To many seasoned historians, the collective origins of any long-lived nation or empire can be one of the richest sources of knowledge one can glean today. Whether one is talking about the British monarchy, the Holy Roman Empire or the dynasties of China, history can yield many untold tales far more captivating and enriching than any you would find in television or the movies.
With a colorful past that seems to seesaw between intrigue and tragedy frequently, the Russian Federation has to be one of the most promising gold mines for scholars today. Once one of the most feared world powers of the Cold War, Russia has much to teach generations today with its unique heritage of politics, literature and royalty.
As one of the preeminent students of Russian history and culture, Orlando Figes boasts a list of accomplishments to be rivaled and matched by very few. He has written numerous works on the various chapters of Russia’s past, from its ancient Byzantine roots to its dark days under Stalin’s regime. His first major book, A People’s Tragedy, walks readers through an ambitious and wide-reaching view of the volatile climate during the pivotal Russian Revolution.
In addition to his historical writings, Orlando Figes has also been a prolific analyst of literature pertaining to Russian history. He has contributed much to the dialogue surrounding Ivan the Terrible, Leo Tolstoy, Sergey Prokofiev and other notable figures of the country’s long and eventful past. He has also conducted eloquent critical pieces exploring the role that Russian literature has played within the context of the country’s more reactionary eras.
Throughout his body of work, Orlando Figes has shone a spotlight on how culture has played a huge role in Russia’s recovery, even in the wake of some of the most turbulent periods on the nation’s history. With a near-comprehensive familiarity with everything from the Volga peasantry to the height of the Gulag years, he is easily one of the most accomplished Russian scholars still active today.
Born in London in 1959, Orlando Figes is currently a resident of Cambridge and a Professor of History at the University of London’s Birkbeck College. He is a frequent contributor to one of the most respected bastions of the modern-day intelligentsia, the New York Review of Books. He has written numerous essays and contributed pieces to The New Statesman. He has published at least six books, his latest work being 2008’s The Whisperers: Private Life in Stalin’s Russia.