Autocracy, Inc. is a nonfiction novel written in 2024 that explores how modern dictatorships work and how to resist them.
December 4, Thursday, 18:00 PM
Library at the Water Tower
Prenzlauer Allee 227–228, 10405 Berlin
Assembly hall on the 3rd floor
Free admission
Modern autocrats, from Vladimir Putin to Xi Jinping, have different ideologies, but they share the same goal: to cling to power at any cost. To this end, they employ a wide range of tools: from the physical elimination of opponents to internet trolling campaigns, from surveillance systems to lying media.
Today's dictatorial regimes are interconnected into a single network—Autocracy, Inc.—built on corruption and propaganda technologies, and the democratic world bears some responsibility for its emergence. Author and journalist Anne Applebaum explains how this network came to be, how it is attempting to encompass liberal states as well, and, most importantly, what can be done to counter it.
Anne Applebaum specializes in the history of the USSR and modern Russia. Her book "Gulag," about political repression in the Soviet Union, won the Pulitzer Prize in 2004.
"Autocracy, Inc." was published in 2024 and, following Trump's election, was updated with a new foreword. At the publisher's request, Anne included an additional foreword, written specifically for Russian-speaking readers, in the One Book Publishing version.
The book will be available for purchase at the meeting.
Meeting organizers:
Berlin Book Fair of Russian-language literature "Berlin Bebelplatz"
Online bookstore "Ant"
We thank Bibliothek am Wasserturm for their cooperation!