An Afternoon with Mikhail Zygar

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Russian-born journalist Mikhail Zygar was ten years old when the Soviet Union collapsed. Now, after nearly ten years of research, he offers a timely and compelling new approach on Russian history—one that rewrites everything we thought we knew about the fall of the Soviet Union—and argues that its ending is yet to come. Starting with the historic launch of the first human into space in April 1961, Zygar unravels a dramatic story of resistance, resilience, and resurgence that led to the Soviet Union’s dissolution—and the echoes of its legacy today.
Zygar conducted several hundred exclusive interviews with key figures, including Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, first presidents of the independent post-Soviet republics, the last first secretaries of these republics, and leaders of independence movements within them, as well as Western politicians and diplomats who were witnesses to and participants in those events. He dives into the struggles and triumphs of figures like Andrei Sakharov, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, and Vladimir Vysotsky, whose defiance of totalitarianism is both inspiring and deeply relevant. Zygar explains how the “victory” over the Soviet Empire may have been short-lived, as today’s Russian regime maintains its imperial ambitions.

Mikhail Zygar is a journalist, writer, and filmmaker, and the founding editor-in-chief of Russian news channel Dozhd, which provided an alternative to Kremlin-controlled federal TV channels by giving a platform to opposition voices. The recipient of an International Press Freedom Award, Zygar writes a weekly column on Russia and the war for DerSpiegel and also writes for the New York Times, Time Magazine, Vanity Fair, and Foreign Affairs. He is also the author of All the Kremlin’s Men, The Empire Must Die, and War and Punishment. Currently a guest lecturer at Columbia University, he lives in New York with his husband.

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