Rating: 
Summary: Detailed, fair, engaging, and gratifying
Review: "A People's Tragedy" is a rather detailed account of the Russian Revolution which maintains an excellent balance of erudition and lucidity. Figes convincingly presents the revolution as a 33-year process involving many contending interests without ever losing his focus on the eventual replacement of Tsarism with Communism.The first few chapters address the state of the Romanov regime in the decades preceding its overthrow, various parliamentary and cultural movements at the turn of the century, and the organization of the peasantry following the abolition of serfdom. This background information later proves essential. One can see, for example, how the land management and village self-governance of the peasants led to the soviet structure used by the victorious Reds. Figes revisits these themes throughout the book, depicting a Romanov dynasty that was more bumbling autocracy than cruel tyranny and raising the peasants from their usual role as a haplessly oppressed mass to a significant political force. I found the treatment of the Bolsheviks to be relatively sympathetic, and the book does not suffer because of it. They are depicted as a ruthless and especially fortunate revolutionary faction, a group ready to use any means necessary to obtain power but, in the end, given a gift with the success of their unlikely coup. Some readers may find this insufficiently damning but, while I would have liked a little more about how the nature of the revolution affected later developments, the abominable governance which followed is not Figes's topic.
Rating:
Summary: Detailed, fair, engaging, and gratifying
Review: "A People's Tragedy" is a rather detailed account of the Russian Revolution which maintains an excellent balance of erudition and lucidity. Figes convincingly presents the revolution as a 33-year process involving many contending interests without ever losing his focus on the eventual replacement of Tsarism with Communism. The first few chapters address the state of the Romanov regime in the decades preceding its overthrow, various parliamentary and cultural movements at the turn of the century, and the organization of the peasantry following the abolition of serfdom. This background information later proves essential. One can see, for example, how the land management and village self-governance of the peasants led to the soviet structure used by the victorious Reds. Figes revisits these themes throughout the book, depicting a Romanov dynasty that was more bumbling autocracy than cruel tyranny and raising the peasants from their usual role as a haplessly oppressed mass to a significant political force. I found the treatment of the Bolsheviks to be relatively sympathetic, and the book does not suffer because of it. They are depicted as a ruthless and especially fortunate revolutionary faction, a group ready to use any means necessary to obtain power but, in the end, given a gift with the success of their unlikely coup. Some readers may find this insufficiently damning but, while I would have liked a little more about how the nature of the revolution affected later developments, the abominable governance which followed is not Figes's topic.
Rating:
Summary: An Eisenstein who writes history
Review: I was going to say that reading Orlando Figes' A People's Tragedy: A History of the Russian Revolution is like watching an Eisenstein film. But it's better than that: Figes has the grand sweep of Eisenstein along with the telling detail. Unlike Eisenstein's camera, however, Figes is situated at the top of this century, where the scene is put into a longer historical perspective. And Figes has a wider lens than the one available to Eisenstein: he sweeps from left to right and back again, giving us a more balanced view of the subject.
Figes' ability to zoom in on details sets this history apart from the many previous works on the Russian revolutionary period. Thanks to new material available from once-sealed Soviet archives, Figes re-creates not only the death and rebirth of a nation, but also the lives--and the deaths--of its citizens, from Tsar Nicholas to Lenin to peasants. It is history on a literally grand scale, but it is also history on an intimate level. Figes follows the lives of all levels of participants in the great events of the revolutionary epoch in Russia. Where else, to cite one prurient example, might we read a laudatory description of Rasputin's penis by Prince Felix Yusupov, who became Rasputin's assassin? Figes enlightens and has fun doing so, and his sometimes irreverent--but never irrelevant--eye for detail both delights and instructs. But Figes never forgets that he is an historian who is concerned with presenting information. He balances Yusupov's claim with the report of the coroner who examined Rasputin's corpse.
Figes' evenhandedness gives validity to his interpretations of fact from the archives. This is true not only for such trivia as Rasputin's member, but also for more important matters. Unlike some historians of the past, he does not brush over Lenin's appetite for terror. Nor, like still others, does Figes apologize for a Tsarist regime that murdered thousands of citizens.
A People's Tragedy belongs on the shelf with the best histories of an event that continues to shake our world. It is history at its most accessible level, telling what happened in a place and to a people at a particular time.
Rating: 
Summary: Vast Story Concisely Told
Review: As a person who first became interested in Russian and Soviet history at 10 years old (reading Robert K Massie's "Nicholas and Alexandra") over the years I have developed a serious interest in Russian and Soviet history (there is a diffence).
I came upon Figes book and within 5 minutes had decided it had to be added to my Russian/Soviet History section of my library. The week it took to read it only confirmed the correctness of selecting it. It is a book I would highly recommend--and have--to anyone who has only a passing knowledge of Russian & Soviet history, but has an interest in learning more.
First, it is helpful in that it gives a greater background to the two revolutions (more about that later); not just going back to 1916 or 1914 but to 1891. As for 1917/18 it is refreshing to read either anything or more than one page about the first revolution of 1917: the one that outsted the autocracy and installed (albiet--and maybe sad for history--on quicksand) the provisional government. It was also refreshing that Figes includes the several years after 1917: the Bolshevik Revolution--not Soviet-- is not seen in a vacuum, as the 'be-all-and-end-all'.
It is for these reasons I recommend this book to people who want to know something about Russia and the Soviet Union. Yes, I have read the reviews which says there is not enough about Lenin but the subject matter is the Russian Revolutions and the Civil War not Lenin (who has had several excellent books devoted solely to him).
In closing, it will also teach the reader why the use of 'Soviet' by Lenin, Stalin, Trotsky, et.al. and the Bolsheviks was such an hypocracy on their part. The 'Soviet' Union may be dead but it is a time that should not be forgotten, nor how it came to being. I believe Fige's title "A People's Tragedy" is apt for this subject matter.
Rating:
Summary: An Extraordinary Read...
Review: As a professor mostly of Middle East and Latin American politics, with just one graduate course on Soviet/Russian politics under my belt (including Pipes, etc.), I was repeatedly confronting my own lack of familiarity with the Bolshevik Revolution. Finding this book at a conference, I took it home for bedtime reading... and lost hours of sleep every night. A stunning read, so beautifully written that it carried me along on a great wave of vivid detail and epic historical sweep. Figes brings to life not just the major events (told in vivid drama) but the complex interweaving of decaying autocracy: the early socialist movements and factions, Russian intellectual spinnings, internal socialist party conspiracies, leftist intellectual conceats, democratic flailings, Lenin's machinations -- in short, the multiple historical threads of unfolding and ultimately ruinous Bolshevik power. Figes does work in his extensive knowledge of the peasantry but also traces key players among the aristocracy, intelligentsia and other intellectual elite; his insights into socialist intellectuals make all too clear the seeds of the "people's tragedy" he is describing. I'm baffled by any criticism that the book neglects the culpability of the Bolsheviks in crafting the later murder of millions: it provides the richest account of those inner logics and political maneuverings I've ever seen. Its style was distracting only on those rare occasions when I paused to consider it, to figure out how he was carrying the narrative forward so irresistably. Altogether a magnificent book, and great for college courses... but some 700 pages, so give it two or three weeks on a syllabus, although I've used Part I on its own.
Rating: 
Summary: wordy yet shallow
Review: As many previous reviewers noted, analysis is sorely lacking. Anecdotal evidence on the level 'he said, she said' is not enough proof of many of the author's claims. Being a native of St-Petersburg and well indoctrinated in my teens by Communist school system, I must say that Figes didn't dig deep into all those 'recently opened' archives. He often relies on the old Communist sources, such as memoirs of the 'revolutionary workers' and mid- and low-level party bureaucrats. Those were written by ghostwriters under strict guidance from party ideologists and censors and are nothing more than a 'fantasy' version of the events that took place during the revolution. A good example is Figes' description of Gorky's adolescence. The myth of Gorky's teenage years as destitute and homeless was thoroughly debunked in the 90's, yet we get the same old peachfuzz on how Gorky was a burlak on Volga when he was 12. This sort of thing is persistent throughout the book. His reasoning and 'analysis' of the events that led to the February revolution might as well be taken from the Soviet school book circa 1979. So boo! boo!
Rating: 
Summary: A People's Tragedy
Review: Dr. Figes writes well and knows so much about the subject that one cannot help but admire his erudition. This book also contains many valuable black and white photographs from the revolutionary times. But it suffers from its excessive historicizing, i.e, too many details thrown at the reader without any obvious justificiation for many of them. This is a dense historical account written for a specialist, and it is much more descriptive than analytical. I would like to take an issues with Dr. Figes' cavalier dismissal of the existence of Ukrainian nationalism in 1919, when Bolshevik's took power in that country and incorporated it into the Soviet Union later. He depicts peasants as lacking political consciousness and being hostile to the nation state. He does not give evidence for this. Apparently, his conclusion is based on some theoretical precepts about the way the peasants generally are. He is not correct, as Petl'ura's and even the anarchist Makhno's fight against the Bolsheviks had grass roots support and bore a nationalist character. To crush Ukrainian nationalism, Stalin starved millions of people to death only a dedcade later. Of this there can be no doubt. When did Ukrainians develop their nationalism then? Only in the years 1919-1929? I doubt it. This is a tremendous book and looks like a labor of love by Dr. Figes, but ultimately it is weakly organized and bloated.
Rating:
Summary: Expectedly convoluted but worthy.
Review: Figes attempts to interpret what the Revolution meant to all levels of society and how it affected them. In doing so, threads are lost and recaptured in this long treatise leading to confusion on a Tolstoyan scale. A limited number of individual characters are fleshed out and their lives are followed during the turbulent years of the RR and Civil War. They die, betray each other, get sent to camps, go to battle, swap allegiences, debate Communism and so on. People frustratingly disappear in the book and then pop up at later points. Figes does make a valuable contribution but you get the impression that it there are many stories hidden within the Kremlin's vaults which would shed light on the people lives he describes.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent view of the Russian Revolution from the bottom.
Review: Figes breaks new ground in showing the Russian Revolution from the people's view. He manages to weave the aspirations of peasants, soldiers, shopkeepers into a coherent narrative while giving new interpretation to many of the events. Unlike many historians, Figes gives only the briefest account of parties; his interests are elsewhere. We also a different account of Kornilov. Brusilov, an many other important figures. He also differentiates groups among the peoples that were involved in the Revolution rather than treating them as a homogeneous mass. One might object that he takes this method too far & as a result, we often loose track of the leadership. Figes provides an outstanding second book for students of the Revolution to read.
Rating:
Summary: pinch yourself--this isn't fiction
Review: Figes has a most stellar habit of describing Russia's revolutionary period through the actions and thoughts of individual people. This, without losing sight of broader tides. The book is a bit haunting in that it reads like fiction, but isn't. 'Tragedy' is definitely the appropriate word. All-in-all its one of the best written historical accounts that I have read, of any era.
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