Once Upon a Time in Russia is the untold true story of the larger-than-life billionaire oligarchs who surfed the waves of privatization to reap riches after the fall of the Soviet regime: “Godfather of the Kremlin” Boris Berezovsky, a former mathematician whose first entrepreneurial venture was running an automobile reselling business, and Roman Abramovich, his dashing young protégé who built a multi-billion-dollar empire of oil and aluminum. Locked in a complex, uniquely Russian partnership, Berezovsky and Abramovich battled their way through the “Wild East” of Russia with Berezovsky acting as the younger man’s krysha—literally, his roof, his protector.
From the moment that I read about this book, I was interested.
Not only is Ben Mezrich one of the best story-tellers that we have in the world today, but his books play out like a movie, and he is prolific. Its like the dude comes out with something new every year.
Having a while back read what I would arguable say are his two most famous books, Bringing Down the House and Accidental Billionaires, both of which have been adopted to screenplays and made in movies that you are familiar with, 21 and The Social Network, when I heard that he was writing about Russian Oligarchs, I couldn’t have been more happy.
As you know if you have read anything that I have written here on TOW, you are familiar with the fact that I am All-Chelsea-Everything, and I am as huge a Roman Abromovic fan as their is out there. I like billionaires who have no qualms with being billionaires and live their lives exactly how we would live if we were billionaires. He’s got the smokeshow wife, he’s got the boat that is as big as the ocean itself, he’s got the houses all over the place, and he has the ultimate trophy, a Premier League football club.
I’ve read a bunch of stuff on the guy in the past and seen how a lot of the other oligarchs of Russia have moved in the last few years but I never really went super deep into it. Ben Mezrich, gets deep in to it. I won’t go too much in to it, but long story short, before RA was was a bazzillionaire, he was an importer/exporter of rubber duckies. Yeah, and now he is worth almost 10 bills.
If you jump to the index, you can see that there is A LOT of Roman. That has me excited.
If you have heard any stories about how those guys became really, reeeeally rich, you would be interested in this story. Ben Mezrich, gives good story, so I can imagine that there is a ton of good stuff here.
Once Upon a Time in Russia: The Rise of the OligarchsA True Story of Ambition, Wealth, Betrayal, and Murder – Amazon, $17
As an FYI, the book has already been optioned to be made into a film. And optioned by Brett Ratner and Warner Bros. That’s a good thing people. This is going to be a great read and a great movie.
* Update * Ben tweeted back and here it is. Roman is one of the two main characters.
@ISPS_TOW @Deansy1982 yes thanks! Roman and Boris berezovsky are the main characters. It's all about abramovich's rise.
— Ben Mezrich (@benmezrich) June 14, 2015
