The Story of Russia

5 April 2023

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Orlando Figes' Story of Russia sets the ambitious goal to explain the Russian perspective to non-Russians. The book rides a fine line between embracing the story and being patronizing about how ridiculous some parts are. For example, Moscow likes to see itself as the Third Rome, protecting Western civilization from the barbarian hordes of central Asia for centuries. Figes outlines the historical reasons for this mythologizing, but then also discusses how these supposed barbarians were instrumental in forming Russia. The Russians spilled a great deal of blood defeating Napoleon and then Hitler, so this self image of saviors of civilization has carried through to the present day. Knowing this it's not as hard to see that, when Putin rails against NATO expansion eastward, he can frame it in Russians' minds in the same mold as Hitler and Napoleon. In the same vein, feudal serfdom only ended in the late 19th century in Russian, and in the 20th century was replaced with a Soviet system with many of the restrictions on where people could go and what they could do as well as the same focus on government officialdom as the only path to wealth. Figes easy demostrates how this historical pattern also plays into Putin's authoritarian plans.

Anyone who reads Orlando Figes' The Story of Russia will come away with a better understanding of the perspectives of Russians.