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kingarooski's review against another edition
5.0
The accounts and stories of those affected by Stalin's reign of terror. I found many of these very moving and Orlando Figes' research was on such an enormous scale that I sometimes felt crushed by the weight of evidence. People being arrested for no real reason as traitors, being held without trial or tortured before being sent to labour camps, then being released and sometimes re-arrested within a year or two. The testament of those released, who went on to try and live the best lives they could and what I found most moving was the fact that many had found reasons within themselves to forgive and explain their arrests to themselves. Although they'd done nothing wrong, they felt that their arrests were justified and continued to adore and admire Joseph Stalin. I found this book emotionally exhaustive, but fascinating.
rachel281's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
5.0
cherbear's review against another edition
4.0
I have always been interested in Russian history, especially from post Revolution to the end of the Cold War. This book seemed like a perfect source of information for this era, specifically covering the lives of the people who were so affected by Stalin's policies, but I had some reservations. I had found some articles that put into questions Orlando Figes' veracity as a writer. Indeed, this very book wasn't published in Russia due to the many inaccuracies historians and other fact checkers found, although Figes would tell it was due to political censorship.
Nonetheless I decided to read it, all the while keeping in mind that perhaps not everything was 100% accurate. Overall I found it very interesting and enjoyable and I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in this particular time in history, but keep aware that it shouldn't be relied on as complete fact.
Nonetheless I decided to read it, all the while keeping in mind that perhaps not everything was 100% accurate. Overall I found it very interesting and enjoyable and I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in this particular time in history, but keep aware that it shouldn't be relied on as complete fact.
michaeloconnor's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
4.5
andrew_russell's review against another edition
4.0
The first thing that is worth saying here is that this book is lengthy. And I don't just mean it has a high page length. No, what I mean is that the pages cannot be whizzed through at speed; rather they need to be digested at best at a moderate pace, slowly cogitated upon and considered at length. Consequently, don't expect to finish this book super-quick.
But the 'lengthiness' of The Whisperers by Orlando Figes is in many senses, it's strongpoint. It demonstrates the meticulously detailed research of the author; research that yields a tide of mostly highly moving personal stories, together with a comprehensive history of a dark period in Russia's recent history. So dark is the subject matter at hand in fact, that it is almost beyond the comprehension of someone such as myself, brought up in a Western democracy, the tenets of which form the mainstay of my understanding of the world around me.
And yet a sense of the dark conditions under which Russians were forced to live for close to thirty years is exactly what Figes conveys so well in this text. The effect on families, whose children were actively encouraged to report to the authorities the conversations they overheard between their parents. Couples whose unquestionable love was torn asunder by forced separation, as one...or both, were sentenced and deported to the gulag, often to be executed shortly thereafter. The sense of distrust felt by the populace, as they questioned who was likely to betray them next. The communal apartments, or kommunalka, with their wafer-thin walls that allowed informers, deliberately placed by the Party, to eavesdrop and report on 'traitors'. The divisions....deeply rent divisions between communities and families, caused by deeply held political viewpoints that were irreconcilable...Figes gives us a sense of all this and so much more in this text.
If you can persevere to the end, this is a book well worth reading. It isn't warm and fuzzy. It's not this years feel-good summer read. But nonetheless, it's a story that had to be told. And it's one that deserves to be read.
But the 'lengthiness' of The Whisperers by Orlando Figes is in many senses, it's strongpoint. It demonstrates the meticulously detailed research of the author; research that yields a tide of mostly highly moving personal stories, together with a comprehensive history of a dark period in Russia's recent history. So dark is the subject matter at hand in fact, that it is almost beyond the comprehension of someone such as myself, brought up in a Western democracy, the tenets of which form the mainstay of my understanding of the world around me.
And yet a sense of the dark conditions under which Russians were forced to live for close to thirty years is exactly what Figes conveys so well in this text. The effect on families, whose children were actively encouraged to report to the authorities the conversations they overheard between their parents. Couples whose unquestionable love was torn asunder by forced separation, as one...or both, were sentenced and deported to the gulag, often to be executed shortly thereafter. The sense of distrust felt by the populace, as they questioned who was likely to betray them next. The communal apartments, or kommunalka, with their wafer-thin walls that allowed informers, deliberately placed by the Party, to eavesdrop and report on 'traitors'. The divisions....deeply rent divisions between communities and families, caused by deeply held political viewpoints that were irreconcilable...Figes gives us a sense of all this and so much more in this text.
If you can persevere to the end, this is a book well worth reading. It isn't warm and fuzzy. It's not this years feel-good summer read. But nonetheless, it's a story that had to be told. And it's one that deserves to be read.
thedeadwoods's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
5.0
martaontherocks's review against another edition
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
5.0