Author(s): Orlando Figes

Europe

Drawing on a huge range of sources - letters, memoirs, conversations - Orlando Figes tells the story of how Russians tried to endure life under Stalin, brilliantly conveying the reality of their terrible choices. Soviet history has generally been seen either as a story of a political system or the story of its victims. "The Whisperers" is about Russians from across the whole range of experience under Stalin. Those who shaped the political system became, very frequently, its victims.