Captivating like a social novel, bestselling author Masha Gessen describes how a country that was able to shake off its paralyzing power structures in a tremendous effort has become an authoritarian state with neo-imperial traits. A society that had embarked on a journey toward emancipation, freedom, and self-discovery now suffers from paternalism and repression. How did it come to this? At the center are four individuals from the generation of 1984. They entered school as the Soviet Union collapsed and grew up under President Putin. Young people from different social and family backgrounds: for example, Zhanna, whose father Boris Nemtsov, a prominent reformer, was shot dead in the middle of Moscow. Or Ljoscha, who loses his position as a gay lecturer at the University of Perm. The grand narrative of the youth's aspirations and failed hopes is complemented by the educational stories of the liberal sociologist Lev Gudkov, the psychoanalyst Marina Arutjunjan, and the right-nationalist philosopher Alexander Dugin.