Registration REQUIRED by 4pm on October 27, 2026 in order to attend this event.
Please join the Harriman Institute for a book talk by Maria Kuznetsova and Dan Storyev. Moderated by Keith Gessen.
America is not the first country to experience the stirring of tyranny; in Russia, it has been the law of the land for generations. Over the years, a vernacular of double-speak emerged, one that helped ordinary people make sense of how illiberalism takes shape and makes itself felt in daily life. It allowed them to talk about authoritarianism and to subvert it—with a healthy dose of humor and irony along the way.
In this edifying yet lighthearted glossary, two exiled dissidents share one hundred Russian idioms and turns of phrase, from “apparatchik” to “samizdat.” Some, like “power vertical,” give name to a hypercentralized form of government. Others are playful, like mnogohodovochka (“master plan”), used to deride bizarre, misguided state measures. Taken together, they make up the vocabulary we need to understand what is really taking place, and offer a roadmap to what might still lie ahead.
Maria Kuznetsova is a human rights expert and activist. She received a master of public policy from Harvard Kennedy School and is based in San Francisco.
Dan Storyev is a writer and speaker focusing on authoritarianism and conflict. Dan grew up between Russia and the US. He worked as a conflict correspondent and human rights defender. Dan’s writing was featured in the New York Times, the Nation, Foreign Policy and many others. He holds a BA from the Johns Hopkins University and an MPhil from the University of Oxford.
