The beginning and fraying of Vladimir Putin’s reign

IN ONE OF Russian literature’s most memorable passages, Pimen, an elderly chronicler in “Boris Godunov”, passes the task of recording history to a young monk: Write down, avoiding crafty sophistries, All things that you shall witness in this life: Both war and peace, the edicts of our Tsars, The holy miracles of saintly men, All prophecies and blessed revelations… Pushkin wrote his drama about the