The reporting begins in the 1980s with the experiences of four children and three adults—a philosopher, a psychologist and a sociologist—as perestroika was dawning and the Soviet Union was starting to open up under Mikhail Gorbachev. In The Future is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia, journalist and author Masha Gessen weaves the journeys of these individuals over the next three-plus decades into a Russian novel-like tapestry.