The problem of Russia dominated the 20th century. Well before the 1917 revolutions Russia obsessed its imperial rivals and Russians themselves argued violently both about how Russia should be run and about its role in the world. Other, terrible regimes came and went, but from the 19th century to the final collapse of the USSR in 1991, it was Russia's that drew everything into its orbit. In his book Orlando Figes describes and takes apart this story, in the shortest space possible.

Unrivalled and wholly immersive, Orlando Figes's A People's Tragedy is a panorama of Russian society on the eve of the revolution and the story of its violent erasure.

100th Anniversary Edition Includes New Introduction

In this acclaimed account, Figes follows workers, soldiers and peasants as their world is consumed by revolution. For what had started as a people's revolution contained the seeds of its degeneration into violence and dictatorship.

A People's Tragedy is a masterful and definitive record of the Russian Revolution - vast...