A people's tragedy
Subtitle: a history of the Russian Revolution
By: Orlando Figes
Edition: 1st American ed.
Publisher: Viking
Published: 1997
Place of publication: New York, NY
Language: eng
Number of pages: 923
ISBN-13: 9780670859160
Copyright date: 1996
Subjects: History; Revolution; Bürgerkrieg; Geschichte
Description: 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.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [862]-894) and index.
Table of contents: title: The dynasty; title: Unstable pillars; title: Icons and cockroaches; title: Red ink; title: First blood; title: Last hopes; title: A war on three fronts; title: Glorious February; title: The freest country in the world; title: The agony of the provisional government; title: Lenin's revolution; title: Last dreams of the old world; title: The revolution goes to war; title: The new regime triumphant; title: Defeat in victory; title: Deaths and departures.