‘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 Putin’s Russia today, anchored in its past of myths, then you simply have to read Figes’s superb account‘ ANTONY BEEVOR

‘A lucid chronological journey that ably illustrates how narratives from the nation’s past have been used to shape its autocratic present’ OBSERVER

‘A valuable, instructive overview’ INDEPENDENT

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From the great storyteller of Russia, a spellbinding account of the stories that have shaped the country’s 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 Russia’s future holds – to grasp what Putin’s 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 Russia’s rich history, and whose stories remain so important in making sense of the world’s 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.

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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

‘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

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’
   Oliver Bullough, Independent

‘Figes paints a vivid portrait of a bloody and pointless conflict … he knows more about Russia than any other historian’
   Max Hastings, Sunday Times

‘A fine, stirring account’
   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’
   Norman Stone, Standpoint

‘Figes is a first-class historian, as his splendid new book amply demonstrates’
   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.

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’
   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’
   Simon Sebag-Montefiore, Financial Times

‘Awe-inspiring … Natasha’s Dance has all the qualities of an epic tragedy’
   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’
   Sunday Telegraph

‘Magnificent … Figes is at his exciting best’
   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’
   Independent on Sunday

‘Thrilling, dizzying … I would defy any reader not to be captivated’
   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.