would subject them to paralyzing financial reporting requirements and would serve as a scarlet letter: such organizations would have to add “foreign agent” to all their public communications, which would presumably range from business cards to op-ed articles. In August, the women of Pussy Riot were sentenced to two years’ imprisonment for “hooliganism,” becoming the first people to receive years in jail for peaceful protest. All along, more people were being arrested in the Bolotnoye case. In