Snyder's son is born in Vienna while he learns a close friend has died in the Smolensk plane crash.

Snyder collaborates with terminally ill historian Tony Judt on European political mass murders, sharing concerns about democracy's fragility.

Ivan Ilyin's fascist philosophy is revived in Russia, providing ideological justification for authoritarian rule and anti-Western aggression.

The Soviet Union's failure to establish a democratic succession principle contributes to its instability and eventual collapse.

Vladimir Putin rises to the Russian presidency through manufactured fictions and engineered crises rather than free and fair elections.

Putin and Medvedev publicly announce a plan to swap their presidential and prime ministerial roles, exposing elections as stage-managed.

Russia proposes a Eurasian Union as an authoritarian, Russia-centric alternative to the EU's democratic integration model.

Yanukovych refuses to sign Ukraine's EU association agreement under Putin's pressure, sparking mass protests on Kyiv's Maidan.

Riot police violently attack student protesters on Kyiv's Maidan, dramatically escalating the demonstrations nationwide.

Snipers kill 44 protesters on the Maidan and Yanukovych flees to Russia following failed negotiations with European countries.

Russian forces without insignia invade and annex Crimea within days of Yanukovych's flight from Kyiv.

A Russian Buk anti-aircraft missile system shoots down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, killing all passengers and crew aboard.

Russian operatives deploy millions of fake social media accounts to manipulate public opinion ahead of the US presidential election.

Paul Manafort, previously tied to Russia-backed Ukrainian president Yanukovych, joins Donald Trump's presidential campaign as a key advisor.

Snyder concludes by calling for a politics of responsibility, arguing democracy requires active individual engagement to resist authoritarian narratives.

Snyder opens the book by interweaving personal grief and global instability, using the birth of his son and the Smolensk plane crash to frame his inquiry into democracy's fragility. He traces the ideological roots of Russian authoritarianism through Ivan Ilyin's revived fascist philosophy, then charts how the Soviet Union's structural failure to establish democratic succession laid the groundwork for Putin's rise. Russia's subsequent construction of a Eurasian alternative to the EU sets the stage for its intervention in Ukraine, which escalates from the Maidan protests through the annexation of Crimea to the downing of a civilian airliner. The book culminates in Snyder's account of Russian cyberwar operations targeting the US presidential election, before the Epilogue issues a call for active democratic resistance.

The headline events driving Russia's turn toward authoritarianism and its assault on Western democracy.

Russia and Poland jointly plan a commemoration of the Katyn massacre, where Soviet forces executed over 21,000 Polish officers.

The Smolensk plane crash triggers conspiracy theories in Poland and leads Putin to suppress open discussion of Soviet history.

Vladislav Surkov develops a managed democracy strategy, controlling media narratives and manipulating political institutions to entrench Kremlin power.

United Russia wins parliamentary elections through significant electoral fraud, including digital manipulation and systematically biased media coverage.

Putin criminalizes libel, restricts non-governmental organizations, and enhances state security powers to suppress democratic opposition.

Putin portrays Russian protesters against electoral fraud as foreign agents instigated by Hillary Clinton and the United States government.

The Izborsk Club think tank promotes Eurasian supremacy, rejects Western democratic values, and frames Jews and the West as corrupting forces.

Russia provides financial support to Marine Le Pen's Front National party to undermine France's participation in the European Union.

The Maidan protests develop into a spontaneous grassroots welfare state, demonstrating remarkable Ukrainian civic unity across linguistic divides.

Igor Girkin, a Russian military intelligence figure, pushes for Ukraine's invasion and declares the Donetsk People's Republic independent.

Russia launches sustained cross-border artillery attacks from its own territory against Ukrainian forces in Donbass.

Russian state media stages a Night Wolves motorcycle rally in annexed Crimea, broadcasting fascist themes to distract from the ongoing war.

Secretly recorded conversations of Polish politicians are leaked, fueling public distrust and contributing to the ruling Civic Platform party's collapse.

Steve Bannon succeeds Manafort as Trump's campaign advisor, linking the campaign's narrative to far-right and white supremacist ideologies.

The opioid crisis devastates American communities, and Snyder connects the resulting social despair to rising electoral support for Donald Trump.

This pool follows the secondary actors and mechanisms that enabled Russia's authoritarian turn and its campaign against Western institutions. It begins with the historical backdrop of the Katyn massacre commemoration and the Smolensk crash's political consequences, then traces how Vladislav Surkov engineered managed democracy from within the Kremlin. Russia's suppression of domestic protest is followed by its ideological export through the Izborsk Club and financial support for European far-right parties. The Maidan protests reveal the strength of Ukrainian civil society, but Russian military figures like Igor Girkin and sustained artillery campaigns push Ukraine into open conflict. The pool closes with Russia's information warfare reaching Poland, Britain, and America through leaked recordings, far-right campaign surrogates, and the exploitation of the opioid crisis.

The supporting events and actors that built the machinery of Russian authoritarianism and its export westward.

Snyder introduces the shift from the politics of inevitability to the politics of eternity as his central analytical framework.

Ilyin adapts Hegel's concept of Spirit to position Russia's authoritarian governance as historical and spiritual destiny, justifying any atrocity.

Putin delivers a parliament address claiming timeless continuity with ancient ruler Volodymyr, presenting his leadership as divinely endorsed.

Russia's cyberattack on Estonia and subsequent invasion of Georgia reveal the emergence of hybrid warfare as Russia's core geopolitical strategy.

The Eurasian Customs Union is established with Belarus and Kazakhstan as the foundation of Russia's authoritarian alternative integration bloc.

Lev Gumilev's theory of Eurasian ethnogenesis, developed partly while imprisoned in Soviet camps, becomes an intellectual foundation for Russian expansionism.

Alexander Dugin imports extremist ideologies from European far-right thinkers to construct a vision of Russian-led Eurasian dominance over the West.

Viktor Yanukovych wins the Ukrainian presidential election with substantial image consulting from American political advisor Paul Manafort.

Repressive laws mirroring Russian legislation are introduced in Ukraine, radicalizing the Maidan movement's demands from EU integration to full sovereignty.

Russia labels its Donbass military intervention the Russian Spring, reframing open aggression as liberation from fascism through schizofascist propaganda.

Russian forces conduct a cyberattack on Ukraine's Central Election Commission, attempting to falsify the nation's presidential election results.

Russian disinformation campaigns extend into Western Europe, backing the Brexit campaign and supporting far-right movements to destabilize the EU.

Trump's real estate properties reveal a long-standing pattern of financial transactions with entities linked to the former Soviet Union.

A meeting at Trump Tower between Trump campaign members and Russian delegates offering political assistance exposes entrenched oligarchic connections.

Snyder diagnoses Trump's Make America Great Again rhetoric as the politics of eternity taking root within American political culture.

This pool tracks the conceptual and strategic turning points that Snyder uses to build his argument about the road to unfreedom. It opens with his foundational framework contrasting the politics of inevitability and eternity, then reveals how Ilyin weaponized Hegel's philosophy to sanctify Russian authoritarianism. Putin's self-presentation as a mystical redeemer, followed by Russia's hybrid aggression against Estonia and Georgia, mark the moment theory becomes action. The Eurasian ideological project is constructed through Gumilev and Dugin before colliding with Ukrainian civic reality, and Russia's schizofascist propaganda reframes its own aggression as anti-fascist liberation. The pool closes with the revelation of Trump's financial entanglement with Russian money, the exposure of direct campaign collusion, and Snyder's diagnosis of Trumpism itself as the politics of eternity arriving in America.

The key intellectual discoveries, strategic shifts, and decisive moments that define the book's argument.