A rather depressing account of Russia slipping from one totalitarian system right into another. Great book for anyone interested in the Soviet and Russia's modern history as it contains tons of references to political events, speeches and personal impressions of the discussed events. It also reads very lightly as it's written as a rather unique record of lives of a few real people (some of them quite well known), following them from childhood in Soviet times, 1990's, beginning of Putin's rule and then ultimately the first war in Ukraine and rapid acceleration of repressions against civil society in Russia.