The author starts with a true story that reads like an allegory: My great-aunt stopped speaking after she was interrogated by the Russians. The reality of her experiences is left to the reader's imagination, and the horror of the Soviet regime is only expanded on from their. The author has family that lived in Estonia under Soviet occupation and as a child she developed the sense of how life was different for her family in Estonia than it was in Finland.

This book is well-researched, studying the aftermath of the Soviet War to the current war in Ukraine. She also identifies important foreshadowing that was missed in the early 2000s and 2014-2015 as Putin rose to power and began asserting his authority. There are important lessons to be learned from Eastern Europe, as Putin's playbook is likely to be played out in the US under Trump.

The author does put much of her focus on women, and what was interesting to me is how Russian women are weaponized and propagandized to encourage their sons and husbands to inflict punishment. The disparity in quality of living between Russia and other Baltic countries was also very surprising to me. These are global issues, but ones we may find ourselves facing, so it's an important read.