Revolutionary Russia, 1891-1991

February 3, 2014
Figes (A People’s Tragedy) covers familiar terrain in his new account of Russia and its revolution with a sharp and confident analysis. He presents a centurylong revolution stretching from 1891 to 1991, and divides it into three phases: the rise of the Bolsheviks, Stalin’s rule, and the repercussions of Khruschev’s denouncement of Stalin. Figes works to dispel the mythology that still surrounds Lenin, Stalin, and the Revolution, plenty of which still survives in the West even after the Cold War. He reminds us that Lenin “was a stranger to Russia,” having spent most of the preceding 17 years outside the country, and that the Bolshevik storming of the Winter Palace was more like a house arrest, a coup d’état that few observers, including some Bolsheviks, thought could last. Analyzing Stalin’s leadership, Figes notes that even though intelligence reports suggested the Germans were massing for an attack in 1941, Stalin ignored the signs and, due to fears inspired by his Great Terror, his military commanders refused to contradict him. Figes strips away the propaganda and nostalgia to emphasize the Revolution’s destructive powers, a perspective that is all the more relevant as Vladimir Putin seeks to capitalize on many Russians’ hunger for the so-called glory days of the Soviet Union.

Starred review from March 15, 2014
The dean of contemporary Russian studies--and a gifted popularizer--ventures a refreshing thesis that joins the fondest dreams of the Bolsheviks to the full-circle collapse of the Soviet Empire. Figes (History/Birkbeck Coll., Univ. of London; Just Send Me Word: A True Story of Love and Survival in the Gulag, 2012, etc.) delivers the welcome insight that "red Russia" really began in a time of widespread famine in 1891, when Russians of various classes and regions realized that the czarist regime was of no help--so helpless, in fact, that it called on the people themselves for solutions, which "opened the door to a powerful new wave of public activity and debate which the government could not control and which quickly turned from the philanthropic to the political." With the bloodletting of the Russo-Japanese War, thanks to an inept general command, the die was cast, proving Trotsky's observation that a human crisis needed a match of human agency to bring about revolution. Figes carefully reminds readers that the revolution happened in stages: first in 1905, then again in 1917--twice, the first when the czar was overthrown, the second when the Bolsheviks wrestled power away from a coalition that would likely have proved more humane, and certainly more democratic, had it remained in government. The result was the grim regime of Stalin, which was not inevitable but instead hinged on the accident of Lenin's weakness in illness and Trotsky's talent for making enemies. Figes ably explains the subsequent Nazi-Soviet pact, which Stalin parsed as "Leninist," and the slow thawing that came about after the dictator's death in 1953. The author then joins the developments of the final four decades of Soviet power to the earlier era, writing that Mikhail Gorbachev's reforms were proposed much earlier--decades, in some cases--than they were enacted. As ever, highly readable and of tremendous interest to students not just of Russian history, but also of modern geopolitics--and not least due to the fact that Soviet heir Vladimir Putin remains in power.

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March 15, 2014
Russia's experience of the Bolshevik regime appears as a complete historical period in this survey. Figes sets the stage by describing the politics that paved the way for Leninradicalization of parties and the rigidity of the Romanov autocracy and its collapse under the strains of WWI. Recounting the Reds' victory in the ensuing Russian Civil War, Figes underscores that Lenin's governing instruments and attempt to totally eradicate capitalism were not anomalies but essential features of the Communist program. His concession in 1921 to restore a modicum of free enterprise encouraged successive leaders such as Gorbachev to look to the 1920s for the real Lenin, but Figes delineates the weaknesses of the argument. Stalin reached for the real Lenin of the Civil War, who employed mass suppression, dispossession of the peasantry, and state control of industry. Reprising those policies, albeit on a pathologically murderous scale, Stalin cultivated support from the generation he promoted to fill the places of his victims. Bringing the story full circle with the Khrushchev generation's doubts about the Communist system, Figes delivers an exemplary introduction to the Russian Revolution.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)

Starred review from January 1, 2017

Figes traces the history of the Soviet Union from the reign of Tsar Nicholas II through the empire's dissolution in 1991. The author delineates three distinct eras: Lenin and the Bolsheviks, Stalinism, and the post-Stalin generation. (LJ 2/15/14)

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November 1, 2013

A highly regarded expert on Russian history (he's won the Wolfson and Los Angeles Book prizes, among others), Figes returns to put the Russian Revolution in larger context. He sees the revolution not as a single cataclysmic event taking place around 1917 but as a continuous saga sweeping from the 1891 famines to the implosion of the Soviet regime in 1991. Though he shows how that saga embraced three generations--Bolshevik, Stalinist, and post-Stalinist--he sees them as consistently animated by the same ideal.

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February 15, 2014

While most historians traditionally focus on the events of 1917, Figes (history, Birkbeck, Univ. of London; A People's Tragedy) offers a new perspective, examining the Russian Revolution within the context of an entire century, from the Russian famine of 1891 through the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union. Figes presents a "single revolutionary cycle" that encompasses not only the tsarist past but the entire existence of the Soviet state. Identifying three distinct generational phases--the Old Bolsheviks, the Stalinist generation, and the post-1956 generation--he goes on to argue that Soviet leaders always believed they were carrying out Lenin's original utopian objectives. Throughout, the author tries to clear up popular misconceptions about Soviet history, such as the surprisingly small scale of the October 1917 Revolution. Although at times the object of controversy himself (e.g., he has written positive self-reviews and pseudonymous negative reviews of rivals' books on Amazon), Figes is considered a serious scholar of Russian history. His book combines a career of Russian and Soviet study with the added retrospective that the 20-plus years since the Soviet demise can bring. VERDICT Approachable and compelling, this will serve as a good overview for generalists interested in its subjects and offers pathways toward further reading for serious students. [See Prepub Alert, 11/1/13.]--Leslie Lewis, Duquesne Univ. Lib., Pittsburgh

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January 1, 2017

Figes traces the history of the Soviet Union from the reign of Tsar Nicholas II through the empire's dissolution in 1991. The author delineates three distinct eras: Lenin and the Bolsheviks, Stalinism, and the post-Stalin generation. (LJ 2/15/14)

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.