Motherland

An i Paper Best History Book of 2025 ‘Ioffe has written enough about the Kremlin that she cannot set foot on Russian soil without risking arrest. The motherland she was instructed never to forget has cast her out. But if you want to comprehend it, examining it through the eyes of its women — the backbone of the country — as Ioffe does, is an excellent place to start' Sunday Times ‘Julia Ioffe makes a refreshing argument that a different Russia is possible…a major achievement’ Financial Times ‘Cleverly conceived and brilliantly executed’ Guardian ‘Excellent…an extremely readable, personal and original account’ Spectator 'A fresh, unexpected, and revealing portrait of Russia. Julia Ioffe tracks the transformation of Russia from dictatorship to democracy and back again in sharp, engaging prose, filling in the blanks, telling the stories left out by so many others' Anne Applebaum, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Gulag and Red Famine 'A masterful blend of history, reportage, and family memoir. A fascinating, captivating, and unforgettable read' Ada Ferrer, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Cuba: An American History 'The most brilliant survey of Russian and Soviet women ever written. Women, the ‘draft horses of the economy,’ have been abused in every patriarchal way possible and yet somehow remain the only slim hope for the world’s most hopeless country. Despite the seriousness of the subject matter, Ioffe has produced a page-turner full of bittersweetness and humor' Gary Shteyngart, New York Times bestselling author of Little Failure and Super Sad True Love Story 'Julia Ioffe’s Motherland is a fierce, intimate reckoning: a century of Russian history told through the women who lived it, shaped it, and survived it—revolutionaries, snipers, doctors, dissidents, artists—women trying to be happy and fulfilled in the long, turbulent century' Nadya Tolokonnikova, founder of Pussy Riot