Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6235 in Books
• Published on: 2007-10-04
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 740 pages

The Washington Post
'Excellent ... riveting, at once solemn and lively. Figes has unwrapped the mystery inside the enigma of Stalinism'

Eric Hobsbawn
`Few historians have the courage to attack great subjects, fewer have the grasp to succeed ... will do more to help us understand the Russian revolution than any other book I know'

Max Hastings
`Brilliant ... he leaves one awed by the beauty and suffering'

Customer Reviews

An Insightful Historical Document
In this book, Figes has diluted and refined his mastery of the art of weaving historical sources together. These family narratives which, without this book, would certainly have been lost, provide a compelling insight into the reality of Soviet Russia - the 'historical' backdrop of dates and movements takes a back seat to the gritty honesty of real people's testimony of what living through this era was actually like.
A fantastic read.

A necessary book
This is a really first-rate book. Like no other book before, it lets the reader feel what it was like to live through the Stalin years. Based on interviews and family archives, which Figes has collected from homes across Russia, it is made up of small stories, which are beautifully woven into a tapestry of Soviet life. Some of the stories are harrowing, at times I found it hard to keep reading, but there are also tales of extraordinary courage and resilience that give the book a moral lift.

At the centre of the book is the fascinating figure of Konstantin Simonov, a writer deeply implicated in the Stalinist regime, who nonetheless is portrayed here as a sympathetic personality with many admirable qualities that were gradually lost through moral compromise. Was it possible, Figes seems to ask, be a "good Stalinist"? The Simonov sections make this book worth reading on their own.

The Whisperers is a real triumph. Meticulously researched and beautifully written, without the slightest moralizing, lecturing, or taking sides, at times it has the moral quality of Primo Levi in its recounting of human suffering and resilience. Read this book - it will make you re-examine what it means to be a human being.

The Whisperers
"The Whisperers" performs the valuable historical task of collating and reporting what it was like to live in Soviet Russia under the constant threat of being sent to a labour camp or summarily executed. In selecting what to report the author imposed the constraint of using only oral testimony which was supported by documentary testimony (family photographs, private letters, official records, etc.). To ensure accuracy the draft of the text in English was translated into Russian to get the observations of those who had been interviewed.

What the book reveals is the depth to which fear permeated the whole of Soviet society - not only during but long after the death of Stalin. Whilst the camps were very strongly supported by Stalin it was for economic as much as political considerations that they were dismantled after his death. The camps may have gone but the fear of being sent to a camp as a result of an injudicious remark remained.

The testimonies in the book are supported my own, admittedly very limited, experience. The father of a Ukrainian colleague died in 2005. While working he (the father) had attained a high position in the Ukrainian Socialist Republic. For last year or two before his death he insisted every night on packing a suitcase of essentials in case he was sent to the camps; similar actions are reported in the book.

Wide ranging though the book is there are still some gaps. The testimonies are centred around those living in St Petersburg, Moscow and Perm: what about those in rural areas, in other Soviet republics and in "fraternal socialist countries" such as Poland and Hungary? Most of the people appearing in the book had close experience of the terror; either having been in camps themselves or having a close relative sent there. Again the question arises: how did other people avoid being sent to the camps? Did people become politically apathetic? What part did luck play? It would be nice to know.

Throughout the book the camps themselves remain in the background. For a better understanding of the camps themselves I recommend "Gulag: A History" By Anne Applebaum".