When tackling books about recent history, particularly history laden with ideological context and where the worldview of the author really makes a difference on how historical events are portrayed and judged, there is always a need to be cautious. ** opportunities to participate in on-line seminars with me on Google Hangout to discuss the major themes of the Russian Revolution and Soviet history, and a video library of previous seminars; Book The Co-opting of Education by Extremist Factions. Orlando Figes succeeds in presenting a short political history of Russia 1891-1991. Apparently democracy is not about the right to represent all political views, but the right to represent the right (liberal) views. Russia is a big countr. As usual in right wing versions of the history, details of Bolshevik torture during the civil war is provided, whereas not even a word is said of White terror. For A-level teachers and students who are keen to stretch their studies, or for students at university, there is a premium site www.revolutionaryrussia.com with more materials, including: Hasn't this story been told and retold and retold again? “The word ‘soviet’ means ‘council’ in Russian (there was nothing particularly Communist about it until after 1917).”, “This was one of the most revealing scenes of the whole revolution – one of those rare episodes when the hidden relations of power are illuminated on the surface of events and the broader course of history becomes clear.”, http://us.macmillan.com/revolutionaryrussia18911991/OrlandoFiges, Best Russian History and Literature Books, Historically Inevitable? Industrialist's son and revolutionary thinker: Friedrich Engels, who co-wrote the Communist Manifesto with Karl Marx, was born 200 years ago in Wuppertal. 25 talking about this. One of the undisputedly good things about modern scholarship is that women’s history is finally getting its due.... To see what your friends thought of this book, Revolutionary Russia, 1891 - 1991: A History. ». One critical point, Mr. Figes offers up many observations, which may in fact be true, without providing supporting data. Easy to read, and with a useful further reading section, it's. November 8, 2020 Comments Off on American, Revolutionary John Reed, ... Bulgaria and Russia were published in 1916 in The War in Eastern Europe. I don't fault a guy for trying to make a buck. Very good balance of informative detail and brevity that gives you a broad understanding of what happened in 100 years in 300 odd pages. The thesis doesn't add up as it does not appear to be one continuous (or perpetual maybe?) Starting with the famine of 1891 and ending 100 years later with the end of the USSR in 1991, Orlando Figes succeeds in creating a readable, high level overview of the Russian revolution and its subsequent demise. Orlando Figes is a British historian of Russia, and a professor of history at Birkbeck, University of London. Happy Women's History Month! Figes could have quite easily divided up the one revolution into more stages than just the three he identifies. If you doubt the author’s politics, just fast forward to the last page where the author tells the reader that it will take a long time for Russians to be ‘cured’ of their Communist past. Historians who tackle this inexhaustible subject and try to transcend the dry facts, are imminently classified as rightist of leftist, and their work treated correspondingly. For me, Lenin's revolution was the birth and Stalin set it in stone. The Revolutionary Insurrectionary Army of Ukraine (Ukrainian: Революційна Повстанська Армія України), also known as the Black Army, or as Makhnovtsi (Ukrainian: Махновці), after their leader Nestor Makhno, was an anarchist army formed largely of Ukrainian peasants and workers during the Russian Civil War of 1917–1922. The revolutionary emigration included the directive bodies of several parties in the all-Russian revolutionary camp, such as the Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania and the Latvian Social Democratic League. Orlando Figes has written in depth on the history of Russia and the Soviet Union for many years, and has drawn on that corpus of work to write an up-to-date narrative of the birth, life and death of the Russian revolutionary experiment. I am not an expert in the field, but I find it curious that the (mainstream) history of revolutionary Russia has been completely monopolised by right wing historians. Revolutionary Russia's journal/conference profile on Publons, with several reviews by several reviewers - working with reviewers, publishers, institutions, and funding agencies to turn peer review into a measurable research output. The author’s sadness over the events in 1917 is tangible and almost makes one sympathise with his view. This list may not reflect recent changes (). Some familiarity with the period would help but isn't necessary - there's nothing you can't Google in a minute. Even now the Cold War is over, history writing on the Russian revolution and 20th century Russian communism still is a tricky, slippery path and rises passions. His classic Memoirs of a Revolutionary and his great last novels, Unforgiving Years and The Case of Comrade Tulayev (both available as NYRB Classics), were written "for the desk drawer" and published posthumously. Hasn't this story been told and retold and retold again? One critical point, Mr. Figes offers up many observations, which may in fact be true, without providing supporting data. 20 New Books on Women’s History. Having been ignorant of Russia´s past for far too long, I made the decision to purchase Orlando Figes general overview of easily the most eventful and pernicious chunk of the country´s history. Na větÅ¡ině prodejen máme zřízena výdejní okénka. How? Historian Dan Healey, whose 2001 book Homosexual Desire in Revolutionary Russia was translated into Russian in 2008, ... when his candid diaries were published. To accompany Revolutionary Russia there are two websites designed by Orlando Figes to help teachers and students study the Russian Revolution and Soviet history. Objednávky i výměnu zboží můžete nadále realizovat přes eshop a nebo, po telefonické domluvě, přímo s vybranou prodejnou. Science and philosophy in the Soviet Union by: Graham, Loren R. Published: (1972) Politics and public health in revolutionary Russia, 1890-1918 / by: Hutchinson, John F. Published: (1990) The marketing hype of the work as. A primer intended for readers unfamiliar with the territory, it sparkles with ideas, vivid storytelling, poignant anecdotes and pithy phrases... Fresh and dramatic (Victor Sebestyen, Sunday Times) That being said it was especially informative. The narrative line and the richness of the details make it thrilling read. Orlando Figes's latest book is Revolutionary Russia, 1891-1991 (Pelican, 2014), which draws from which draws from several of his previous books on the Russian Revolution and Soviet history. Capturing one hundred years of impossibly fraught history in under three hundred pages obviously requires a terrific synthesis of sources, events, personages, periods and so forth - and to my novice mind Figes nails it. With it the Russian Marxists at last had an answer to the problem of how to bring about a post-capitalist society in one only now entering the capitalist phase. Figes tends to forget his thesis frequently over the course of his work. A straightforward, sometimes dry, retelling of the Soviet revolution from its origins to its eventual demise. © 2011 Orlando Figes | All Rights Reserved. The revolutionary council will accept no guidance from the EU, Washington, or any agreements that limit the exercise of national sovereignty. Officially approved writing (the only kind that could be published) by and large sank to a subliterary level. But then the imbalanced treatment of the Bolsheviks starts to annoy too much for much sympathy. After a brief period of relative openness (compared to what followed) in the 1920s, literature became a tool of state propaganda. Hey, I'd like to make a buck, too, off my writing. The SRs were formed in Kharkiv in 1902 from a coalition of populist groups. Economic distress, political repression, revolution... A wonderfully incisive analysis of a century of Russian history and politics, which establishes the continuity among Russian rulers - the Romanovs, the communists and the others - and how this proud and great land has lived - and often suffered - under various ideologies of the Right and the Left , absolute monarchist, communist, Jacobin and great powerist.... A must read for anyone interested in this topic as Figes encapsulates the broad tr, Economic distress, political repression, revolution... A wonderfully incisive analysis of a century of Russian history and politics, which establishes the continuity among Russian rulers - the Romanovs, the communists and the others - and how this proud and great land has lived - and often suffered - under various ideologies of the Right and the Left , absolute monarchist, communist, Jacobin and great powerist.... A must read for anyone interested in this topic as Figes encapsulates the broad trends in robust prose. The newspaper began publication on 5 May 1912 in the Russian Empire, but was already extant abroad in January 1911. Between the 1920s and the 1940s of the 20th century children, born in the Soviet Union, were named after popular Communist leaders, and new names were invented, which reflected the achievements of those times. One of the major themes in the book: political legitimacy comes before social justice. It was this fame that, in 1909, brought him to the attention of Tsar Nicholas II. Let's face it though, friends, I'm lucky enough to have you reading these words free of charge. Start by marking “Revolutionary Russia, 1891 - 1991: A History” as Want to Read: Error rating book. Revolutionary Russia, 1891-1991 (Pelican, 2014) draws from several of Figes’ previous books on the Russian Revolution and Soviet history. Health and society in revolutionary Russia by Susan Gross Solomon, John F. Hutchinson, unknown edition, ... "Published in cooperation with the Centre for Russian and East European Studies, University of Toronto." However, Figes is a brilliant writer, entertaining and inocular who deserves utmost obeisance for this compact work. Starting with the famine of 1891 and ending 100 years later with the end of the USSR in 1991, Orlando Figes succeeds in creating a readable, high level overview of the Russian revolution and its subsequent demise. There is a small subscription fee (£49.99 per year for schools and £7.99 per year for individuals) to access these and other materials at www.revolutionaryrussia.com. Pages in category "Russian revolutionaries" The following 189 pages are in this category, out of 189 total. The Russian Empire's role in the American Revolutionary War was part of a global conflict of colonial supremacy between the Thirteen Colonies and the Kingdom of Great Britain.Prior to the onset of the war, the Russian Empire had already begun exploration along North America's west coast; and, the year following the war's conclusion, the Eurasian empire established its first colony in Alaska. Existing governmental and financial institutions will continue in operation, but the revolutionary council will reestablish all civil liberties, such as freedom of movement, freedom of income, freedom of expression, freedom of assembly and freedom of travel. Russia is a big country, in both land area and population, synthesizing that diversity too narrowly, often defaulting to the history of a small cadre, risks academic integrity. American, Revolutionary John Reed, the “Hero” of Lenin’s Communists buried at Kremlin’s Wall. Instead, the SRs platform was chiefly concerned with R… Insightful and convincing... Figes integrates his analysis into a highly readable story, and he shows himself to be a master of historical narrative. This is a new history of the Russian Revolution, written from a conservative point of view. Hey, I'd like to make a buck, too, off my writing. Wonderful introductory text with a broad synthesis and an argument in place written by one of the leading historians of the Soviet Union. It could also do with a few maps and a glossary of terms for the tens of different assemblies and organizations in Tsarist and Revolutionary periods. However, Figes is a brilliant writer, entertaining and inocular who deserves utmost obeisance for this com. : Turning Points of the Russian Revolution, The End of Tsarist Russia: The March to World War I and Revolution, October: The Story of the Russian Revolution, The Dilemmas of Lenin: Terrorism, War, Empire, Love, Revolution, Een geschiedenis van Rusland: Van Rurik tot Gorbatsjov, Down with Big Brother: The Fall of the Soviet Empire, Please un-combine (two different books mistakenly merged), Power, Sister! April 8th 2014 Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read. From May to November 1905 the central organ of the party was Lenin’s newspaper Proletarii, published in Geneva. Maybe it serves some value for those high school students in need of a short, readable history of Russia? Being ‘fair’ is not about justifying the horrible things the peoples of the USSR suffered under Communism, but it is about trying to understand them.