Vast in scope, based on exhaustive original research, and written with passion, narrative skill and human sympathy, A People's Tragedy: The Russian Revolution – centenary edition with new introduction, Revolutionary Russia, 1891-1991: A Pelican Introduction (Pelican Books), The Whisperers: Private Life in Stalin's Russia, Natasha's Dance: A Cultural History of Russia, The Penguin History of Modern Russia: From Tsarism to the Twenty-first Century, Russia in Revolution: An Empire in Crisis, 1890 to 1928.

'He says of the icon: "It's good for praying -- and you can cover the pots with it too.”, “Whereas in Western countries the constitution merely had to guarantee the rights of a per-existing civil society and culture, in Russia it also had to create these. Please try again.

To paraphrase Kissinger, fights in academia are so nasty because the stakes are so meager. In order to navigate out of this carousel please use your heading shortcut key to navigate to the next or previous heading. “The link between literacy and revolutions is a well-known historical phenomenon. Here were the origins of the totalitarian world-view. 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. The Ghost of the Constituent Assembly, Chapter 2. Just a moment while we sign you in to your Goodreads account. .”, “The deeper the Whites moved into the steppe, the more they resorted to terror against a hostile population. [Orlando Figes] -- This is a single-volume history of the century's most tragic and brutal revolution. In 1676, in Virginia, a group of black slaves and white servants united against their wealthy social superiors. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 19 December 2015. Quotes By Orlando Figes. Summary. It's huge but I couldn't put it down and found myself reading snatches whenever I could - at breakfast, for example: it's very easy to pick up from where you were (unlike other academic books I've read). A comprehensive insight into this period of Russian history explaining the complexity and diversity of the Russian people which lead to the difficulty of unifying a common strategy of leadership. A People's Tragedy will do more to help us undersand the Russian Revolution than any other book I know." Something went wrong. Enter your mobile number or email address below and we'll send you a link to download the free Kindle App. A People's Tragedy has been translated into over twenty languages. But there was also an element of sheer class war and revenge in their violence, as in so many acts of the White Terror, which was a mirror image of the class resentment and hatred that drove the Red Terror. Yet, despite living so close to the peasants, the educated classes of the cities knew next to nothing about their world. 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. Chapter 1. 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. He makes use of personal papers and personal histories to illustrate the effects the revolution wrought on a human scale, while providing a convincing and detailed understanding of the role of workers, peasants, and soldiers in the revolution. It is history on an epic yet human scale.

The Whites were stranded in a Red peasant sea. Hence the peasant tradition of sending direct appeals to the Tsar.”, “The only way, they argued, to prevent a revolution was to rule Russia with an iron hand. This is thorough and all-encompassing.

Detailed & fascinating study of this period, Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 6 November 2013. His first book, The Last of the Tsars: Nicholas II and the Russian Revolution. He moves deftly from topics such as the grand social forces and mass movements that made up the revolution to profiles of key personalities and representative characters. The Mongol invasion had left a powerful mark on the Russian psyche. Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 4 September 2013. Long after serfdom had been abolished the land captains exercised their right to flog the peasants for petty crimes. Try again. It was not overthrown.”, “On the news that the Tsar had sent the troops icons to boost their morals, General Dragomirov quipped: 'The Japanese are beating us with machine-guns, but never mind: we'll beat them with icons.”, “These romantic visions of the peasantry were constantly undone by contact with reality, often with devastating consequences for their bearers. Smith Literary Award, Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and the Longman/History Today Book of the Year Award. Everything you should know about the Russian Revolution, Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 11 June 2016. Sorry, there was a problem saving your cookie preferences. O SIRE we have no strength left, and our endurance is at an end. While the country sank deeper into chaos he continued to fill his diary with terse and trivial notes on the weather, the company at tea and the number of birds he had shot that day. . It promotes abstract thought and enables the peasant to master new skills and technologies, Which in turn helps him to accept the concept of progress that fuels change in the modern world.”, “For all too many of these high-born revolutionaries, the main attraction of 'the cause' lay not so much in the satisfaction which they might derive from seeing the people's daily lives improved, as in their own romantic search for sense of 'wholeness' which might give higher meaning to their lives and to end alienation from the world.”, “Convinced that their own ideas were the key to the future of the world, that the fate of humanity rested on the outcome of their own doctrinal struggles, the Russian intelligentsia divided up the world into the forces of 'progress' and 'reaction', friends and enemies of the people's cause, leaving no room for doubters in between. Their Ice March left a trail of blood. No subject of the Tsar, regardless of his rank or class, could sleep securely in his bed in the knowledge that his house would not be subject to a search, or he himself to arrest.”, “The worst violence was reserved for the Jews. It is history on an epic yet human scale.

The basic problem was that Nicholas himself remained totally oblivious to the extremity of the situation. To get the free app, enter your mobile phone number. Many consider the Russian Revolution to be the most significant event of the twentieth century. It was perhaps unavoidable, given the Volunteers' desperate need for food and the reluctance of the peasants to give it to them. It didn't disappoint. Born in London in 1959, he graduated with a double-starred first in History from Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, in 1982. .

We are impoverished; we are oppressed, overburdened with excessive toil, contemptuously treated . This book is highly informative, intelligent and beautifully written covering so much more than the politics - as must be expected from this academic and the vast subject. Time and again it is shown that there were opportunities missed that could have changed the course of history. Terror lay at the heart of both regimes.”, “Whereas land reform was the first act of the Bolsheviks, it was the last act of the Whites: that, in a peasant country, says it all.”, A People's Tragedy: The Russian Revolution: 1891-1924.

With an almost cinematic eye, Figes captures the broad movements of war and revolution, never losing sight of the individuals whose lives make up his subject. Unable to add item to List. The author's sympathy is squarely with the Russian people. Presents an account of the Russian Revolution. In 1997 A People's Tragedy was awarded five major literary prizes: the Wolfson History Prize, the NCR Book Award, the W.H. This book has won the Wolfson History Prize, the W H Smith Literary Award, and the Longman/History Today Book of the Year Award. We use cookies and similar tools to enhance your shopping experience, to provide our services, understand how customers use our services so we can make improvements, and display ads. Refresh and try again. Get this from a library!

Error rating book. It was as exotic and alien to them as the natives of Africa were to their distant colonial rulers.”, “There is no sadder symbol of the crippling poverty in which millions of peasants were forced to live than the image of a peasant and his son struggling to drag a plough through the mud.”, “The peasant also found another use for this sacred object. Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 27 February 2019. The Road to Hell is Paved with Good Intentions, Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 12 March 2013. . He thought of him as a father-figure who knew all the peasants personally by name, understood their problems in all their minute details, and, if it were not for the evil boyars who surrounded him, would satisfy their demands. Not for the squeamish. In actual fact in 1913 we have a scenario where "the side" that makes the least mistakes is the side that must eventually prevail.

'Kulaks', Bagmen and Cigarette Lighters, A People's Tragedy: The Russian Revolution: 1891-1924. It was expressed in a deep anxiety about the mixed Eurasian roots of the people and it's culture, which made it easy for an educated liberal to convince themselves that this war was nothing less than a defense of Russia's European identity against the Asian hordes.”, “We, the workers and inhabitants of St Petersburg, of various estates, our wives, our children, and our aged, helpless parents, come to THEE, O SIRE to seek justice and protection.