War and Punishment

The Story of Russian Oppression and Ukrainian Resistance

By: Mikhail Zygar

Narrated by: Richard Attlee

Length: 15 hrs and 47 mins

Publisher's summary

'History is made up of myths,' writes the renowned Russian dissident journalist Mikhail Zygar. 'Alas, our myths led us to the fascism of 2022. It is time to expose them.

Drawing from his perilous career investigating the frontiers of the Russian empire, Zygar reveals how 350 years of propaganda, bad historical scholarship, folk tales and fantasy spurred his nation into war with Ukraine.

How did a German monk's fear of the Ottoman Empire drive him to invent the fiction of a united Russian world? How did corny spy novels about a 'Soviet James Bond' inspire Vladimir Putin to join the KGB? How did Alexander Pushkin's admiration for a poem by Lord Byron end with him slandering the legendary chief of the Cossacks? And how did Putin underestimate a rising TV comic named Volodymyr Zelensky, failing to see that his satire had become deadly serious, and that his country would be a joke no longer?

A noted expert on the Kremlin with unparalleled access to hundreds of players in the current conflict - from politicians to oligarchs, gangsters to comedians (not least Zelensky himself) - Zygar chronicles the power struggles from which today's politics grew, and digs out the essential truths from behind layers of seductive legend. By surveying the strange, complex record of Russo-Ukrainian relations, War and Punishment reveals exactly how the largest nation on Earth lost its senses. A work of history can't undo the past or transform the present, but sometimes it can shape the future.

In fact, that's how the story begins.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2023 Mikhail Zygar (P)2023 Orion Publishing Group Limited

Critic reviews

"Knowing he could always follow many colleagues and activists into jail, hospital, or into the graveyard, Zygar persists" (Christiane Amanpour)

The most important political book of 2023

If you've been following my book recommendations for a while, you know that I absolutely adore Mikhail Zygar’s seminal work, All the Kremlin’s Men, which delves into Putin’s rise to power. I loved it so much that I chose it as my personal book of the year 2019.

Now, Mikhail has penned a sort of sequel, primarily focused on Ukraine. “War and Punishment: The Story of Russian Oppression and Ukrainian Resistance” is a masterpiece that blends medieval and modern history with current events, including a biographical exploration of Volodymyr Zelensky's journey into politics.

I believe that War and Punishment is the most important political book published this year, given Zygar’s unparalleled insight into Russian and Kremlin politics.

Fun fact: When Zygar first met and interviewed Zelensky, the latter told him that he had read All the Kremlin’s Men to better understand how Putin thinks. Well, good luck with that! Anyway, this is just how indispensable and unique Zygar's perspective is.

If you've read All the Kremlin’s Men, then this new book is a must-read. If you haven’t, I highly recommend reading both books. You'll learn a lot, and I guarantee you won't be able to put them down until you've finished.

A must read if you want to understand the origins of this war

Excellent book on the history of Ukraine and Russia, from the 1600s until the beginning of the war. Russian imperialistic myths have led to this war, and hopefully this will be the end of the empire.