Orlando Figes Quotes

Orlando G. Figes is a British historian and writer known for his works on Russian history. He is professor of history at Birkbeck College, University of London.

Figes is known for his works on Russian history, notably, A People's Tragedy , Natasha's Dance , The Whisperers , Crimea and Just Send Me Word . A People's Tragedy is a study of the Russian Revolution, and combines social and political history with biographical details in a historical narrative. In 2008 the Times Literary Supplement named A People's Tragedy as one of the 'hundred most influential books since the war'. It was awarded the Wolfson History Prize, the WH Smith Literary Award, the NCR Book Award, the Longman-History Today Book Prize, and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Natasha's Dance and The Whisperers were both short-listed for the Samuel Johnson Prize, making Figes the only writer to have been short-listed twice for this prize. The Whisperers was also short-listed for the Ondaatje Prize, the Prix Médicis, and the Premio Roma. His books have been translated into over thirty languages Figes has been described as a conservative historian because of his negative assessment of Lenin during the 1917 revolution and focus on the individual rather than the collective. Others have situated Figes among 'revisionist' historians who explain its development in terms of social history.

Figes has made a significant contribution to the development of oral history in Russia. In partnership with the Memorial Society, he gathered several hundred private family archives from homes across Russia and carried out more than a thousand interviews with survivors as well as perpetrators of the Stalinist repressions for his book The Whisperers. This represents one of the biggest collections of documents about private life in the Stalin era. Housed in the Memorial Society in Moscow, St Petersburg and Perm, many of these research materials are available online.

Figes has been critical of the Vladimir Putin government, accusing it of imposing a nationalist agenda on history-teaching in Russian schools and universities.

In 2008, after the St Petersburg offices of the Memorial Society were raided by the police and its archive confiscated by the authorities, Figes organised an open protest letter to President Dmitry Medvedev and other Russian leaders, which was signed by several hundred leading academics from across the world. After several court hearings, the materials were finally returned to Memorial in May 2009.

Figes was the historical consultant on the 2012 film Anna Karenina, directed by Joe Wright, starring Keira Knightley and Jude Law with a screenplay by Tom Stoppard and is also credited as the historical consultant on the 2016 BBC War & Peace television series directed by Tom Harper with a screenplay by Andrew Davies.

In 2010, Figes paid costs and damages for libel after criticizing, under a pseudonym, two rival historians in Amazon reviews.

Figes serves on the editorial board of the journal Russian History, writes for the international press, broadcasts on television and radio, reviews for the New York Review of Books, and is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

✵ 20. November 1959