A People's Tragedy: A History of the Russian Revolution"It is a history on an epic yet human scale. Orlando Figes provides a panorama of Russian society on the eve of the revolution, and then narrates the story of how these social forces were violently suppressed. Within the broad strokes of war and revolution are miniature histories of individuals - pieced together from their private writings - in which Figes follows the main players' fortunes as they saw their hopes die and their world crash into ruins. There is the patriotic general Brusilov, the progressive peasant Semenov, the critical socialist Maxim Gorky...individuals whose lives collapsed under the weight of history." "Thus develops a remarkable and unique perspective on what is considered by some to be the century's most important event. Figes depicts the revolution as a tragedy - both for the Russians as a people and for so many individuals whose lives became caught up in the storm. Yet he also shows that the major social forces - the peasantry, the workers, the soldiers, and the subject people of the empire - were not just the victims of the Bolsheviks but also actors in their own complex revolutionary tragedies. Figes argues that the failure of democracy in 1917 was deeply rooted in Russian culture and social history and that what had begun as a people's revolution contained the seeds of its degeneration into violence and dictatorship."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved |
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A PEOPLE'S TRAGEDY: The Russian Revolution 1891-1924
User Review - KirkusA brilliant history of the Russian Revolution from the onset of the revolutionary crisis to the period when the basic institutions of the Stalinist regime were in place. Figes (History/Trinity College ... Read full review
Contents
The Dynasty | 3 |
Unstable Pillars | 35 |
Icons and Cockroaches | 84 |
Copyright | |
11 other sections not shown
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Common terms and phrases
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Bibliographic information
| Title | A People's Tragedy: A History of the Russian Revolution Penguin books Sidney Samuel Thomas general collection |
| Authors | Orlando Figes, Professor Orlando Figes, Figes |
| Edition | illustrated, reprint |
| Publisher | Viking, 1997 |
| ISBN | 0670859168, 9780670859160 |
| Length | 923 pages |
| Subjects | › History / Russia & the Former Soviet Union |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |