He is married to Stephanie Palmer. Nobody could fail to be impressed by Orlando Figes' A People's Tragedy: the Russian Revolution 1891-1924 (Jonathan Cape) - but 924 weighty pages don't necessarily add up to a good … The Mongol invasion had left a powerful mark on the Russian psyche. The currents of modern civilization had somehow passed it by, and as he returned to it now, fresh from the sides of England and France, Sergei Semenov saw only familiar signs of backwardness and decay. Yet, despite living so close to the peasants, the educated classes of the cities knew next to nothing about their world. Liberals rightly warned about the psychological effects of this brutality. This was a cruelty made by history. . Orlando Figes lays out a panorama of Russian society on the eve of the revolution, and then narrates the story of how these social forces ere erased so violently. Some great quotes from Orlando Figes’ history of the Russian Revolution (endorsed by Communist Eric Hobsbawm, no less!). Russian Revolution Quotes. At a quarter before five a gun from the Britannia gave the signal to weigh. . . In this elegant and incisive account, Orlando Figes offers an illuminating new perspective on the Russian Revolution. To the less privileged it was this arbitrariness that made the regime's power feel so oppressive. Orlando Figes's latest book is The Europeans: Three Lives and the Making of a Cosmopolitan Culture.. A panoramic history of nineteenth-century European culture told through the entangled lives of the Russian writer Ivan Turgenev, the singer and composer Pauline Viardot and her husband Louis Viardot, a great connoisseur,The Europeans has been published to critical acclaim in the UK and US: The air was obscured Literacy had a profound effect on the peasant mind and community. 'He says of the icon: "It's good for praying -- and you can cover the pots with it too.”, “Whereas in Western countries the constitution merely had to guarantee the rights of a per-existing civil society and culture, in Russia it also had to create these. There were 690 documented pogroms -- with over 3,000 reported murders -- during the two weeks following the deceleration of the October Manifesto. 47 terms. Apart from a six-month stay in 1905-6, he had spent the previous seventeen years in exile abroad. Convinced that their own ideas were the key to the future of the world, that the fate of humanity rested on the outcome of their own doctrinal struggles, the Russian intelligentsia divided up the world into the forces of 'progress' and 'reaction', friends and enemies of the people's c . 18 terms. He thought of him as a father-figure who knew all the peasants personally by name, understood their problems in all their minute details, and, if it were not for the evil boyars who surrounded him, would satisfy their demands. No, there is no conspiracy; on the contrary, quite boldly, without mincing their words, without disguising their intentions, they have stepped up their agitation, intensified their propaganda, in the factories, in the barracks, at the front, in the countryside, everywhere, going so far as to proclaim in advance the precise day on which they will take up arms, the day on which they will seize power.” … It was expressed in a deep anxiety about the mixed Eurasian roots The Rightist groups played a leading role in these programs, either by inciting the crowed a He is professor of history at Birkbeck College, University of London.. Figes is known for his works on Russian … The huge canvas of war and revolution is supplemented by miniature histories of individuals, pieced together from their private writings, in which Figes … According to Figes "the whole of 1917 could be seen as a political battle between those who … . . While the country sank deeper into chaos he continued to fill his diary with terse and trivial notes on the weather, the company at tea and the number of birds he had shot that day. PLAY. I understood that the most terrible thing in life is complete hopelessness... To cross out all the 'maybes' and give up the fight when you still have strength for it is the most terrible form of suicide. This meant defending the autocratic principle, the unchecked powers of the police, the hegemony of the nobility, and the moral domination of the Church, against the liberal and secular challenges . There is a legend that on hearing of his brother's death Lenin remarked to his sister Maria: 'No, we shall not take that road, our road must be different.'. . Orlando Figes was born on November 20, 1959 in London, England. While the country sank deeper int Orlando Figes: Anna Karenina. Distinguished scholar Orlando Figes presents a panorama of Russian society on the eve of that revolution… I could feel their nauseating fear…. They have two children. The basic problem was that Nicholas himself remained totally oblivious to the extremity of the situation. Hence the peasant tradition of sending direct appeals to the Tsar.”, “The only way, they argued, to prevent a revolution was to rule Russia with an iron hand. In the mind of the ordinary peasant the Tsar was not just a kingly ruler but a god on earth. Whereas in Western countries the constitution merely had to guarantee the rights of a per-existing civil society and culture, in Russia it also had to create these. Orlando Figes, A People’s Tragedy: The Russian Revolution 1891-1924 (1996), pp. Praise for Revolutionary Russia: "Insightful and convincing... Figes integrates his analysis into a highly readable story, and he shows himself to be a master of historical narrative. . This meant defending the autocratic principle, the unchecked powers of the police, the hegemony of the nobility, and the moral domination of the Church, against the liberal and secular challenges of the urban-industrialize order.”. . . Orlando Figes, A People’s Tragedy: The Russian Revolution 1891-1924 (1996), pp. “The link between literacy and revolutions is a well-known historical phenomenon. 18 terms. . It promotes abstract thought and enables the peasant to master new skills and technologies, Which in turn helps him to accept the concept of progress that fuels change in the modern world.”, “For all too many of these high-born revolutionaries, the main attraction of 'the cause' lay not so much in the satisfaction which they might derive from seeing the people's daily lives improved, as in their own romantic search for sense of 'wholeness' which might give higher meaning to their lives and to end alienation from the world.”, “Convinced that their own ideas were the key to the future of the world, that the fate of humanity rested on the outcome of their own doctrinal struggles, the Russian intelligentsia divided up the world into the forces of 'progress' and 'reaction', friends and enemies of the people's cause, leaving no room for doubters in between. 32-33, 277-278. . Orlando Figes quotes. Orlando Figes was born on November 20, 1959 in London, England. Although neither would have liked to admit it, there was much in common between Lenin and Tolstoy.”, “This was a cruelty made by history. Liberals rightly warned about the psychological effects of this brutality. Welcome back. 'I know very little of Russia,' Lenin once told . The censor forbade all po Distinguished scholar Orlando Figes presents a panorama of Russian society on the eve of that revolution, and then narrates the story of how these social forces were violently erased. . Oh, how [the Soviet leaders of the February 1917 revolution… Topics : A People's Tragedy: The Russian Revolution: 1891-1924 Quotes Nicholas ii Quotes Orlando Figes Quotes Sveta had much less to say, but she sat with Lev and held his hand, and when I asked her what had made her fall in love with him, she replied, ‘I knew he was my future. It had to be instilled through the whole life of the It was perhaps unavoidable, given the Volunteers' desperate need for food and the reluctance of the peasants to give it to them. Russian Revolution historians These pages contain some profiles of prominent Russian Revolution historians. . . The word ‘soviet’ means ‘council’ in Russian (there was nothing particularly Communist about it until after 1917). And the more he experienced the everyday life of the peasant, the more he denounced them as savage and barbaric. The populists, who invested much of themselves in their conception of the peasants, suffered the most in this respect, since the disintegratio Russian Revolution Quotes. The respected historian Norma Stone wrote: ‘I doubt if there is anyone in the world who knows the revolution as … That is love.’ Sveta. The link between literacy and revolutions is a well-known historical phenomenon. . . Here you will find all the famous Orlando Figes quotes. A room without books is like a body without a soul. There were no clear principles or regulations which enabled the individual to challenge authority or the state.”, “The Provisional Government had lost effective military control of the capital a full two days before the armed uprising began. .”, “The deeper the Whites moved into the steppe, the more they resorted to terror against a hostile population. Orlando Guy Figes is a British historian and writer known for his works on Russian and European history. . The two religious communities had long been arguing about who should have first right to carry out their Good Friday ritu Enjoy the best Orlando Figes quotes and picture quotes! The worst violence was reserved for the Jews. In other words, the fate of the Russian Revolution was tied to the fate of the world revolution. The three great revolutions of modern European history -- the English, the French and the Russian -- all took place in societies where the rate of literacy was approaching 50 per cent. In the below list you can find quotes in various categories like Gulag, A People's Tragedy: The Russian Revolution: 1891-1924 and Hope, A People's Tragedy: The Russian Revolution: 1891-1924, Sveta had much less to say, but she sat with Lev and held his hand, and when I asked her what had made her fall in love with him, she replied, ‘I knew he was my future. Lenin arrived a stranger to Russia. The October revolution was carried out not by the Bolshevik party but … The moonlight was still floating on the waters, when men, looking from numberless decks towards the east, were able to hail the dawn. Most of the workers who turned out to meet him at the Finland Station could never have seen him before. And the more he experienced the everyday life of the peasant, the more he denounced them as savage and barbaric.”, “Only a few miles from any city centre one would find oneself already in the backwoods, where there were bandits living in the forests, where roads turned into muddy bogs in spring, and where the external signs of life in the remote hamlets had remained essentially unchanged since the Middle Ages. It had to educate society - and the state itself - into the values and ideas of liberal constitutionalism.”, “The currents of modern civilization had somehow passed it by, and as he returned to it now, fresh from the sides of England and France, Sergei Semenov saw only familiar signs of backwardness and decay.”, “Everybody cursed the Bolsheviks but nobody was prepared to do anything about them.”, “Lenin's Personal life was extraordinarily dull. For the Romanov regime fell under the weight of its own internal contradictions. . Political indoctrination was geared towards producing activists. He is known for his work on Anna Karenina (2012), War & Peace (2016) and Red Chapters: Turning Points in the History of Communism (1999). The three great revolutions of modern European history -- the English, the French and the Russian -- all took place in societies where the rate of literacy was approaching 50 per cent. There are more than 32+ quotes in our Orlando Figes quotes collection. . It was expressed in a deep anxiety about the mixed Eurasian roots of the people and it's culture, which made it easy for an educated liberal to convince themselves that this war was nothing less than a defense of Russia's European identity against the Asian hordes.”, “We, the workers and inhabitants of St Petersburg, of various estates, our wives, our children, and our aged, helpless parents, come to THEE, O SIRE to seek justice and protection. . As I watched our ‘socialists’ speaking to the crowds …. The basic problem was that Nicholas himself remained totally oblivious to the extremity of the situation. Long after serfdom had been abolished the land captains exercised their right to flog the peasants for petty crimes. Pavlik denounced his father’s crimes, and when Trofim shouted out, ‘It’s me, your father,’ the boy told the judge: ‘Yes, he used to be my father, but I no longer consider him my father. When Bulygin suggested that political concessions might be needed to calm the country, Nicholas was taken aback and told the Minister: 'One would think you are afraid a revolution will break out.' This site is created and maintained by Alpha History. Orlando Figes obstinate refusal of the tsarist regime to concede reforms turned what should have been a political problem into a revolutionary crisis... the tsarist regime's downfall was not inevitable; but its own stupidity made it so. These romantic visions of the peasantry were constantly undone by contact with reality, often with devastating consequences for their bearers. . ― Orlando Figes, A People's Tragedy: The Russian Revolution… The populists, who invested much of themselves in their conception of the peasants, suffered the most in this respect, since the disintegration of that conception threatened to undermine not only their radical beliefs but also their own self-identity.”, “Their notion of training was to march the men up and down in parades and reviews: these were nice to look at and gave them the impression of military discipline and precision, but as a preparation for a modern war they had no value whatsoever.”, “It was not Marxism that made Lenin a revolutionary but Lenin who made Marxism revolutionary.”, “To the less privileged it was this arbitrariness that made the regime's power feel so oppressive. We have reached that frightful moment when death is better than the prolongation of our unbearable sufferings. The conventional narrative is that the Russian revolution took place in … . . Their Ice March left a trail of blood. But there was also an element of sheer class war and revenge in their violence, as in so many acts of the White Terror, which was a mirror image of the class resentment and hatred that drove the Red Terror. You can download the quotes images in various different sizes for free. Here you will find all the famous Orlando Figes quotes. This is the first book in any language to offer a comprehensive analysis of the political culture of the Russian Revolution. Lists. 'Your majesty,' came the reply, 'the revolution has already begun.”, “The 'noble savage' whom the Populists had seen in the simple peasant was, as Gorky now concluded, no more than a romantic illusion. On the news that the Tsar had sent the troops icons to boost their morals, General Dragomirov quipped: 'The Japanese are beating us with machine-guns, but never mind: we'll beat them with icons. . . Behind his so-called ‘objectivity’, Orlando Figes cannot hide his hated for the Revolution. Authors. Quotes By Orlando Figes. That is why they set up the Communist International in 1919 to promote this aim. The book chronicles Russian history from the famine of 1891-1892, the response to which Figes argues to have severely weakened the Russian Empire, to the death of Lenin in 1924, when "the basic elements of the Stalinist regime - the one-party state, the system of terror and the cult of the personality - were all in place". Communism could not be taught from books, educational thinkers maintained. We have collected all of them and made stunning Orlando Figes wallpapers & posters out of those quotes. . Tsar Nicholas 11 (I will preserve) Click card to see definition "I will preserve the principle of autocracy as firmly and unflinchingly as my late father" Click again to see term . From the author of A People's Tragedy, an original reading of the Russian Revolution, examining it not as a single event but as a hundred-year cycle of violence in pursuit of utopian dreams. . It argues that - although it changed in form and character - the Russian Revolution should be understood as a single cycle of 100 years, from the famine crisis of 1891 until the collapse of the Soviet regime in 1991. In the mind of the cities knew next to nothing about their world educate -... And writer known for his works on Russian and European history powerful mark on Russian... Quotes collection to meet him at the Finland Station could never have seen him.! 'S minds to the crises with its usual incompetence and obstinacy council ’ in (... 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