Zhirinovsky

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Influential right-wing Russian politician Vladimir Zhirinovsky (born in Kazakhstan) has promised that if he attains power he will restore the Russian empire to its 1913 borders, impose a new geopolitical partitioning of the world and persecute dissenters, Jews and other ethnic minorities. In this astute psychological profile, Zhirinovsky is shown to be highly impulsive-a dangerously driven personality who transformed the humiliations and sexual inadequacies of his youth into a thirst for revenge and open preaching of chauvinism and misogyny. The authors, a husband-and-wife team (Boris Yeltsin) based in New York City, document Zhirinovsky's close ties to the KGB since his youth and analyze the would-be dictator's appeal to a desperate, confused populace. They cogently argue that the Kremlin's brutal invasion of Chechnya and Yeltsin's recent clampdown on democratic reforms were partly due to direct pressure from Zhirinovsky, whose Liberal Democratic Party won 25% of the popular vote in 1993. While the authors' suggestions for neutralizing Zhirinovsky (e.g., assign him a ministerial post) may be wishful thinking, their urgent book sounds a warning to the West. Photos. (July)

Library Journal

The flamboyant Russian politician is profiled, psychologized, and chronicled by two migr journalists who trace Zhirinovsky's fortunes from a miserable childhood in Kazakhstan to leadership, since late 1993, of a large ultranationalist, anti-Western bloc in the Russian parliament. Although the authors slam Vladimir Kartsev's recent biography (!Zhirinovsky!, LJ 5/15/95) as a panegyric, they come to much the same conclusion: Zhirinovsky is reflective of public opinion, there are worse alternatives, and he needs to be taken seriously and even accommodated. Repetitive but well documented; for academic collections.Robert Decker, Palo Alto, Cal.

Booknews

A biographical, psychological, and psychoanalytical study of Russia's Vladimir Zhirinovsky, from his rumored Jewish background (which he vehemently denies) to his stint as a KGB officer, to his unabashed quest for absolute power. The authors reveal the origins of Zhirinovsky's neofascist movement, the political and social preconditions of his appearance on the political scene, and his possible secret sponsors. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Gilbert Taylor

A bottomless pit of anti-Semitic remarks, nuclear threats, and territorial demands (including claims on Alaska), Zhirinovsky cuts an offensive figure to the outside world. But one fourth of Russians voted for his party in the Duma elections, and this first biography in English sketches out the man they supported. With three previous books on Kremlin politics, Solovyov and Klepikova have the experience to sort through the contradictory evidence about their curious subject. Taken mostly from the rambunctious Russian press, that evidence paints Zhirinovsky in demagogic hues: he stirs up, whether sincerely or opportunistically, latent animosities against Jews--and naturally squirmed when journalists discovered that his father was Jewish. Is he truly intent upon restoring not just the Soviet but the czarist empire (meaning curtains for Finland and Poland), or merely exploiting the humiliated feelings of Russians for electoral gain? Although clearly hostile to Zhirinovksy, the authors have assembled in one place the most information available about him, information libraries will be glad they have when interest in Zhirinovsky mounts next year during Russia's presidential campaign.