Figes Russian Quotes & Sayings

The deeper the Whites moved into the steppe, the more they resorted to terror against a hostile population. Their Ice March left a trail of blood. It was perhaps unavoidable, given the Volunteers' desperate need for food and the reluctance of the peasants to give it to them. The Whites were stranded in a Red peasant sea. But there was also an element of sheer class war and revenge in their violence, as in so many acts of the White Terror, which was a mirror image of the class resentment and hatred that drove the Red Terror. Terror lay at the heart of both regimes. — Orlando Figes

It's difficult to be at events with a room full of women who weigh half as much as you do. — Lindsey Vonn

Whereas land reform was the first act of the Bolsheviks, it was the last act of the Whites: that, in a peasant country, says it all. — Orlando Figes

Why couldn't I have spent the last few months like this, wrapped in his arms, drinking in the warm, spicy scent of him? Oh, wait. Cooper was a complete dick to me, that's why. — Molly Harper

Convinced that their own ideas were the key to the future of the world, that the fate of humanity rested on the outcome of their own doctrinal struggles, the Russian intelligentsia divided up the world into the forces of 'progress' and 'reaction', friends and enemies of the people's cause, leaving no room for doubters in between. Here were the origins of the totalitarian world-view. Although neither would have liked to admit it, there was much in common between Lenin and Tolstoy. — Orlando Figes

What's your favorite book?' is a question that is usually only asked by children and banking identity-verification services
and favorite isn't, anyway, the right word to describe the relationship a reader has with a particularly cherished book. Most serious readers can point to one book that has a place in their life like the one that 'Middlemarch' has in mine. — Rebecca Mead

With the Russian Empire teetering on the brink of collapse, the tsarist regime responded to the crises with its usual incompetence and obstinacy. The basic problem was that Nicholas himself remained totally oblivious to the extremity of the situation. While the country sank deeper into chaos he continued to fill his diary with terse and trivial notes on the weather, the company at tea and the number of birds he had shot that day. When Bulygin suggested that political concessions might be needed to calm the country, Nicholas was taken aback and told the Minister: 'One would think you are afraid a revolution will break out.' 'Your majesty,' came the reply, 'the revolution has already begun. — Orlando Figes

The ancient bond between the tsarist state and Russian nationalism could be used to create powerful emotions when the enemy came from the heathen east. The Mongol invasion had left a powerful mark on the Russian psyche. It was expressed in a deep anxiety about the mixed Eurasian roots of the people and it's culture, which made it easy for an educated liberal to convince themselves that this war was nothing less than a defense of Russia's European identity against the Asian hordes. — Orlando Figes

Margie Flynn was in my head like a bad cold, blurring everything. It was a new kind of loneliness, a hurt I couldn't stop picking at. — Chris Fuhrman

I do believe in God. I don't believe in God as a person, but I believe in God as a state of energy and consciousness that we all share. — David Dobkin

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 the peasant to master new skills and technologies, Which in turn helps him to accept the concept of progress that fuels change in the modern world. — Orlando Figes

What hope is there for medical scienceto ever become a true sciencewhen the entire structure of medical knowledgeis built around the idea that there is an entity called diseasewhich can be expelled when the right drug is found? — John Henry Tilden

There was much that was endearing in this strangely Russian search for absolutes - such as the passion for big ideas that gave the literature of nineteenth-century Russia its unique character and power - and yet the underside of this idealism was a badgering didacticism, a moral dogmatism and intolerance, which in its own way was just as harmful as the censorship it opposed. — Orlando Figes

Walter Mayer was a hero at a Salvation Army home fire in Cincinnati. — Ring Lardner

Lenin was always prone to overestimate the physical danger to himself: in this respect he was something of a coward. — Orlando Figes

A man can only be judged by his actions, and not by his good intentions or his beliefs — Paul Newman

If you want a job making toys, move to China. — Aaron B. Powell

Find the joy in your everyday situations. You have the choice, you always did and you will always do. Thrive. — Ana Ortega

I cannot expect even my own art to provide all of the answers, only to hope it keeps asking the right questions. — Grace Hartigan

The remarkable thing about the Bolshevik insurrection is that hardly any of the Bolshevik leaders had wanted it to happen until a few hours before it began. — Orlando Figes

The word 'soviet' means 'council' in Russian (there was nothing particularly Communist about it until after 1917). — Orlando Figes

Everybody cursed the Bolsheviks but nobody was prepared to do anything about them. — Orlando Figes

On our swim team, they had something called the 'developmental meet.' I didn't know it was a meet only for the worst kids so that they could get a ribbon, and I'd show up with my friend who was also a terrible swimmer, and we would be amazed that the best kids hadn't bothered to show up. I didn't get it until after college. — Jeff Kinney

Lenin's Personal life was extraordinarily dull. He dressed and lived like a middle-aged provincial clerk, with precisely fixed hours for meals, sleep, work and leisure. He liked everything to be neat and orderly. — Orlando Figes

Northern Ireland are ten minutes away from their finest victory. There's 15 minutes to go here. — John Motson

The Provisional Government had lost effective military control of the capital a full two days before the armed uprising began. This was the essential fact of the whole insurrection: without it one cannot explain the ease of the Bolshevik victory. — Orlando Figes

The single most effective way to make a service as reliable as possible is to make it as simple as possible. Find the simplest solution that meets all the requirements. — Tom Limoncelli