The Good Russian: In Search of a Nation's Soul

"An important and necessary book... a work of honesty and humanity," Mishal Husain

"This is a unique and necessary book" Simon Kuper, FT journalist and author of the bestselling Chums

"A powerful and deeply personal exploration of what it means to be Russian today" Sarah Rainsford, author of Goodbye to Russia

"A fine and brave book." Luke Harding, author of Invasion: Russia's Bloody War and Ukraine's Fight for Survival

When Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine in February 2022, the writer Jana Bakunina, who has lived in the UK for 20 years, felt furious, ashamed, but most of all helpless. A year later she travelled to her home city of Yekaterinburg to see how ordinary Russians viewed the conflict - and whether the soul of her nation had truly been crushed.

Jana finds a booming city seemingly untouched by war. Reconnecting with old friends, she discovers people either happy to go along with a regime that has brought them stability, or else staying out of politics. Most painful of all, her once liberal father has channelled his personal disappointments into becoming a firm fan of Putin.

In the grand humane tradition of Russian dissident writers, Jana Bakunina grapples with a universal problem: what happens when a country you love becomes infected by nationalism? What hope is there when voices of conscience are silenced by dictatorship? And can Russians in exile still imagine a liberated future?