It is an old tradition and goes back to Ivan the Terrible, if not to the Mongols beforehand, that there are enforcers of autocratic power that have license to kill without account. How has the partnership between Russian leadership and the political police shaped the country’s history? He makes ruthless use of state security to silence his enemies, using exile, imprisonment and even murder. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity. Interviewed on Zoom from his home in Umbria, with follow-up over email, Figes answered questions about the conflict, the politics of repression in Russia and the plight of its young people. But winter is coming, and rising energy prices caused by the war will roil the European economy, testing European resolve to continue to support Ukraine. In recent days, the Ukrainian army has retaken significant territory occupied by Russia since the beginning of the war. An early review from Kirkus praised it as “a lucid, astute text that unpacks the myths of Russian history to help explain present-day motivations and actions.” Publishing as the Russia-Ukraine war enters its seventh month, “The Story of Russia” is a superb work of narrative essay.

24, Putin declared war on Ukraine, and Figes had to rewrite his new book’s last chapter as the country’s history once again veered into the territory of conquest, death and destruction.

A prizewinning author of nine books, including “Revolutionary Russia” and “Crimea: The Last Crusade,” Figes delivered the manuscript of “ The Story of Russia” to his publishers in the fall of 2021, just as Russian President Vladimir Putin started massing troops on the Ukrainian border. In the early days of the pandemic, British historian Orlando Figes began his “lockdown” book: a survey of the ideas, myths and beliefs that have molded Russians over the last thousand years, drawn from his decades of writing and research into Russian and European history. If you buy books linked on our site, The Times may earn a commission from, whose fees support independent bookstores.

The Story of Russia by Orlando Figes