{"id":2959,"date":"2023-10-16T22:27:46","date_gmt":"2023-10-16T20:27:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lenaeinhorn.se\/english\/?page_id=2959"},"modified":"2024-08-28T09:39:33","modified_gmt":"2024-08-28T07:39:33","slug":"chameleon","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/lenaeinhorn.se\/english\/books\/chameleon\/","title":{"rendered":"Kameleont (Chameleon, 2024)"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_row css_animation=”” row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”grid” angled_section=”no” text_align=”left” background_image_as_pattern=”without_pattern” padding_top=”20″ z_index=”” padding_bottom=”20″][vc_column width=”2\/3″][vc_column_text]In 1990, thirty-eight-year-old Vladimir Putin, a mid-level Soviet spy, returned to his hometown of Leningrad, from an overseas posting in East Germany. His dreams were crushed, his career ruined. East Germany no longer existed, the Soviet Union was about to dissolve.<\/p>\n

Ten years later he was president of one of the world’s great powers.<\/p>\n

Lena Einhorn’s documentary tale Chameleon follows the unlikely story of how a seemingly unassuming and colorless civil servant navigates \u2013 and is by his surroundings guided \u2013 through the treacherous waters of torn post-Soviet society towards absolute power.<\/p>\n

It is a story that is in equal parts about smartness and naivety, about cunning and adaptability, about determination and stupidity, about unscrupulousness and intuition. It is a story that is as much about Vladimir Putin as it is about those who carried him on their shoulders.<\/p>\n

Published in Sweden on February 22, 2024.<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space][vc_empty_space][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/3″][vc_single_image image=”2960″ img_size=”full” qode_css_animation=”element_from_right”][vc_empty_space][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row css_animation=”” row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”full_width” angled_section=”no” text_align=”left” background_image_as_pattern=”without_pattern”][vc_column]

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\n\n\t \n PRESS VOICES <\/span>\n<\/span>\n\n \n <\/span>\n <\/span>\n <\/span>\n<\/span>\n<\/h4>\n
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\n [vc_column_text]”Einhorn writes with a wealth of perspectives and a sense of dramaturgy. She anchors her story in historical facts. She is careful not to make hard claims unless they can be substantiated. But in the end, it is her own understanding that carries the story and gives meaning to the tale. If you are interested in the world’s currently most interesting man, then Chameleon<\/em> is instructive. Also, as always with Einhorn, a good read.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roland Poirier Martinsson, G\u00f6teborgs-Posten<\/em><\/p>\n

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”Lena Einhorn knows how to tell a story. By getting really close to the people who met and worked closely with Putin in a reconstructed presence that borders on fiction, she highlights the story of Putin, and why we should have known who he is already a couple of decades ago. It’s simple and brilliant.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johannes Nesser, Journalisten<\/em><\/p>\n

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”Chameleon<\/em> is very exciting and well written. The feeling of being in the middle of the action rather than observing it from a distance gives it an extra dimension … Lena Einhorn’s main contribution is to complicate the picture of Putin. One moment he is the irreproachable official who shocks those around him by saying no to bribes. In the next he is building a dacha on the Finnish border for the tax money of the citizens of Saint Petersburg.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wolfgang Hansson, Aftonbladet<\/em><\/p>\n

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”An ambitious attempt to gather the threads of Putin’s road to power into a coherent story … Lena Einhorn is a driven and effective storyteller, used to diving deep into history. Here she has borrowed techniques from the dramaturgy of the television series: short chapters, shifting focus.”<\/p>\n

Lars Linder, Dagens Nyheter<\/em><\/p>\n

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”Einhorn provides a rich and multifaceted picture of Putin’s rise to the presidency … more like a novel than an investigation of an actual course of events … The story can still feel credible because Einhorn does not let go of the tracks that she follows.”<\/p>\n

Ulf Olsson, Expressen<\/em><\/p>\n

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”Lena Einhorn skilfully depicts the generally chaotic mood that prevails in a Russia which has barely recovered from the chaos that arose when the Soviet Union collapsed … Chameleon<\/em> is exciting, clarifying and admirably educational. Astute, restrainedly told, journalistically cold. Einhorn does not write on the reader’s nose, but works a lot with the unsaid, and lets us draw our own conclusions. She also doesn’t have to pull any major emotional levers; the story of Putin’s rise to power is already so loaded and full of foreshadowing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Josefin De Gregorio, Fokus<\/em><\/p>\n

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”I read the documentary biography Chameleon<\/em> with great pleasure … Lena Einhorn is well read on modern Russian history and succeeds in recreating tension and drama based on contemporary documents and other open sources … It is an exciting documentary, so well written and limited to a period from 1990 to 2000. Excellent fact-gathering and background explorations. It is difficult to write in a simple way about modern Russian history, but Lena Einhorn does it with gusto. So it is a great period document of a dark era in Russia’s history, and also the key to an even darker present … This book is a must for every person who wants to understand our modern history and a swan song of a lost Russia and its despot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Andr\u00e9 Loutchko, DAST Magazine<\/em><\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

Einhorn’s portrayal exposes how much of Putin’s actions are already evident in the local politics of Saint Petersburg during the 1990s. From the very beginning, enormous funds were embezzled during his administration. Relatively early on, even those who criticize him or simply stand in the way of his power ambitions begin to be murdered \u2026 Lena Einhorn shows that there were activists and media who drew attention to both Putin’s corruption and indications of the FSB’s involvement in the bombings already before the presidential election in 2000. Many who should have known better still put their trust in Putin. In the light of history, of course, they appear naive. But they are also a reminder that Russia could have taken a completely different path, and that many Russians wanted and want this.<\/p>\n

The question of whether liberal-minded democrats can have something to gain from a political coalition with a hard-line nationalist is of course relevant even today. It’s hard not to read Chameleon<\/em> as a warning against even trying.<\/p>\n

Mattias Svensson, Svenska Dagbladet<\/em>, editorial<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cIndispensable about Russia and Putin … With her precise and driven language, Lena Einhorn draws the contours of a power seeker.\u201d<\/p>\n

M Magazine<\/em>[\/vc_column_text] <\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>[\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n<\/section>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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