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Two Russian dissidents living in exile, Maria Kuznetsova and Dan Storyev, come to the Pen & Pencil Club for a talk about their new book, How to Survive Authoritarianism: A Russian’s Phrasebook for Everyday Life in America.

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, helping ordinary people make sense of how illiberalism takes shape in daily life, and letting them talk about authoritarianism (and subvert it) with a healthy dose of humor and irony.
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,” name a hypercentralized form of government; others, like mnogohodovochka (“master plan”), are playful jabs at bizarre, misguided state measures. Together, they form the vocabulary we need to understand what’s really happening — and a roadmap to what might still lie ahead.

About the authors:

Maria Kuznetsova is a human rights expert and activist. She holds a Master of Public Policy from Harvard Kennedy School and is based in San Francisco. Dan Storyev is a researcher and writer who holds an MPhil from the University of Oxford.

Moderated by Molly Rosen, a producer at WNYC’s On the Media