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

Figes, Orlando

4.36

5,213 ratings by Goodreads

9780712673273: A People's Tragedy: The Russian Revolution, 1891-1924

Softcover

ISBN 10: 071267327X ISBN 13: 9780712673273

Publisher: Pimlico, 1997

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Vast in scope, based on exhaustive original research, and written with passion, narrative skill and human sympathy, A People's Tragedy is the definitive account of the Russian Revolution for a new generation. It has won the Wolfson History Prize, the W. H. Smith Literary Award, and the Longman/History Today Book of the Year Award.

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Review:

Written in a narrative style that captures both the scope and detail of the Russian revolution, Orlando Figes' history is certain to become one of the most important contemporary studies of Russia as it was at the beginning of the 20th century. 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. 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. 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.

Figes' themes of the Russian revolution as a tragedy for the Russian people as a whole and for the millions of individuals who lost their lives to the brutal forces it unleashed make sense of events for a new generation of students of Russian history. Sympathy for the charismatic leaders and ideological theorising regarding Hegelian dialectics and Marxist economics--two hallmarks of much earlier writing on the Russian revolution--are banished from these clear-eyed, fair-minded pages of A People's Tragedy. The author's sympathy is squarely with the Russian people. That commitment, together with the benefit of historical hindsight, provides a standpoint Figes can take full advantage of in this masterful history.

Review:

"A modern masterpiece" (Andrew Marr)

"Combines dramatic power, absorbing narrative and magisterial scholarship – a magnificent tour de force" (Christopher Andrew Sunday Telegraph)

"The most moving account of the Russian Revolution since Doctor Zhivago" (Lucasta Miller Independent)

"This book is not just a history; it is an item of history" (Neal Ascherson Independent on Sunday)

"A People’s Tragedy will do more to help us understand the Russian Revolution than any other book I know" (Eric Hobsbawm London Review of Books)

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