Why read The Less You Know, the Better You Sleep?

Book cover of The Less You Know, the Better You Sleep: Russia's Road to Terror and Dictatorship Under Yeltsin and Putin

Book description

Once you accept that the impossible is really possible, what happens in Russia makes perfect sense

"A few pages into David Satter's truly terrifying book, one realizes that his title is smack-on accurate: modern Russia is a frightening member of the world community to an extent of which most…

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Why read it?

1 author picked The Less You Know, the Better You Sleep as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Alexandra Popoff

Author

“To grasp the reality of Russia,” writes David Satter, “it is necessary to accept that Russian leaders really are capable of blowing up hundreds of their own people to preserve their hold on power. They really are capable of ordering an attack with flamethrowers on a gymnasium full of defenseless parents and children.”
The Less You Know the Better You Sleep is an uncompromising account of Russia’s failed democracy and the birth of a criminal state. An American journalist and historian, who had written extensively on Soviet and post-Soviet Russia, Satter witnessed the end of Yeltsin’s era and beginning of…

From Alexandra's 3 favorite reads in 2026.