Orlando Figes

From Orlando Figes, international bestselling author of "A People's Tragedy", "Just Send Me Word" is the moving true story of two young Russians whose love survived Stalin's Gulag. Lev and Svetlana, kept apart for fourteen years by the Second World War and the Gulag, stayed true to each other and exchanged thousands of secret letters as Lev battled to survive in Stalin's camps. Using this remarkable cache of smuggled correspondence, Orlando Figes tells the tale of two incredible people who, swept along in the very worst of times, kept their devotion alive. Orlando Figes was granted exclusive access to the thousands of letters between Lev and Sveta that form the foundation of Just Send Me Word, and he was able to interview the couple in person, then in their nineties. These real-time and largely uncensored letters form the largest cache of Gulag letters ever found. Reviews: "One is overcome with admiration for the kindness, bravery and generosity of people in terrible peril...It is impossible to read without shedding tears". (Simon Sebag Montefiore, "Financial Times"). "This powerful narrative by a distinguished historian will take its place not just in history but in literature". (Robert Massie). "Electrifying, passionate, devoted, despairing, exhilarating...a tale of hope, resilience, grit and love". ("The Times"). "Moving...a remarkable discovery". (Max Hastings, "Sunday Times"). "The gulag story lacks individuals for us to sympathise with: a Primo Levi, an Anne Frank or even an Oskar Schindler. "Just Send Me Word" may well be the book to change that". (Oliver Bullough, "Independent"). "Immensely touching...a heartening gem of a book". (Anna Reid, "Literary Review"). "The remarkable true story of a love affair between two Soviet citizens...as much a literary challenge as a historical one: the book can be read as a non-fiction novel". ("Telegraph"). "Remarkable...Figes, selecting and then interpreting this mass of letters, makes them tell two kinds of story. The first is a uniquely detailed narrative of the gulag, of the callous, slatternly universe which consumed millions of lives...The second is about two people determined not to lose each other". (Neal Ascherson, "Guardian"). "A quiet, moving and memorable account of life in a totalitarian state ...The book often reads like a novel...captivating". ("Evening Standard"). "Orlando Figes has wrought something beautiful from dark times". (Ian Thomson, "Observer"). "A heart-rending record of extraordinary human endurance". ("Kirkus Reviews"). "A remarkable tale of love and devotion during the worst years of the USSR...Figes' fine narrative pacing enhances this moving, memorable story". ("Publishers Weekly"). About the author: Orlando Figes is Professor of History at Birkbeck College, University of London. He is the author of "Peasant Russia", "Civil War", "A People's Tragedy", "Natasha's Dance", "The Whisperers" and "Crimea". He lives in Cambridge and London. His books have been translated into over twenty languages.

Peu d'événements ont été étudiés d'aussi près que la Révolution russe, mais l'ouvrage d'Orlando Figes se distingue comme une contribution fondamentale. Dès sa parution, il s'impose du fait qu'il s'agit de la première histoire sociale, non idéologique et post-soviétique de ce cataclysme historique majeur. De la grande famine de 1891 à la mort de Lénine en 1924, Figes détaille le long processus de mutation et de maturation d'une société au bord de l'effondrement. Surtout, il redonne sa place au grand absent : le peuple russe lui-même. Principal moteur des événements, principale victime aussi, le peuple trouve ici, enfin narrée et expliquée, l'histoire de sa tragédie.

What caused the Russian Revolution? Did it succeed or fail? Do we still live with its consequences? Orlando Figes teaches history at Birkbeck, University of London and is the author of many acclaimed books on Russian history, including A People's Tragedy, which The Times Literary Supplement named as one of the '100 most influential books since the war', Natasha's Dance, The Whisperers, Crimea and Just Send Me Word. The Financial Times called him 'the greatest storyteller of modern Russian historians.'

Navštěvuj mě v snu je mimořádný milostný příběh dvou Moskvanů, Lva a Světlany, které po celých čtrnáct let je rozdělovala druhá světová válka a následně gulag. Oni však zůstali jeden druhému věrni a zanechali po sobě překvapivý pomník své lásky: soubor 1500 dopisů, které si psali v době, kdy Lev bojoval o přežití v jednom z nechvalně proslulých Stalinových pracovních táborů. Orlando Figes vypráví příběh Světlany a Lva s pozoruhodným vhledem a vřelostí, přičemž ho virtuózně zasazuje do širších souvislostí. Jejich dopisy rozšiřují naši schopnost porozumět historii, jsou to jediné záznamy o životě ve Stalinově gulagu, psané v reálném čase, ale právě tak důležité je, že zachycují příběh dvojice, kterou smetly historické události a kterou vzájemná oddanost udrží při životě. Tato neuvěřitelná kniha ukazuje, že láska, oddanost a naděje mohou zvítězit i v těch nejhorších časech a na těch nejhorších místech.

Unrivalled in scope and brimming with human drama, A People's Tragedy is the most vivid, moving and comprehensive history of the Russian Revolution available today. "A modern masterpiece". (Andrew Marr). "The most moving account of the Russian Revolution since Doctor Zhivago". (Independent). Opening with a panorama of Russian society, from the cloistered world of the Tsar to the brutal life of the peasants, A People's Tragedy follows workers, soldiers, intellectuals and villagers as their world is consumed by revolution and then degenerates into violence and dictatorship. Drawing on vast original research, Figes conveys above all the shocking experience of the revolution for those who lived it, while providing the clearest and most cogent account of how and why it unfolded. Illustrated with over 100 photographs and now including a new introduction that reflects on the revolution's centennial legacy, A People's Tragedy is a masterful and definitive record of one of the most important events in modern history.