It focuses on the political developments in Russia in the early 21st century and the culture of Russian media.

Miriam Elder of The New York Times wrote that the "prism" that Pomerantsev perceived the subject through was his previous career in reality television, to imply the lack of authenticity of Russian institutions.

[1] The author also includes stories of various figures who succeeded or faced hardships in that time period.

Elder argued that this strategy "can be taken as a suggestion that we focus too much on him, that he’s so big he no longer requires discussion — or that we do not and cannot ever know who he truly is, so why even bother?

"[1] Tony Wood of The Guardian wrote that the book shows that the "roots" of the psychological order was "the tumult and delirium of the country’s post-Soviet transformations".