The Story of Russia | Orlando Figes and Luke Harding in conversation with Simon Sebag Montefiore

The Story of Russia
Orlando Figes and Luke Harding in conversation with Simon Sebag Montefiore
No other country has been so divided over its own past as Russia. None has changed its story so often. How the Russians came to tell their story, and reinvented it as they went along, are vital aspects of their history, their culture and beliefs. To understand what Russia's future holds - to grasp what Putin's regime means for Russia and the world - we need to unravel the ideas and meanings of that history. In his latest book The Story of Russia, Orlando Figes brings into sharp relief the vibrant characters that comprise Russia's rich history, and whose stories remain so important in making sense of the world's largest nation today - from the crowning of sixteen-year-old Ivan the Terrible in a candlelit cathedral, to Catherine the Great, riding out in a green uniform to arrest her husband at his palace, to the bitter last days of the Romanovs. In conversation with historian Simon Sebah Montefiore and foreign correspondent Luke Harding, Figes discusses how we are all trapped in the loops and coils of myth, memory and forgetting, and demonstrates the urgent need for historians to remember, and insist on the truth.
Orlando Figes is the author of ten books on the history of Russia and Europe, including A People’s Tragedy, Natasha’s Dance, and The Europeans. His latest book The Story of Russia, is a study of the myths and ideologies driving Russian history over the past thousand years.
Luke Harding is a journalist, writer, and award-winning correspondent for The Guardian. He is a former Moscow bureau chief and reported from Delhi between 2000-2003. Harding is the author of numerous books, including Invasion: The Inside Story of Russia's Bloody War and Ukraine's Fight for Survival, published in November by Faber in London and Vintage in New York.
Simon Sebag Montefiore is the internationally bestselling author of prize-winning books that have been published in forty-eight languages. Catherine the Great & Potemkin was shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize; Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar won History Book of the Year Prize at the British Book Awards; The Romanovs: 1613-1918 won the Lupicaia del Terriccio Book Prize (Italy). He is also the author of the well-known Moscow Trilogy: SASHENKA, RED SKY AT NOON and ONE NIGHT IN WINTER, which won the Political Fiction Book of the Year Award. His latest is The World: A Family History.
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[@macareuxmoine]

This is very insightful. Sadly the audio quality made it hard to bear. Hopefully that can be sorted out for the future. It’s not that a microphone would be such a big investment these days.