Vladimir Putin, a man of little political experience but a long career in espionage.

Vladimir Putin, the career spot.

He's a man who has spent most of his career in the shadow.

The shadowy federal security service, formerly the KGB.

Russian President bolstering his macho credentials.

He was a KGB agent then.

He's operating now as a KGB agent.

Here in the West, Russian dictator Vladimir Putin

is always seen as one of two things.

KGB spy or judo master.

And yes, those are both important and formative aspects of his biography.

But to anyone who's ever lived in the Soviet Union, Putin is something else entirely.

A Soviet baby boomer from the slums of a city haunted by World War II.

A street kid.

Every grown-up was utterly traumatized by the experience of having gone through this horrible war.

Starvation, disease, cannibalism, all kinds of horrors.

Vladimir Putin's parents suffered through all of that.

Afterwards, parents were absent, either dead or ghosts in their own homes.

Children were mostly on their own.

And in the absence of parental supervision, they spent all of their time in the war, the urban courtyard.

We were returning back from school.

We immediately went out to the war and, you know, life was there.

...