The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin

Page 38in at least one of the Moscow explosions: “13 sentyabrya v Rossii—den’ traura po pogibshim ot vzryvov,” an unsigned news story on Gazeta.ru, Sept. 10, 1999. http://gazeta.lenta.ru/daynews/10-09-1999/10mourn.htm. Accessed May 8, 2011.

Page 38“The more alert we are”: ITAR-TASS, as cited by Litvinenko and Felshtinsky, FSB vzryvayet Rossiyu.

Page 39“First, there was no explosion”:Ryazanskisahar.

THREE. THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A THUG

Page 43the Siege of Leningrad: Michael Jones, Leningrad: State of Siege (New York: Basic Books, 2008).

Page 44“Imagine a soldier”: Ales’ Adamovich and Daniil Granin, Blokadnaya kniga. http://lib.rus.ec/b/212340/read. Accessed Feb. 7, 2011.

Page 44Burzhuikas: Harrison Salisbury, The 900 Days: The Siege of Leningrad (New York: Da Capo Press, 2003), pp. vii–viii.

Page 44a wood-burning stove in every room: Oleg Blotsky, Vladimir Putin: Istoriya zhizni (Moscow: Mezhdunarodniye Otnosheniya), p. 24.

Page 44His parents … had survived the siege: Gevorkyan et al.

Page 45twice as many women: Yuri Polyakov, Valentina Zhitomirskaya, and Natalya Aralovets, “‘Demograficheskoye ekho’ voyny,” published in the online journal Skepsis. http://scepsis.ru/library/id_1260.html. Accessed Feb. 7, 2011.

Page 45given him up for adoption: Irina Bobrova, “Kto pridumal Putinu gruzinskiye korni?” Moskovski komsomolets, June 13, 2006. http://www.compromat.ru/page_18786.htm. Accessed Feb. 7, 2011.

Page 45inclined to believe the story: Author interview with Natalia Gevorkyan, June 2008.

Page 46the Putins’ apartment: Childhood friend Viktor Borisenko, quoted in Blotsky, Vladimir Putin: Istoriya zhizni, pp. 72, 89.

Page 47a striking assertion: Gevorkyan et al.

Page 47the Putins emerge as practically rich: Yevgeniy Putin, quoted in Blotsky, p. 46.

Page 48“Some courtyard this was”: Viktor Borisenko, quoted in Blotsky, pp. 68–69.

Page 48 “If anyone ever insulted him”: Viktor Borisenko, quoted in Blotsky, p. 68.

Page 49“The labor [shop] teacher”: Viktor Borisenko, quoted in Blotsky, p. 67.

Page 49“Why did you not get inducted”: Gevorkyan et al.

Page 50as a sixth-grader: Teacher Vera Gurevich, quoted ibid.

Page 50 “We were playing”: Grigory Geilikman, quoted in Blotsky, p. 160.

Page 50“We were in eighth grade”: Nikolai Alekhov, quoted in Blotsky, p. 161.

Page 50“He once invited me”: Sergei Roldugin, quoted in Gevorkyan et al.

Page 51“Someone picked on him”: Ibid.

Page 52hand-to-hand combat: Blotsky, p. 259.

Page 52theme song from the miniseries: “S vyslannymi iz SshA razvedchikami vstretilsya Vladimir Putin,” July 25, 2010. http://lenta.ru/news/2010/07/25/spies/. Accessed Feb. 25, 2011.

Page 52“When I was in ninth grade”: Blotsky, p. 199.

Page 53subversive troops: Y. Popov, “Diversanty Stalina.” http://militera.lib.ru/h/popov_au2/01.html. Accessed Feb. 25, 2011.

Page 53one of only four survivors: Gevorkyan et al.

Page 53“some intelligence officer for sure”: Ibid.

Page 54“A man came out”: Blotsky, pp. 199–200.

Page 54“He surprised everyone”: Gevorkyan et al.

Page 55Putin graduated from secondary school: Blotsky, p. 155.

Page 55number of cars: http://www.ref.by/refs/1/31164/1.html. Mikhail Blinkin, “Avtomobil’ v gorode: Osobennosti natsionalnogo puti,” http://www.intelros.ru/pdf/arc/02_2010/42-45%20Blinkin.pdf. Accessed Oct. 27, 2011.

Page 55gave the car to their son: Gevorkyan et al.

Page 56Putin made a thousand rubles: Ibid.

Page 56an overcoat for himself: Gevorkyan et al.; Blotsky, pp. 226–27.

Page 56“All through my university years”: Gevorkyan et al.

Page 57“not particularly outgoing”: Blotsky, p. 287.