Orlando Figes is a historian and the author of 10 books on Russian and European history, including the multi-award-winning A People’s Tragedy, about the Russian Revolution – named one of the “100 most influential books since the war” by the TLS. Born in London in 1959, Figes studied and lectured at Cambridge and later became professor of history at Birkbeck – a position from which he recently retired. His latest book is The Story of Russia, which condenses 1,000 years of history into a tightly written, illuminating 300-odd pages.
You’ve written extensively about Russian history in previous books. What new perspective did you want to offer here?
I was aware of the growing disconnect between how we [in the west] see Russian history and the way the Russians see it – particularly the way in which the Putin regime has propagandised a version that is increasingly imperial. I felt it was important to talk about the ideas of Russia’s history because, we now see, they were being weaponised to justify and sustain this war [with Ukraine]. I wanted to give the western reader a sense of the sacred power of the tsar, Russia’s special mission in the world, and so on.
