Frosty with a stick in his hand

In his new book, the author describes phenomena typical of contemporary Russian society and politics and illustrates them with recent events. He explains why it is virtually impossible for democracy to function in Russia, why there is police repression in the country, and where the expansive Russian mentality comes from. He bases all his theses on real facts from the past. In his analysis of the state of the present state, the author returns primarily to the Soviet era, in which contemporary Russia has its roots. In addition to specific events, he also draws on books and films, on the statements of experts and, last but not least, on his own experience gained during 22 years of life in the Soviet Union.

Alexandr Mitrofanov (1957) is a Czech journalist and publicist with Russian roots. It deals with domestic political events and topics related to developments in Russia. He is the recipient of the Journalistic Quail Award (1994), the Ferdinand Peroutka Award (2000), the Karel Havlíček Borovský Award (2015) and the Jiří Ješ Award for Commentary (2016). He is the author or co-author of the books Behind the Facade of the People's House (1998) and Politics Under the Lid (2002, with Markéta Maláčová), and has contributed to the anthologies Famous Paths of Social Democracy (2005), Why? (2018) and A Nation Not Understood? (2019). Since 2014, he has had a regular column on Novinky.cz called Through the Eyes of Sasha Mitrofanov. He is active as a microblogger @AlexandrMitrofa.

It is hopeless to hope for a change in Russia for the better if we understand that better to mean moving closer to Euro-Atlantic democracy. I have tried to explain in this book why I think Russia no longer has the "People" to do it. It is its own fault, but during the fits of imperial fever to which the Kremlin's leaders, and with them a large part of the population, succumb, there is always the danger that the innocent in other parts of the world will take the hit. Including us in the Czech Republic. Many who did not believe this were perhaps convinced that it was true after the Vrbětice case was exposed.