“In the mind of the ordinary peasant the Tsar was not just a kingly ruler but a god on earth. He thought of him as a father-figure who knew all the peasants personally by name, understood their problems in all… — Orlando Figes Copy Share Image
On the news that the Tsar had sent the troops icons to boost their morals, General Dragomirov quipped: 'The Japanese are beating us with… — Orlando Figes Copy Share Image
“For the Romanov regime fell under the weight of its own internal contradictions. It was not overthrown.” — Orlando Figes Copy Share Image
“The only way, they argued, to prevent a revolution was to rule Russia with an iron hand. This meant defending the autocratic principle, the… — Orlando Figes Copy Share Image
“This was a cruelty made by history. Long after serfdom had been abolished the land captains exercised their right to flog the peasants for… — Orlando Figes Copy Share Image
“Whereas in Europe new ideas were forced to compete against other doctrines and attitudes, with the results that people tended towards healthy skepticism about… — Orlando Figes Copy Share Image
Time and time again, the obstinate refusal of the tsarist regime to concede reforms turned what should have been a political problem into a… — Orlando Figes Copy Share Image
The link between literacy and revolutions is a well-known historical phenomenon. The three great revolutions of modern European history -- the English, the French and the Russian -- all took place in societies where the rate of literacy was approaching 50 per cent. Literacy had a profound effect on the peasant mind and community. It promotes abstract thought and enables… — Orlando Figes Copy Share
“For all too many of these high-born revolutionaries, the main attraction of 'the cause' lay not so much in the satisfaction which they might… — Orlando Figes Copy Share Image
Their notion of training was to march the men up and down in parades and reviews: these were nice to look at and gave… — Orlando Figes Copy Share Image
“Gorky called for the building of a monument to the young martyr, who, the writer said, had ‘understood that a relative by blood may… — Orlando Figes Copy Share Image
“As in 1917, the drift towards authoritarian government under Putin was enabled by the weakness of the middle classes and public institutions in post-Soviet… — Orlando Figes Copy Share Image
It was ironic but somehow fitting that the 1905 Revolution should have been started by an organisation dreamed up by the tsarist regime itself.… — Orlando Figes Copy Share Image
