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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

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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

Publisher Review

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) * 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 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 * To understand Putin's paranoia, read this book on Russia's history * Telegraph * Orlando Figes is an outstanding historian and writer, he brings distant history so close that you could feel its heartbeat -- Karl Ove Knausgaard on THE EUROPEANS There are a multitude of fascinating pieces of information to be gleaned from Orlando Figes's magisterial and wide-ranging book The Europeans . . . Relevant, trenchant and searching -- William Boyd on THE EUROPEANS Meticulously detailed, exhaustively researched and written with Figes's characteristic verve . . . A sweeping tour de force and a monumental work -- Observer on THE EUROPEANS Magnificent. Beautifully written, immaculately researched and thoroughly absorbing . . . A tour de force -- Peter Frankopan on THE EUROPEANS Remarkable . . . Orlando Figes is a fine historian who combines scholarly detail with readability. His wide-ranging book touches on a multitude of subjects. But at its heart is a love triangle - the very human story of three remarkable individuals whose lives he has resurrected with great sympathy and insight -- Daily Mail on THE EUROPEANS Figes in his maturity is a fine, subtle writer with a nice eye for detail and clever with structure. I finished the book entertained, informed and armed with the kinds of insights and questions that will keep me happily going for the rest of the year -- The Times on THE EUROPEANS Figes integrates his analysis into a highly readable story, and he shows himself to be a master of historical narrative. Readers will find themselves absorbing a great deal of information and insight with very little effort -- Financial Times on REVOLUTIONARY RUSSIA