The Story of Russia: 'An excellent short study'

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A 2022 BOOK OF THE YEAR FOR: Sunday Times * Irish Times * Spectator * Financial Times * Telegraph * Aspects of History The history book you need if you want to understand modern Russia' ANNE APPLEBAUM A magnificent, magisterial thousand year history of Russia . . . by one of the masters of Russian scholarship' SIMON SEBAG MONTEFIORE A great historian at the peak of his powers' WILLIAM DALRYMPLE '[An] excellent short study MAX HASTINGS, SUNDAY TIMES If you really want to understand Putins Russia today, anchored in its past of myths, then you simply have to read Figess superb account ANTONY BEEVOR 'A lucid chronological journey that ably illustrates how narratives from the nations past have been used to shape its autocratic present OBSERVER 'A valuable, instructive overview' INDEPENDENT ------------------------- From the great storyteller of Russia, a spellbinding account of the stories that have shaped the countrys past and how they can inform its present. No other country has been so divided over its own past as Russia. None has changed its story so often. How the Russians came to tell their story, and to reinvent it as they went along, is a vital aspect of their history, their culture and beliefs. To understand what Russias future holds to grasp what Putins regime means for Russia and the world we need to unravel the ideas and meanings of that history. In The Story of Russia, Orlando Figes brings into sharp relief the vibrant characters that comprise Russias rich history, and whose stories remain so important in making sense of the worlds largest nation today from the crowning of sixteen-year-old Ivan the Terrible in a candlelit cathedral, to Catherine the Great, riding out in a green uniform to arrest her husband at his palace, to the bitter last days of the Romanovs. Beautifully written and based on a lifetime of scholarship, The Story of Russia is a major and definitive work from the great storyteller of Russian history: sweeping, suspenseful, masterful. ------------------------- PRAISE FOR ORLANDO FIGES An outstanding historian and writer, he brings distant history so close that you could feel its heartbeat KARL OVE KNAUSGAARD 'Figes knows more about Russia than any other historian' MAX HASTINGS, SUNDAY TIMES

Reviews

Figess book is an absorbing and enlightening read, a triumph of concision, analysis and insight * Daily Mail *
A deeply impressive and deeply immersive book . . . The author sets out to reveal Russias history, its peoples perception of their past and the manifold ways in which those in power manipulate both events and legend to shape the present. It is a saga of multi-millennial identity politics * Spectator *
To understand Putin's paranoia, read this book on Russia's history * Telegraph *
A lucid chronological journey that ably illustrates how narratives from the nations past have been used to shape its autocratic present * Observer *
If you really want to understand Putins Russia today, anchored in its past of myths, then you simply have to read Figess superb account in The Story of Russia -- Antony Beevor
Figess book is an absorbing and enlightening read, a triumph of concision, analysis and insight * Daily Mail *
An indispensable survey of more than 1,000 years of history shows how myth and fact mix dangerously in the tales this crucial country tells about itself * Guardian *
A magnificent, magisterial thousand year history of Russia . . . its tsars and tyrants, wars and massacres, ideas and dreams vividly drawn, its analysis of Russian power and empire essential reading today -- Simon Sebag Montefiore, author of THE ROMANOVS and STALIN: THE COURT OF THE RED TSAR
An expert on Russia delivers a crucially relevant study . . . A lucid, astute text that unpacks the myths of Russian history to help explain present-day motivations and actions * Kirkus (starred review) *
Urgent and revelatory and brilliantly told, its all the things you pray a book will be when you first pick it up -- Peter Morgan
Excellent short study -- Max Hastings * Sunday Times *
The historians latest work on Russia is a lucid chronological journey that ably illustrates how narratives from the nations past have been used to shape its autocratic present -- Angus Macqueen * Observer *
Figes skilfully assesses the evolution of the forms of government and society that inhibited the development of controls of the tsar * BBC History Magazine *
Accessible and epic . . . A great introduction to an enthralling subject * History Revealed *
An impressive account of the ideas, myths and ideologies that have shaped that country and the way its people interpret the past . . . Figess book offers a valuable, instructive overview * Independent *
Anyone who wants to detox from Putins mythomanic claims about Russias history and what it means for todays world will find some relief in The Story of Russia . . . Figes presents Russias history in a straightforward manner * Irish Independent *
Valuable book * Irish Times *
[An] imaginative sweep and a capacity to encapsulate in a memorable way * TLS *
Orlando Figes provides valuable lessons about the importance of mythologizing the countrys past in his sweeping new survey of Russian history * New York Times *
Sweeping and concise . . . It is a skilled piece of compression * Tablet *
This is a brilliant condensation his analysis of Soviet Russia is superb of a seriously complex tale * Spectrum *
The Story of Russia combines profound knowledge and understanding of the longer, deeper structural processes of history with the personal experience of an author seeking to understand what is happening on the ground today * Financial Times *
Orlando Figess latest book provides fascinating insights into this contemporary conundrum. The Story of Russia is a truly incisive and important dissection of Russias troubled past, both real and mythical, but it also provides a crucial context for understanding the present * Jewish Chronicle *
This book is a timely reminder of the malign uses to which history can be put * Politics Home *
A brilliantly concentrated meditation on the power of myth and history, and the ability of both to form and deform and guide and misguide the present. Thoughtful, nuanced and above all persuasive, it shows how we are all trapped in the loops and coils of myth, memory and forgetting, and demonstrates the urgent need for historians to remember, and insist on the truth -- William Dalrymple, Books of the Year * Spectator *
Beautifully brief, The Story of Russia shows centuries of regimes that revisit their past to manipulate the future, and eternally start from the wrong place acting in venal self-interest rather than the true national interest -- Best Books of 2022 * Financial Times *
Given the news, Orlando Figess short book could hardly be better timed ... His story abounds in strange and memorable characters, from emperors to writers. But its the sheer sweep that impresses most, as he turns a potentially grim and overwhelming subject into a delightfully brisk and enjoyable read -- Best History Books of 2022 * Sunday Times *
To understand Russias autocratic present, you must examine its past although Russias perception of that past is ever-shifting. Its founding myths have shaped its history right up to the present. Russia is a country held together by ideas rooted in its distant past, histories continuously reconfigured and repurposed to suit its present needs -- Best Non-fiction of 2022 * Irish Times *
The Story of Russia by Orlando Figes (Bloomsbury, 25) looks 900 years earlier, to the national myths that Putin exploited in his invasion of Ukraine. The countrys past will be reinvented by the Russian state as its needs change, Figes observes -- Best History Books of 2022 * Telegraph *

Author Bio

Orlando Figes is an award-winning author and historian, who has held teaching posts at Birkbeck College, University of London and Trinity College, University of Cambridge. He was born in London in 1959 and studied History at the University of Cambridge. Figes is the bestselling author of nine books on Russian and European history, including Natashas Dance and A Peoples Tragedy. His books have been translated into over 30 languages.