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From “the great storyteller of Russian history” (Financial Times), a brilliantly colored account of the myths that have shaped and reshaped Russia’s identity and politics from its foundingWho were the Rus, the ancient tribe from which the Russians trace their origins? Were they Baltic Slavs, hailing from within the territory that would become Russia? Or were they Vikings from Scandinavia, who came in from the outside to organize chaotic warring groups? Russians initially embraced the former theory, following a surge in nationalist sentiment, but autocrats, including Catherine the Great, came to trumpet the latter, which supported the notion that the Russian people are incapable of self-governance. Both sides were using history to create myths, narratives of national identity that could be deployed for their own political ends.The Story of Russia is about how the Russians defined themselves―and repeatedly reinvented such definitions along the way. Moving from Russia’s agrarian beginning

'Magnificent. Beautifully written, immaculately researched and thoroughly absorbing from start to finish. A tour de force that explains how Europe's cultural life transformed during the course of the

From the “master of historical narrative” (Financial Times), a dazzling, richly detailed, panoramic work―the first to document the genesis of a continent-wide European culture.The nineteenth century i

From the bestselling author of Natasha's Dance, The Europeans is richly enthralling, panoramic cultural history of nineteenth-century Europe, told through the intertwined lives of three remarkable peo

Unrivalled in scope and brimming with human drama, A People's Tragedy is the most vivid, moving and comprehensive history of the Russian Revolution available today. "A modern masterpiece". (Andrew Mar

Presenting a new perspective on the Russian Revolution, a noted historian traces three generational phases to show how the revolution, while it changed in form and character, retained the same idealis

What caused the Russian Revolution? Did it succeed or fail? Do we still live with its consequences? Orlando Figes teaches history at Birkbeck, University of London and is the author of many acclaimed

A triumphant love story and inside portrait of the notorious Arctic Gulag, based on recently discovered letters smuggled between 29-year-old prisoner Lev Mishchenko and his sweetheart, Sveta, traces t

Lev and Svetlana, kept apart for fourteen years by the Second World War and the Gulag, stayed true to each other and exchanged thousands of secret letters as Lev battled to survive in Stalin's camps.

From "the great storyteller of modern Russian historians" (Financial Times) comes the definitive account of the forgotten war that shaped the modern age.The Charge of the Light Brigade, Florence Night

The terrible conflict that dominated the mid 19th century, the Crimean War killed at least 800,000 men and pitted Russia against a formidable coalition of Britain, France and the Ottoman Empire. It wa

From "the great storyteller of modern Russian historians,"* the definitive account of the forgotten war that shaped the modern ageThe Charge of the Light Brigade, Florence Nightingale—these are the en

A New York Times Notable Book of 2007"A tremendous achievement."--The Sunday Times (London)The Whisperers is a triumphant act of recovery. In this powerful work of history, Orlando Figes chronicles t

Orlando Figes' "The Whisperers" is a groundbreaking account of daily life in the chaotic and paranoid atmosphere of Stalinist Russia. Exploring the inner life of a Russia where everyone was afraid to

Beginning in the eighteenth century with the building of St. Petersburg and culminating with the Soviet regime, Figes examines how writers, artists, and musicians grappled with the idea of Russia its

From the award-winning author of "The Whisperers", Orlando Figes "Natasha's Dance: A Cultural History of Russia" is a dazzling history of Russia's mighty culture. Orlando Figes' enthralling, richly ev

It is history on an epic yet human scale. 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 Rus

From the author of A People’s Tragedy, an original reading of the Russian Revolution, examining it not as a single event but as a hundred-year cycle of violence in pursuit of utopian dreamsIn this ele

A heroic love story and an unprecedented inside view of one of Stalin's most notorious labor camps, based on a remarkable cache of letters smuggled in and out of the Gulag"I went to get the letters fo