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The Whisperers: Private Life in Stalin's Russia
by: Orlando Figes

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Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours Binding: Hardcover
EAN: 9780713997026
ISBN: 0713997028
Label: Allen Lane
Manufacturer: Allen Lane
Number Of Pages: 740
Publication Date: October 04, 2007
Publisher: Allen Lane
Studio: Allen Lane
Sales Rank: 3163

Related Items:

A People's Tragedy: Russian Revolution, 1891-1924

Customer Reviews

Average Rating: out of 5 stars

Rating:

- An Insightful Historical Document
In this book, Figes has diluted and refined his mastery of the art of weaving historical sources together. These family narratives which, without this book, would certainly have been lost, provide a compelling insight into the reality of Soviet Russia - the 'historical' backdrop of dates and movements takes a back seat to the gritty honesty of real people's testimony of what living through this era was actually like.
A fantastic read.

Rating:

- A necessary book
This is a really first-rate book. Like no other book before, it lets the reader feel what it was like to live through the Stalin years. Based on interviews and family archives, which Figes has collected from homes across Russia, it is made up of small stories, which are beautifully woven into a tapestry of Soviet life. Some of the stories are harrowing, at times I found it hard to keep reading, but there are also tales of extraordinary courage and resilience that give the book a moral lift.

At the centre of the book is the fascinating figure of Konstantin Simonov, a writer deeply implicated in the Stalinist regime, who nonetheless is portrayed here as a sympathetic personality with many admirable qualities that were gradually lost ... Read More:

Rating:

- The Whisperers
"The Whisperers" performs the valuable historical task of collating and reporting what it was like to live in Soviet Russia under the constant threat of being sent to a labour camp or summarily executed. In selecting what to report the author imposed the constraint of using only oral testimony which was supported by documentary testimony (family photographs, private letters, official records, etc.). To ensure accuracy the draft of the text in English was translated into Russian to get the observations of those who had been interviewed.

What the book reveals is the depth to which fear permeated the whole of Soviet society - not only during but long after the death of Stalin. Whilst the camps were very strongly supported by Stalin it ... Read More:

Rating:

- A fine history lacking the narrative impact of Figes's earlier work
The Whisperers is Orlando Figes's moving book recounting the private lives of Soviet citizens living under Stalin's tyranny. It is a fine book, impeccably and widely researched and stands up well both as an academic work and as a relatively accessible history. Figes's achievements in this wide ranging bok are many, but the most telling thing I learned from reading The Whisperers was the sense of shame that the families of those persecuted by Stalin suffered even decades later.

While this is a very good work, there are a couple of shortcomings that preclude The Whisperers from attaining greatness and becoming a landmark text on the USSR - as Figes's earlier work A People's Tragedy was.

The first is its subject range. The ... Read More:

Rating:

- WHISPERING IN PARADISE
WHISPERING IN PARADISE

By IAIN FRASER GRIGOR

POPULAR HISTORIES in English about Stalin's Russia are on a roll and easily-read titles seem to tumble from their authors every few months. One of the most reliably prolific of these writers is Orlando Figes, professor of history at Birkbeck College, University of London, who - though barely 50 - already has his name on three major contributions to the genre.

Figes' cultural history of Russia, Natasha's Dance (the title redolent of the famous scene in Tolstoy's War and Peace) is a substantial and delightfully-written contribution to the subject. His history of the Russian revolution, A People's Tragedy, properly puts the Leninist coup d'etat of 1917 in its wider ... Read More:

Books : The Whisperers: Private Life in Stalin's Russia