Here’s one example why I say Ioffe is not very bright. She bases her entire argument in Motherland on autobiographies and interviews of relatives of politicians. It seems never to occur to her that people can describe their own lives in self-serving ways. She mistakes a tendentious autobiographical account for documentary evidence.
For example, she dedicates a whole chapter to discussing how desperate post-Soviet women were for strong, decisive men who were nowhere to be found. Right from that chapter, Ioffe segues into retelling the account of Putin’s wife on how strong and decisive Putin was since his youth. It never crosses Ioffe’s mind that Putin’s wife wasn’t sharing her intimate memories but that she simply put her name under whatever spin it was considered politically expedient to make public at that time. Wives of politicians currently in office do not spontaneously share anything. Especially in authoritarian societies where censorship exists.
And it’s all like that. “‘Stay strong, Misha,’ said Raisa to Gorbachev when they were alone.” But how can you possibly know that she said it? Because it’s in her memoir? What people put in memoirs rarely bears much relationship to what actually happened.
For lack of knowledge and insight, Ioffe goes on and on, retelling these autobiographies like they mean something profound. Emotional goo is offered to readers in lieu of analysis.
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