30 pre-eminent voices capture Russia’s soul—top Kremlin dissidents, key NATO commanders, investigative journalists, leading historians, human rights specialists, a Nobel laureate and the only Duma deputy to vote against the invasion of Ukraine. For decades, the West has struggled to reconcile Russia’s ‘greatness’ with its barbaric behaviour. This is a unique, multi-faceted dissection that strips away the Kremlin’s propaganda and reveals Russia’s people as well as its psychopathic vertical autocracy—from the chilling legacy of the USSR to the modern petro-tyranny of Putin’s regime. Authoritative and sobering, this is a concise ledger to understanding Russia and the inventive ways in which Ukraine has neutralised Russia’s cultural sabotage.