Discussion #29: The New Tsar: The Rise and Reign of Vladimir Putin, by Steven Lee Myers

Welcome to Citizen Scholar! Since launching five months ago we&#8217;re reaching hundreds of people a week, so we thank you for your support. If you enjoy our writing on civic virtue and individual excellence, we humbly ask you to share Citizen Scholar with your family members and friends who may enjoy it. The contents of the audio and text formats are identical and meant to accommodate your preferences. Please let us know if you have any feedback - we&#8217;re always looking for ways to improve!<br/><br/>Introduction<br/><br/>As the time of writing, Russia and Ukraine are in the first twenty-four hours of formally declared war. We had just finished reading The New Tsar as Putin&#8217;s pre-recorded announcement of a &#8220;special military operation&#8221; hit the news. As might be expected in the fog of war, the first few hours of the invasion saw social media fill with conflicting reports.<br/><br/>At this dark hour, we struggle to stay calm and appreciate the subtlety of the situation. No winners will emerge from this tragedy. By all current indications, hundreds are already dead and thousands more may follow. What will still be true as you read this, will be that the man most responsible for this situation is Vladimir Putin. The recent drumbeat toward war over the last several weeks and months led us to expand this mini-series on recent Russian history. We wanted to better understand the prologue to this terrible situation in Ukraine. The selection of The New Tsar for the exploration of Putin&#8217;s life was inspired by the strong recommendation of Lex Fridman, the well-known Russian-American scientist and podcaster. He found it to be the most fair and objective biography of Putin, the central figure in today&#8217;s Russia and the man who made the final decision to commence this war.<br/><br/>From Struggling in Leningrad to Governing in Moscow<br/><br/>Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin was born to modest circumstances in Leningrad &#8211; now St. Petersburg &#8211; in 1952. His father was a veteran of the bruta