A Beastly Scowl

A new book by Bernard-Henri Lévy, Left in Dark Times: A Stand Against The New Barbarism, will have a good chapter dedicated to the resurgence of Russia. Here’s an excerpt from a review:

Solzhenitsyn dies, unleashing a torrent of memorial journalism honoring his immense feat of baring the truth about Soviet brutality in The Gulag Archipelago, and Lévy offers a prescient section that salutes the Russian master’s greatness, declaring that the “Communist dream dissolved in the furnace of a book.” Vladimir Putin fulfills the prediction of close Kremlin watchers and moves toward re-Stalinizing Russia, and Lévy attributes to the Russian prime minister “the beastly scowl of the murderous KGB man he has always been.” Nicolas Sarkozy takes center stage as the European Union’s leader and chief negotiator between the United States and a resurgent Russia, and Lévy’s new book functions as a sideways conversation with his new president, who enters and re-enters as prod, provocateur, and catalyst to rethinking.

Also, Sarah E. Mendelson reviews Steve LeVine’s new book in the Washington Post, which is becoming more and more prescient with current events.