The Russian Revolution – centenary edition with new introduction

A People's Tragedy

The unrivalled, definitive history beautifully reissued with a new introduction for the 100th anniversary

Combines dramatic power, absorbing narrative and magisterial scholarship – a magnificent tour de force

The most moving account of the Russian Revolution since Doctor Zhivago

This book is not just a history; it is an item of history

A People’s Tragedy will do more to help us understand the Russian Revolution than any other book I know

Orlando Figes’s chronicle of the final days of Tsarism and the violent Bolshevism that arose from its ruins is an epic in size, scope and insight, and a classic in its genre… A People’s Tragedy succeeds most in capturing the sheer popular immensity of the upheavals in 1917-18, with all of Russia rising up first against the Tsar and then, with the onset of civil war, against itself. With its perfect balance of analysis and anecdote, A People’s Tragedy is surely among the most readable books on the Russian Revolution and the decades of tumult that made it possible – or inevitable

Orlando Figes is Professor of History at Birkbeck College, University of London. Born in London in 1959, he was previously a Lecturer in History and Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. A People’s Tragedy received the Wolfson Prize, the NCR Book Award, the W.H. Smith Literary Award, the Longman/History Today Book Prize and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. He is the author of many other books on Russian history including Natasha’s Dance: A Cultural History of Russia, The Whisperers: Private life in Stalin’s Russia, Crimea: the Last Crusade and Just Send Me Word: A True Story of Love and Survival in the Gulag.

Unrivalled in scope and brimming with human drama, A People's Tragedy is the most vivid, moving and comprehensive history of the Russian Revolution available today. 
 
'A modern masterpiece' Andrew Marr 
 
Opening with a panorama of Russian society, from the cloistered world of the Tsar to the brutal life of the peasants, A People's Tragedy follows workers, soldiers, intellectuals and villagers as their world is consumed by revolution and then degenerates into violence and dictatorship. Drawing on vast original research, Figes conveys above all the shocking experience of the revolution for those who lived it, while providing the clearest and most cogent account of how and why it unfolded. 
 
Illustrated with over 100 photographs and now including a new introduction that reflects on the revolution's centennial legacy, A People's Tragedy is a masterful and definitive record of one of the most important events in modern history. 
 
'The most moving account of the Russian Revolution since Doctor Zhivago' Independent

A Pelican Introduction

Revolutionary Russia, 1891-1991

What caused the Russian Revolution? 
 
Did it succeed or fail? 
 
Do we still live with its consequences? 
 
Orlando Figes teaches history at Birkbeck, University of London and is the author of many acclaimed books on Russian history, including A People's Tragedy, which The Times Literary Supplement named as one of the '100 most influential books since the war', Natasha's Dance, The Whisperers, Crimea and Just Send Me Word. The Financial Times called him 'the greatest storyteller of modern Russian historians.'

Insightful and convincing... Figes integrates his analysis into a highly readable story, and he shows himself to be a master of historical narrative. Readers will find themselves absorbing a great deal of information and insight with very little effort

A primer intended for readers unfamiliar with the territory, it sparkles with ideas, vivid storytelling, poignant anecdotes and pithy phrases... Fresh and dramatic

Orlando Figes's books have been translated into 20 languages - they include Crimea, Just Send Me Word, Natasha's Dance, A People's Tragedy and The Whisperers. Figes is Professor of Modern History at Birkbeck College, University of London. He is Britain's foremost writer on the Soviet Union.

A True Story of Love and Survival in the Gulag

Just Send Me Word

From Orlando Figes, international bestselling author of A People's Tragedy, Just Send Me Word is the moving true story of two young Russians whose love survived Stalin's Gulag. 
 
Lev and Svetlana, kept apart for fourteen years by the Second World War and the Gulag, stayed true to each other and exchanged thousands of secret letters as Lev battled to survive in Stalin's camps. Using this remarkable cache of smuggled correspondence, Orlando Figes tells the tale of two incredible people who, swept along in the very worst of times, kept their devotion alive. 
 
Orlando Figes was granted exclusive access to the thousands of letters between Lev and Sveta that form the foundation of Just Send Me Word, and he was able to interview the couple in person, then in their nineties. These real-time and largely uncensored letters form the largest cache of Gulag letters ever found. 
 
Reviews: 
 
'One is overcome with admiration for the kindness, bravery and generosity of people in terrible peril ... It is impossible to read without shedding tears' Simon Sebag Montefiore, Financial Times 
 
'This powerful narrative by a distinguished historian will take its place not just in history but in literature' Robert Massie 
 
'Electrifying, passionate, devoted, despairing, exhilarating ... a tale of hope, resilience, grit and love' The Times 
 
 
 
'Moving ... a remarkable discovery' Max Hastings, Sunday Times 
 
'The gulag story lacks individuals for us to sympathise with: a Primo Levi, an Anne Frank or even an Oskar Schindler. Just Send Me Word may well be the book to change that' Oliver Bullough, Independent 
 
'Immensely touching ... [a] heartening gem of a book' Anna Reid, Literary Review 
 
'The remarkable true story of a love affair between two Soviet citizens ... as much a literary challenge as a historical one: the book can be read as a non-fiction novel' Telegraph 
 
'Remarkable ... Figes, selecting and then interpreting this mass of letters, makes them tell two kinds of story. The first is a uniquely detailed narrative of the gulag, of the callous, slatternly universe which consumed millions of lives ... The second is about two people determined not to lose each other' Neal Ascherson, Guardian 
 
'A quiet, moving and memorable account of life in a totalitarian state ... The book often reads like a novel ... captivating' Evening Standard 
 
'Orlando Figes has wrought something beautiful from dark times' Ian Thomson, Observer 
 
'A heart-rending record of extraordinary human endurance' Kirkus Reviews 
 
'[A] remarkable tale of love and devotion during the worst years of the USSR ... [Figes's] fine narrative pacing enhances this moving, memorable story' Publishers Weekly 
 
About the author: 
 
Orlando Figes is Professor of History at Birkbeck College, University of London. He is the author of Peasant Russia, Civil War, A People's Tragedy, Natasha's Dance, The Whisperers and Crimea. He lives in Cambridge and London. His books have been translated into over twenty languages.

A poignant record ... as fascinating and inspiring as it is heartbreaking ... It is impossible to read without shedding tears

This powerful narrative by a distinguished historian will take its place not just in history but in literature

Electrifying, passionate, devoted, despairing, exhilarating ... a tale of hope, resilience, grit and love

Remarkable ... moving... possesses extraordinary value ... a notable contribution to Gulag literature

Immensely touching ... [a] heartening gem of a book

The remarkable true story of a love affair between two Soviet citizens ... as much a literary challenge as a historical one: the book can be read as a non-fiction novel

Figes has achieved something extraordinary ... the gulag story lacks individuals for us to sympathise with: a Primo Levi, an Anne Frank or even an Oskar Schindler. Just Send Me Word may well be the book to change that ... the kind of love that most of us can only dream of

Remarkable ... Figes, selecting and then interpreting this mass of letters, makes them tell two kinds of story. The first is a uniquely detailed narrative of the gulag, of the callous, slatternly universe which consumed millions of lives ... The second is about two people determined not to lose each other

A quiet, moving and memorable account of life in a totalitarian state ... The book often reads like a novel ... captivating

Orlando Figes has wrought something beautiful from dark times

A heart-rending record of extraordinary human endurance

[A] remarkable tale of love and devotion during the worst years of the USSR ... [Figes's] fine narrative pacing enhances this moving, memorable story

'The great storyteller of modern Russian historians' Financial Times 
 
Orlando Figes was granted exclusive access to the thousands of letters between Lev and Sveta that form the foundation of Just Send Me Word, and he was able to interview the couple in person, then in their nineties. These real-time and largely uncensored letters form the largest cache of Gulag letters ever found. 
 
Figes is Professor of History at Birkbeck College, University of London. He is the author of Peasant Russia, Civil War, A People's Tragedy, Natasha's Dance, The Whisperers and Crimea. He lives in Cambridge and London. His books have been translated into over twenty languages.

Crimea

Orlando Figes' Crimea is a powerful history of the Crimean War, the conflict that dominated the nineteenth century. 
 
 The Crimean War one of the fiercest battles in Russia's history, killing nearly a million men and completely redrawing the map of Europe. Pitting the Tsar's empire against an alliance of Britain, France and the Ottoman Empire, it was the first conflict to use photography, the telegraph and newspapers; a war over territory, from the Balkans to the Persian Gulf; a war of religion, driven by a fervent, populistbelief by the Tsar and his ministers that it was Russia's task to rule all Orthodox Christians and control the Holy Land; it was the original 'total war'. 
 
 Orlando Figes' vivid new book reinterprets this extraordinary conflict. Bringing to life ordinary soldiers in snow-filled trenches, surgeons on the battlefield and the haunted, fanatical figure of Tsar Nicholas himself, Crimea tells the human story of a tragic war. 
 
 'Lucid, well-written, alive and sensitive, it tells us why this neglected conflict and its forgotten victims deserve our remembrance' &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Oliver Bullough, Independent 
 
 'Figes paints a vivid portrait of a bloody and pointless conflict ... he knows more about Russia than any other historian' &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Max Hastings, Sunday Times 
 
 'A fine, stirring account' &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Mark Bostridge, Financial Times 
 
 'A wonderful subject, on every level, and with Orlando Figes it has found the historian worthy of its width and depth' &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Norman Stone, Standpoint 
 
 'Figes is a first-class historian, as his splendid new book amply demonstrates' &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Dominic Sandbrook, Daily Telegraph 
 
 Orlando Figes is Professor of History at Birkbeck College, University of London. He is the author of Peasant Russia, Civil War, A People's Tragedy, Natasha's Dance, The Whisperers and Just Send Me Word. His books have been translated into over twenty languages.

This is the only book on the Crimean War anyone could need. It is lucid, well-written, alive and sensitive. Above all, it tells us why this neglected conflict and its forgotten victims deserve our remembrance

This is a heart-rending book ... its importance cannot be overestimated ... This book should be made compulsory reading in Russia today

A wonderful subject, on every level, and with Orlando Figes it has found the historian worthy of its width and depth

Figes is a first class historian... [he] proves an excellent guide to the vagaries of the battlefield, the suffering of the ordinary soldiers and the way in which the war became a crucial part of late-Victorian patriotic mythology, contributing to a new ethos of muscular Christianity

Orlando Figes ... is back doing what he does best - telling us things about Russia and the world that we did not know, and proving that they are important to our understanding of the world today ... With his deep understanding of Russia and its uncomfortable opposition in the world, Figes elegantly underlines how the cold war of the Soviet era froze over fundamental fault lines that had opened up in the 19th century

It is a fine stirring account, expertly balancing analysis with a patchwork of quotation from a wide variety of spectators and participants, together with an impressive narrative across the vast panoramic sweep of the war ... However, the book's true originality lies in its unravelling of the Crimean War's religious origins

Keenly judged, vivid history of a bloody and pointless conflict

An exhaustively researched, beautifully written book

One of our most engaging narrative historians, Orlando Figes has produced with his latest book a rollickingly good account of a war that shocked mid-Victorian England ... intelligent and reliable history ... Figes is a stylish and compelling narrator

An impressive piece of scholarship ... a concise portrait of the political situation of the time

A stellar historian. As ever, it mixes strong narrative pace, a grand canvas and compelling ideas about current geopolitical tensions

A sparkling and in passages brilliant account ... it stands amply and slendidly on its own two feet

A first-class historian, as his splendid new book, an epic account of the Crimean War of 1853-56, amply demonstrates

Wonderful ... an amazing panoramic view ... I've rarely read anything like it

A masterful account of lost and stolen lives

Awesome ... one of the most unforgettable books I have ever read. I defy anyone to read it without weeping at its human suffering, cruelty and courage ... in this book these righteous heroes have their rightful memorial

Orlando Figes is Professor of History at Birkbeck College, University of London. He is the author of Peasant Russia, Civil War, A People's Tragedy, Natasha's Dance and The Whisperers. He lives in Cambridge and London. His books have been translated into over twenty languages.

The terrible conflict that dominated the mid 19th century, the Crimean War killed at least 800,000 men and pitted Russia against a formidable coalition of Britain, France and the Ottoman Empire. It was a war for territory, provoked by fear that if the Ottoman Empire were to collapse then Russia could control a huge swathe of land from the Balkans to the Persian Gulf. But it was also a war of religion, driven by a fervent, populist and ever more ferocious belief by the Tsar and his ministers that it was Russia's task to rule all Orthodox Christians and control the Holy Land. 
 
Orlando Figes' major new book reimagines this extraordinary war, in which the stakes could not have been higher and which was fought with a terrible mixture of ferocity and incompetence. It was both a recognisably modern conflict - the first to be extensively photographed, the first to employ the telegraph, the first 'newspaper war' - and a traditional one, with illiterate soldiers, amateur officers and huge casualties caused by disease. Drawing on a huge range of fascinating sources, Figes also gives the lived experience of the war, from that of the ordinary British soldier in his snow-filled trench, to the haunted, gloomy, narrow figure of Tsar Nicholas himself as he vows to take on the whole world in his hunt for religious salvation.

Private Life in Stalin's Russia

The Whisperers

A gripping and emotional account of lives lived in impossible times

Orlando Figes' The Whisperers is a groundbreaking account of daily life in the chaotic and paranoid atmosphere of Stalinist Russia. 
 
 Exploring the inner life of a Russia where everyone was afraid to talk and society spoke in whispers, whether to protect friends and family - or to betray them - Orlando Figes tells the story of how Russians tried to endure life under Stalin's Terror. Where a junior worker might inform on their superior to get their job; a husband to get rid of a lover; a neighbour out of petty jealousy. Where living a double life became the norm and yet, somehow, a few defied the state. 
 
Those who shaped the political system became, very frequently, its victims. Those who were its victims were frequently quite blameless. Drawing on hundreds of family archives from across the whole spectrum of Russian society, The Whisperers recreates the sort of maze in which Russians found themselves, where an unwitting wrong turn could either destroy a family or, perversely, later save it: a society in which everyone spoke in whispers - whether to protect themselves, their families, neighbours or friends - or to inform on them. 
 
 'Wonderful ... an amazing panoramic view ... I've rarely read anything like it' &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Claire Tomalin 
 
 'Awesome ... one of the most unforgettable books I have ever read. I defy anyone to read it without weeping at its human suffering, cruelty and courage' &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Simon Sebag Montefiore, Mail on Sunday 
 
 'This is a heart-rending book ... its importance cannot be overestimated ... This book should be made compulsory reading in Russia today' &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Antony Beevor, author Of Stalingrad 
 
 'A masterful account of lost and stolen lives' &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; Sunday Times 
 
 Orlando Figes is Professor of History at Birkbeck College, University of London. He is the author of Peasant Russia, Civil War, A Peoples Tragedy, Natasha's Dance and The Whisperers. He lives in Cambridge and London. His books have been translated into over twenty languages.

Wonderful ... an amazing panoramic view ... I've rarely read anything like it

Awesome ... one of the most unforgettable books I have ever read. I defy anyone to read it without weeping at its human suffering, cruelty and courage ... a celebration of family love in an epoch of hellish cruelty ... now in this book these righteous heroes have their rightful memorial

Awesome &hellip; one of the most unforgettable books I have ever read. I defy anyone to read it without weeping at its human suffering, cruelty and courage &hellip; a celebration of family love in an epoch of hellish cruelty &hellip; now in this book these righteous heroes have their rightful memorial

Orlando Figes is Professor of History at Birkbeck College, University of London. His books include A People's Tragedy and Natasha's Dance.

Drawing on a huge range of sources - letters, memoirs, conversations - Orlando Figes tells the story of how Russians tried to endure life under Stalin. Those who shaped the political system became, very frequently, its victims. Those who were its victims were frequently quite blameless. The Whisperers recreates the sort of maze in which Russians found themselves, where an unwitting wrong turn could either destroy a family or, perversely, later save it: a society in which everyone spoke in whispers - whether to protect themselves, their families, neighbours or friends - or to inform on them.

A Cultural History of Russia

Natasha's Dance

A PEOPLE'S TRAGEDY won pretty much every prize for which it was eligible

From the award-winning author of The Whisperers, Orlando Figes Natasha's Dance: A Cultural History of Russia is a dazzling history of Russia's mighty culture. 
 
 Orlando Figes' enthralling, richly evocative history has been heralded as a literary masterpiece on Russia, the lives of those who have shaped its culture, and the enduring spirit of a people. 
 
 'Wonderfully rich ... magnificent and compelling ... a delight to read' &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Antony Beevor 
 
 'A tour de force by the great storyteller of modern Russian historians ... Figes mobilizes a cast of serf harems, dynasties, politburos, libertines, filmmakers, novelists, composers, poets, tsars and tyrants ... superb, flamboyant and masterful' &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Simon Sebag-Montefiore, Financial Times 
 
 'Awe-inspiring ... Natasha's Dance has all the qualities of an epic tragedy' &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Mail on Sunday 
 
 'It is so much fun to read that I hesitate to write too much, for fear of spoiling the pleasures and surprises of the book' &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Sunday Telegraph 
 
 'Magnificent ... Figes is at his exciting best' &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Guardian 
 
 'Breathtaking ... The title of this masterly history comes from War and Peace, when the aristocratic heroine, Natasha Rostova, finds herself intuitively picking up the rhythm of a peasant dance ... One of those books that, at times, makes you wonder how you have so far managed to do without it' &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Independent on Sunday 
 
 'Thrilling, dizzying ... I would defy any reader not to be captivated' &amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;Literary Review 
 
 Orlando Figes is Professor of History at Birkbeck College, University of London. He is the author of Peasant Russia, Civil War, A People's Tragedy, Natasha's Dance, The Whisperers and Just Send Me Word. His books have been translated into over twenty languages.

Orlando Figes is Professor of History at Birkbeck College, University of London.  His last book, A PEOPLE'S TRAGEDY (Cape 1996), won the NCR Book Award, the Wolfson History Prize, the Longman/History Today Book of the Year Award and the WH Smith Literary Award.  He lives in Cambridge.

This tremendously attractive, ambitious, dizzying book is in every way a worthy successor to Figes' bestselling A PEOPLE'S TRAGEDY.  The whole panorama of Russia's mighty culture is conjured up in a way that is fresh, intimate and immediate.  Whether talking about music or novels, buildings or paintings, Figes' enthusiasm and literary brilliance sweeps the reader along through a series of great set-piece chapters.

Orlando Figes

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.

Magnificent and utterly gripping: European identity, culture and commerce through the lives of three remarkable individuals, the book for our times.

It plunged me into another world. I learned so much and was carried away by the intelligence and fluidity of the style - a combination which is unbeatable.

A timely, brilliant and hugely enjoyable book ... A magnificently humane book, written with supple grace but firmly underpinned by meticulous scholarship.

The Europeans is a massively impressive work, as enjoyable as it is knowledgeable, full of insights into the mechanisms of history and in the people who make it. It is a book about the making of Europe, and this description, wonderful as it is, has now, in these days, sadly, also almost a utopian quality to it. Orlando Figes is an outstanding historian and writer, he brings distant history so close that you could feel its heartbeat. He did it with the Russian Revolution in A People's Tragedy, and he does it again in The Europeans.

[There are] a multitude of fascinating pieces of information to be gleaned from Orlando Figes's magisterial and wide-ranging book The Europeans ... Relevant, trenchant and searching.

I loved the book.  I read it in every spare moment, fascinated and sometimes surprised. ... I have been speaking about the book to everyone I know: it is clearly not just a book for musicians but for the widest audience interested in literature, music and art.

Meticulously detailed, exhaustively researched and written with Figes's characteristic verve, The Europeans is a sweeping tour de force and a monumental work of historical synthesis.

Three Lives and the Making of a Cosmopolitan Culture

The Europeans is a 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 ambitious lives and complex loves were bound up with an astonishing array of writers, composers and painters all trying to make their way through the exciting, prosperous European cultural landscape 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, as they travelled across the whole continent from the British Isles to Imperial Russia. 
 
The Europeans is Orlando Figes' masterpiece. 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.

Orlando Figes

Praise for The Europeans

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 - a ...

Magnificent and utterly gripping: European identity, culture and commerce through the lives of three remarkable individuals, the book for our times.

It plunged me into another world. I learned so much and was carried away by the intelligence and fluidity of the style - a combination which is unbeatable.

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 - a ...

Magnificent and utterly gripping: European identity, culture and commerce through the lives of three remarkable individuals, the book for our times.

It plunged me into another world. I learned so much and was carried away by the intelligence and fluidity of the style - a combination which is unbeatable.

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 - a ...

Magnificent and utterly gripping: European identity, culture and commerce through the lives of three remarkable individuals, the book for our times.

It plunged me into another world. I learned so much and was carried away by the intelligence and fluidity of the style - a combination which is unbeatable.

Books by Orlando Figes

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