The Story of Russia
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The Story of Russia
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Narrated by:
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David Sibley
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By:
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Orlando Figes
About this listen
Bloomsbury presents The Story of Russia by Orlando Figes, read by David Sibley.
A 2022 BOOK OF THE YEAR FOR: Sunday Times * Irish Times * Spectator * Financial Times * Telegraph * Aspects of History
‘The history book you need if you want to understand modern Russia' ANNE APPLEBAUM
‘A magnificent, magisterial thousand year history of Russia . . . by one of the masters of Russian scholarship' SIMON SEBAG MONTEFIORE
‘A great historian at the peak of his powers' WILLIAM DALRYMPLE
'[An] excellent short study’ MAX HASTINGS, SUNDAY TIMES
‘If you really want to understand Putin’s Russia today, anchored in its past of myths, then you simply have to read Figes’s superb account’ ANTONY BEEVOR
'A lucid chronological journey that ably illustrates how narratives from the nation’s past have been used to shape its autocratic present’ OBSERVER
'A valuable, instructive overview' INDEPENDENT
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From the great storyteller of Russia, a spellbinding account of the stories that have shaped the country’s past – and how they can inform its present.
No other country has been so divided over its own past as Russia. None has changed its story so often. How the Russians came to tell their story, and to reinvent it as they went along, is a vital aspect of their history, their culture and beliefs. To understand what Russia’s future holds – to grasp what Putin’s regime means for Russia and the world – we need to unravel the ideas and meanings of that history.
In The Story of Russia, Orlando Figes brings into sharp relief the vibrant characters that comprise Russia’s rich history, and whose stories remain so important in making sense of the world’s largest nation today – from the crowning of sixteen-year-old Ivan the Terrible in a candlelit cathedral, to Catherine the Great, riding out in a green uniform to arrest her husband at his palace, to the bitter last days of the Romanovs.
Beautifully written and based on a lifetime of scholarship, The Story of Russia is a major and definitive work from the great storyteller of Russian history: sweeping, suspenseful, masterful.
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What listeners say about The Story of Russia
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- James Endersby
- 13-05-23
very interesting
a very interesting account of the history of Russia. fascinating and terrifying, with every heartbreaking moment in its history accounted for up to and including Putin's pointless war in Ukraine
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Ivan Philippov
- 04-10-22
Good story but not deep
a decent summary of the country's history but less interesting/ deep than author's other books on the subject, expected more from it.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Jack Veitch
- 17-09-22
Extremely well written and well read
The Story of Russia offers a fascinating insight into the current situation in Russia and Ukraine. The well written history helps you understand how story’s become myths and allow Putin to control his population.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Keith
- 09-01-23
Excellent
Brief, insightful and all together very interesting walk through Russian history from the Vikings to now. Loved it.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Sally Margulies
- 16-10-22
A must read.
A well researched, superbly written and fascinating book. Very well presented.
A joy to listen to..
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Anonymous User
- 21-03-23
A thorough history of an extraordinary country
Overall; Figes provides an excellent history of a complex and turbulent country caught even to this day between East and West, autocracy and change, tradition and modernity. That endless schizophrenia has meant that civil society as we in the West know it has never established itself. Hence the rather depressing but nonetheless understandable conclusion. Thank you Orlando.
Performances; Excellent narration
Story; Excellent
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Little Chandler
- 22-05-24
Superb Survey
superb survey, very fluid barrative told with a great sense of the sweep of time accompanied by analysis of events and the forces that drive them
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Timbo
- 17-12-22
An enlightening and informative book
I really enjoyed this book and fully recommend it to anyone who wants to know about Russian history.
With regard to the war in Ukraine, it’s ‘early days’ in historical terms. What I feel is to be revealed is how Russia might collapse. At the time of writing this may not have seemed possible to most people. But the fracture lines of the Russian federation are under pressure and have extended deeper to the long where we can see potential breaking of the Russian Federation and the Russian mutual security compact also. Add to this the high losses of personnel from the more remote regions of Russia, and the fleeing of some 700,000 to avoid mobilisation, one sees divisions within Russia that may also cleave apart. Add in the international aspect and one can see there are many states, organisations and large corporations that will be all too eager to offer incentives and support to see Russia break apart. The next decades could be a series of conflicts, economic collapse, mass migration and suffering on a grand scale all across the Russian Federation and within Russia.
Putin has created all of this and miscalculated. His role in Russian history is probably going to be as the man who destroyed Russia.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Mr Chambers
- 13-10-22
Fascinating history of Russia and its leaders
Fascinating history of Russia and its leaders. Detailed yet not boring and chronologically described along with the wider geo politics over the last 600 years.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- a h illingworth
- 09-02-23
The story of Russia
Excellent review of painful Russian history so well crafted into present politics . Also a joy to listen to as so well narrated.
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