orlando figes the story of russia review

The ideological cornerstone of Putinism is the vision of a state locked in a struggle for survival. Or should they embrace Russia’s traditions as the foundation of a distinctive non-Western culture based upon the teachings of the Orthodox Church? Was liberalism a force to be emulated or resisted? In “ Russia: Myths and Realities: The History of a Country With an Unpredictable Past,” Braithwaite cites the Russian historian and statesman Nikolai Karamzin, who lamented a century after Peter’s death, “We became citizens of the world but ceased in certain respects to be citizens of Russia.” Anguished debates ensued over whether the empire’s elites should endeavor to “civilize” the common people to instill in them Western values: respect for the individual, the rule of law, constitutions. He succeeded, but at the expense of a rent in the fabric of Russian history that left many recently Europeanized elites feeling estranged from the traditional culture of the peasantry. Russia’s long struggle with the West has also been a struggle with itself, one that has ebbed and flowed since at least the turn of the 18th century when Peter the Great embarked on far-reaching institutional and cultural reforms intended to Westernize his empire, to make it economically and militarily more competitive. Figes’s “ The Story of Russia” is the most detailed, astute and compelling of the three it wears its learning lightly and weaves a well-crafted history together with an insightful examination of the narratives that have become “fundamental to the Russians’ understanding of their history and national character.” All three books illuminate the deep historical wellsprings of Putin’s war on Ukraine and the accompanying crackdown in Russia itself. Writing in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine, authors Rodric Braithwaite and Orlando Figes are readier to cast Putin not as a cynical manipulator of Russian history but as a firm believer in its apparent lessons. In “ A Short History of Russia: How the World’s Largest Country Invented Itself, From the Pagans to Putin,” Mark Galeotti recounts how Russia’s rulers have proved a largely pragmatic bunch, ready to rummage around in a grab bag of historical symbols, myths and traditions (many of them imported) to shore up their claims to power. Russia’s past is packed with traumas, ruptures, defeats and victories that have been invoked, distorted and reinvented by successive generations. The popular aphorism that “Russia is a country with an unpredictable past” understandably works its way into all three books.

Orlando figes the story of russia review