The Story of Russia: 'An excellent short study'

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 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 ------------------------- 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. ------------------------- 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 Review: Figes's 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 Russia's history, its people's 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 nation's past have been used to shape its autocratic present * Observer * 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 in The Story of Russia -- Antony Beevor Figes's 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, it's 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 historian's latest work on Russia is a lucid chronological journey that ably illustrates how narratives from the nation's 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 . . . Figes's book offers a valuable, instructive overview * Independent * Anyone who wants to detox from Putin's mythomanic claims about Russia's history and what it means for today's world will find some relief in The Story of Russia . . . Figes presents Russia's history in a straightforward manner * Irish Independent *