On the brink of the 100th anniversary of the Russian Revolution, read the most vivid, moving, and comprehensive history of the events that changed the world It is history on an epic yet human scale. Vast in scope, exhaustive in original research, written with passion, narrative skill, and human sympathy, A People's Tragedy is a profound account of the Russian Revolution for a new generation. Many consider the Russian Revolution to be the most significant event of the twentieth century. Distinguished scholar Orlando Figes presents a panorama of Russian society on the eve of that revolution, and then narrates the story of how these social forces were violently erased. Within the broad stokes of war and revolution are miniature histories of individuals, in which Figes follows the main players' fortunes as they saw their hopes die and their world crash into ruins. Unlike previous accounts that trace the origins of the revolution to overreaching political forces and ideals, Figes argues that the failure of democracy in 1917 was deeply rooted in Russian culture and social history and that what had started as a people's revolution contained the seeds of its degeneration into violence and dictatorship. A People's Tragedy is a masterful and original synthesis by a mature scholar, presented in a compelling and accessibly human narrative.

A People's Tragedy: The Russian Revolution: 1891-1924

History

FIGES, Orlando

Russia

Penguin??Books

'Magnificent. Beautifully written, immaculately researched and thoroughly absorbing from start to finish. A tour de force that explains how Europe's cultural life transformed during the course of the 19th century - and so much more' Peter Frankopan\nFrom the bestselling author of Natasha's Dance, The Europeans is richly enthralling, panoramic cultural history of nineteenth-century Europe, told through the intertwined lives of three remarkable people: a great singer, Pauline Viardot, a great writer, Ivan Turgenev, and a great connoisseur, Pauline's husband Louis.\nTheir passionate, ambitious lives were bound up with an astonishing array of writers, composers and painters all trying to make their way through the exciting, prosperous and genuinely pan-European culture that came about as a result of huge economic and technological change. This culture - through trains, telegraphs and printing - allowed artists of all kinds to exchange ideas and make a living, shuttling back and forth across the whole continent from the British Isles to Imperial Russia, as they exploited a new cosmopolitan age.\nThe Europeans is Orlando Figes' masterpiece. Surprising, beautifully written, it describes huge changes through intimate details, little-known stories and through the lens of Turgenev and the Viardots' touching, strange love triangle. Events which we now see as central to European high culture are made completely fresh, allowing the reader to revel in the sheer precariousness with which the great salons, premieres and bestsellers came into existence.

The Europeans

Penguin

Peasant Russia, Civil War: The Volga Countryside in Revolution (1917-1921)

This is the first non-Soviet history of the Volga countryside during the Russian revolution and civil war of 1917-1921. The product of extensive study of numerous archival sources--many of them from central government archives, and previously considered highly secret--it reconstructs the revolutionary experience of the peasantry in the crucial Volga region, situated immediately behind the military fronts between the Reds and the Whites. Figes examines in detail the impact of the revolution on the villages. With the destruction of the old agrarian state, the task of reforming the social life of the countryside was left to the peasants, who set about reconstructing the order according to traditional peasant notions of social justice. The ability of the Bolsheviks to mobilize the peasantry is explained in terms of political and social developments at the village level during the civil war. The civil war, Figes argues, left a deep scar on the peasant economy and peasant-state relations, which influenced the entire development of the Soviet regime.

World

Oxford University Press

Americas

The Europeans is richly enthralling, panoramic cultural history of nineteenth-century Europe, told through the intertwined lives of three remarkable people: a great singer, Pauline Viardot, a great writer, Ivan Turgenev, and a great connoisseur, Pauline's husband Louis. Their passionate, ambitious lives were bound up with an astonishing array of writers, composers and painters all trying to make their way through the exciting, prosperous and genuinely pan-European culture that came about as a result of huge economic and technological change. This culture - through trains, telegraphs and printing - allowed artists of all kinds to exchange ideas and make a living, shuttling back and forth across the whole continent from the British Isles to Imperial Russia, as they exploited a new cosmopolitan age.
The Europeans is Orlando Figes' masterpiece. Surprising, beautifully written, it describes huge changes through intimate details, little-known stories and through the lens of Turgenev and the Viardots' touching, strange love triangle. Events which we now see as central to European high culture are made completely fresh, allowing the reader to revel in the sheer precariousness with which the great salons, premiers and bestsellers came into existence.

The Europeans: Three Lives and the Making of a Cosmopolitan Culture

Europe

Allen Lane.

This is the first book in any language to offer a comprehensive analysis of the political culture of the Russian Revolution. Orlando Figes and Boris Kolonitskii examine the diverse ways that language and other symbols―including flags and emblems, public rituals, songs, and codes of dress―were used to identify competing sides and to create new meanings in the political struggles of 1917. The revolution was in many ways a battle to control these systems of symbolic meaning, the authors find. The party or faction that could master the complexities of the lexicon of the revolution was well on its way to mastering the revolution itself. The book explores how key words and symbols took on different meanings in various social and political contexts. “Democracy,” “the people,” or “the working class,” for example, could define a wide range of identities and moral worlds in 1917. In addition to such ambiguities, cultural tensions further complicated the revolutionary struggles. Figes and Kolonitskii consider the fundamental clash between the Western political discourse of the socialist parties and the traditional political culture of the Russian masses. They show how the particular conditions and perceptions that colored Russian politics in 1917 led to the emergence of the cult of the revolutionary leader and the culture of terror.

Interpreting the Russian Revolution: The Language and Symbols of 1917

Kolonitsk II, Boris

Military

Yale University Press

Natasha's Dance: A Cultural History of Russia

Beginning in the eighteenth century with the building of St. Petersburg and culminating with the Soviet regime, Figes examines how writers, artists, and musicians grappled with the idea of Russia itself--its character, spiritual essence, and destiny. Skillfully interweaving the great works--by Dostoevsky, Stravinsky, and Chagall--with folk embroidery, peasant songs, religious icons, and all the customs of daily life, Figes reveals the spirit of "Russianness" as rich and uplifting, complex and contradictory--and more lasting than any Russian ruler or state.

Arts & Photography

History & Criticism

Picador

The Whisperers: Private Life in Stalin's Russia

A New York Times Notable Book of 2007 "A tremendous achievement."--The Sunday Times (London)
The Whisperers is a triumphant act of recovery. In this powerful work of history, Orlando Figes chronicles the private history of family life during the violent and repressive reign of Josef Stalin. Drawing on a vast collection of interviews and archives, The Whisperers re-creates the anguish of family members turned against one another--of the paranoia, alienation, and treachery that poisoned private life in Russia for generations. A panoramic portrait of a society in which everyone spoke in whispers, The Whisperers is "rigorously compassionate. . . . A humbling monument to the evil and endurance of Russia's Soviet past and, implicitly, a guide to its present" (The Economist).

A comprehensive, one-volume account of the Russian Revolution covers every moment, from the end of the nineteenth century to the death of Lenin, and explores how Russian pre-revolution social forces were violently erased and replaced.

A People's Tragedy: A History of the Russian Revolution

Viking Adult

Figes, Orlando. A People's Tragedy: The Russian Revolution 1891 - 1924. London, Pimlico, 1997. 15 cm x 23 cm. XXII, 923 pages. Original softcover. Excellent condition with only very minor signs of external wear. Includes for example the following essays: The Tsar and His People / The Miniaturist / Bureaucrats and Dressing-Gowns / Remnants of a Feudal Army / Not-So-Holy Russia / Marx Comes to Russia / Parliaments and Peasants / From the Trenches to the Barricades / Nicholas the Last / A Distant Liberal State / Lenin's Rage / Gorky's Despair / Hamlets of Democratic Socialism / The Smolny Autocrats / St Petersburg on the Steppe / 'Kulaks', Bagmen and Cigarette Lighters / Bolshevism in Retreat / Orphans of the Revolution / Lenin's Last Struggle etc. A People's Tragedy: The Russian Revolution: 1891-1924 is an award-winning book written by British historian Orlando Figes. First published in 1996, it chronicles Russian history from the Famine of 1891-1892, the response to which, Figes argues, severely weakened the Russian Empire, to the death of Lenin in 1924, when the basic elements of the Stalinist regime - the one-party state, the system of terror and the cult of the personality - were all in place. According to Figes ... the whole of 1917 could be seen as a political battle between those who saw the revolution as a means of bringing the war to an end and those who saw the war as a means of bringing the revolution to an end. A People's Tragedy won the Wolfson History Prize, the WH Smith Literary Award, the NCR Book Award, the Longman/History Today Book Prize and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. In 2008, the Times Literary Supplement listed A People's Tragedy as one of the hundred most influential books since the war. (Wikipedia)

A People's Tragedy

Historical Study & Educational Resources

Pimlico

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Books by FIGES, Orlando

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by FIGES, Orlando. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

A People's Tragedy: The Russian Revolution: 1891-1924

The Europeans

Peasant Russia, Civil War: The Volga Countryside in Revolution (1917-1921)

Peasant Russia, Civil War: The Volga Countryside in Revolution (1917-1921)

The Europeans: Three Lives and the Making of a Cosmopolitan Culture

Interpreting the Russian Revolution: The Language and Symbols of 1917

Natasha's Dance: A Cultural History of Russia

The Whisperers: Private Life in Stalin's Russia

A People's Tragedy: A History of the Russian Revolution

A People's Tragedy