The Oligarchs (103 page)

DAVID E. HOFFMAN is a contributing editor for the
Washington Post
and
Foreign Policy
magazine. He covered the White House during the presidencies of Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush, and was subsequently diplomatic correspondent and Jerusalem correspondent. From 1995 to 2001, he served as Moscow bureau chief, and later as foreign editor and assistant managing editor for foreign news. In addition to
The Oligarchs
, he is the author of
The Dead Hand: The Untold Story of the Cold War Arms Race and Its Dangerous Legacy
, which was awarded the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction. He lives in Maryland.

PublicAffairs is a publishing house founded in 1997. It is a tribute to the standards, values, and flair of three persons who have served as mentors to countless reporters, writers, editors, and book people of all kinds, including me.

 

I. F. STONE, proprietor of
I. F. Stone's Weekly
, combined a commitment to the First Amendment with entrepreneurial zeal and reporting skill and became one of the great independent journalists in American history. At the age of eighty, Izzy published
The Trial of Socrates,
which was a national bestseller. He wrote the book after he taught himself ancient Greek.

 

BENJAMIN C. BRADLEE was for nearly thirty years the charismatic editorial leader of
The Washington Post.
It was Ben who gave the
Post
the range and courage to pursue such historic issues as Watergate. He supported his reporters with a tenacity that made them fearless and it is no accident that so many became authors of influential, best-selling books.

 

ROBERT L. BERNSTEIN, the chief executive of Random House for more than a quarter century, guided one of the nation's premier publishing houses. Bob was personally responsible for many books of political dissent and argument that challenged tyranny around the globe. He is also the founder and longtime chair of Human Rights Watch, one of the most respected human rights organizations in the world.

For fifty years, the banner of Public Affairs Press was carried by its owner Morris B. Schnapper, who published Gandhi, Nasser, Toynbee, Truman, and about 1,500 other authors. In 1983, Schnapper was described by
The Washington Post
as “a redoubtable gadfly.” His legacy will endure in the books to come.

Peter Osnos,
Founder and Editor-at-Large

Copyright © 2002, 2003, 2011 by David E. Hoffman.

Published in the United States by PublicAffairs™,
a member of the Perseus Books Group.

 

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data
Hoffman, David E., 1953–
The oligarchs: wealth and power in the new Russia / David E. Hoffman.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.

eISBN : 978-1-610-39111-5

1. Entrepreneurs—Russia (Federation)
2. Russia (Federation)—Economic conditions—1991–
3. Soviet Union—Economic conditions—1985–1991.
HC340.12 .H64 2001
338'.04'0947—dc21
2001048786