Home Feed
Home
Search
Search
Add Review, Blurb, Quote
Add
Activity
Activity
Profile
Profile
Once Upon a Time in Russia
Once Upon a Time in Russia: The Rise of the Oligarchs—A True Story of Ambition, Wealth, Betrayal, and Murder | Ben Mezrich
11 posts | 10 read | 29 to read
The bestselling author of Bringing Down the House (sixty-three weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and the basis for the hit movie 21) and The Accidental Billionaires (the basis for the Academy Award–winning film The Social Network) delivers an epic drama of wealth, rivalry, and betrayal among mega-wealthy Russian oligarchs—and its international repercussions.Once Upon a Time in Russia is the untold true story of the larger-than-life billionaire oligarchs who surfed the waves of privatization to reap riches after the fall of the Soviet regime: “Godfather of the Kremlin” Boris Berezovsky, a former mathematician whose first entrepreneurial venture was running an automobile reselling business, and Roman Abramovich, his dashing young protégé who built a multi-billion-dollar empire of oil and aluminum. Locked in a complex, uniquely Russian partnership, Berezovsky and Abramovich battled their way through the “Wild East” of Russia with Berezovsky acting as the younger man’s krysha—literally, his roof, his protector. Written with the heart-stopping pacing of a thriller—but even more compelling because it is true—this story of amassing obscene wealth and power depicts a rarefied world seldom seen up close. Under Berezovsky’s krysha, Abramovich built one of Russia’s largest oil companies from the ground up and in exchange made cash deliveries—including 491 million dollars in just one year. But their relationship frayed when Berezovsky attacked President Vladimir Putin in the media—and had to flee to the UK. Abramovich continued to prosper. Dead bodies trailed Berezovsky’s footsteps, and threats followed him to London, where an associate of his died painfully and famously of Polonium poisoning. Then Berezovsky himself was later found dead, declared a suicide. Exclusively sourced, capturing a momentous period in recent world history, Once Upon a Time in Russia is at once personal and political, offering an unprecedented look into the wealth, corruption, and power behind what Graydon Carter called “the story of our age.”
Amazon Indiebound Barnes and Noble WorldCat Goodreads LibraryThing
review
8little_paws
post image
Pickpick

Look this story is bonkers because it's true. It's a fictionalised account of the oligarchs in Russia from the 1990s-2010s. Even though it's fictionalised, I learned a lot. There were parts I wish the author focused on more, but all in all I sped right through this book. Thanks #botm!

Megabooks On my TBR!! 7y
54 likes1 stack add1 comment
blurb
8little_paws
post image

#photoadaynov16 Featuring this nonfiction book about Russia as my Eastern Europe choice today. I added this on to my November #botm box. @RealLifeReading

RealLifeReading Sounds interesting! 8y
33 likes1 stack add1 comment
blurb
BenMezrich
post image

American paperback (out now!) or UK paperback (out in July), which do you like better?

Dooplum I always feel like I like the uk covers better. 8y
5 likes1 comment
blurb
BenMezrich
post image

Paperback on sale today! Yay! If you were waiting for the paperback, it's finally here :)

blurb
BenMezrich
post image

You know you are getting closer to another movie getting made when you're walking by this place on a Sunday afternoon... :)

blurb
BenMezrich
post image

Inspiring some young minds in Cali!

review
todd
post image
Pickpick

A total thrill-ride. It grabbed me from page one. Although I read it last fall, recent news and events keep it front of mind. It's a dirty world we live in. Waiting for Bravo's "Real Oligarch's of Russia" show to come out. Seriously, it would make a fantastic movie.

23 likes9 stack adds
blurb
BenMezrich
post image

I'm donating a stack of my books to my kid's school library, and had to snap a photo. A bunch of misses and a couple of hits, famine and feast and famine and feast, and every one a labor of love :)

11 likes1 stack add
review
BenMezrich
post image
Pickpick

I love the Dutch cover of my new book!

6 likes2 stack adds