The President's Crown of Thorns

Autobiography of Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, President of the World Chess Federation ("FIDE") from 1995 to the Present. This is an amazing book because it describes the break-up of the Soviet Union and provides an autobiography of how a man realizing the huge changes in the process of taking place in Russian society was able to become a millionaire. Most of the public commentary about this book has been concerned with the title to Chapter 8: “It only takes two weeks to have a man killed”. However, this has been misrepresented out of context. The correct context is that in 1993, following the break-up on the Soviet Union, free elections were going to be held for the first time in Kalmykia. Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, a young businessman, decided to run on the platform that he was going to abolish the KGB. This made a lot of people unhappy, especially the KGB, and Kirsan received a threatening telephone call.