About a Boy: The Story of Vladimir Putin cover art

About a Boy: The Story of Vladimir Putin

About a Boy: The Story of Vladimir Putin

By: Audacy Studios | Puck
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Summary

 The West's obsession with Vladimir Putin's KGB past often misses the biographical detail that can be captured by a single word: dvor. The word means courtyard in Russian, but to a Russian speaker, it is evocative of a whole universe. It was the space where Putin, like so many Soviet kids of his generation, grew up and learned an unforgiving, often brutal social code. Puck journalist Julia Ioffe introduces Westerners to that universe and explains why it’s critical to understanding the Russian president and what he might do next in the war against Ukraine.© 2023 Audacy, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Social Sciences World
Episodes
  • Chapter 5: All the World’s a Dvor

    Chapter 5: All the World’s a Dvor
    Oct 25 2023

    To predict what Vladimir Putin might do next in Ukraine, it’s helpful to remember his first and foremost education — in the dvor.

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    43 mins
  • Chapter 4: The Big Brother

    Chapter 4: The Big Brother
    Oct 18 2023

    Organized crime and violence reign supreme in post-Soviet Russia. In this world, the rules of the dvor prove invaluable — for the men fighting over the jewels of the Soviet industrial empire, and for Vladimir Putin.
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    33 mins
  • Chapter 3: The Punk

    Chapter 3: The Punk
    Oct 11 2023

    Putin grows up as a small, scrawny kid in a poor neighborhood with few ways up. Enter judo and the KGB.

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    31 mins
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