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  • A People’s Tragedy

  • By: Orlando Figes
  • Narrated by: Roger Davis
  • Length: 47 hrs and 1 min
  • 4.7 out of 5 stars (335 ratings)

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A People’s Tragedy

By: Orlando Figes
Narrated by: Roger Davis
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Summary

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.

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.

©2018 Orlando Figes (P)2018 Audible, Ltd
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: History
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What listeners say about A People’s Tragedy

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Superb telling of Russian tragedy

Essential reading for those who continue to believe that socialism is not fundamentally cruelly evil

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1 person found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars

Well researched, some historical bias

Can be difficult at the start. Author has an evident slant against certain countries.

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3 people found this helpful

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5/5

A great book. i got nothing more to say but i need 15 words on here.

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A good guide to the repeating history of Russia

On the whole, a great account of events of the time from many perspectives. Russian history has a habit of repeating itself over and over again, so this book contains a lot of common themes with later events, up to the present day. Some of the beliefs, habits and attitudes described will be (surprisingly?) familiar from today's context; it's worth reading this book just for the sake of drawing these parallels.

Don't be intimidated by the length of the audiobook -- time does fly by (although I found that listening at 1.1x most optimal). The one big issue with the audiobook is the narrator's terrible pronunciation of Russian words, names and place-names -- if you are a native speaker you won't have a good time with those, but should, on occasion, be able to decipher what he meant. Normally, bad pronunciation of Russian terms is OK, but this is a book about Russia guys, so it'd have been nice to have someone tell him how to pronounce these correctly. Other than this, the narrator is great and is a pleasure to listen to.

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26 people found this helpful

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Great narration of an epic subject

The overwhelming recognition as you read this book is that history repeats itself continually.

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Supreme

It is a read worth every minute. Rarely there's a history book written with so much insight.

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An excellent history of a terrible tragedy.

The narrator Roger Davis is one of the best narrators I have heard. The book shows why the revolution occurred, and the tragic story of how it unfolded. A very good argument against absolute rulers. The revolution still affects the world today and not in a good way.

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Degree level

A very detailed analysis of 20th Century Russian history. This book will be of interest to the scholar studying the subject, and history buffs wanting more minutiae!

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Excellent

A people’s tragedy indeed. A brilliantly interesting historical account of the Russian Revolution. Enjoyed it very much as I knew little about it. Quite long. I now feel I won’t get lost in any conversation about the RR! Definitely worth a read or listen.

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7 people found this helpful

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Great, but we need chapter headings

A great book, well read. Only complaint is the absence of chapter headings. You can get very confused if you wish to listen to any particular chapter.

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