Natasha's Dance: A Cultural History of Russia

by Orlando Figes

Overview

Beginning in the eighteenth century with the building of St. Petersburg and culminating with the Soviet regime, Figes examines how writers, artists, and musicians grappled with the idea of Russia itself--its character, spiritual essence, and destiny. Skillfully interweaving the great works--by Dostoevsky, Stravinsky, and Chagall--with folk embroidery, peasant songs, religious icons, and all the customs of daily life, Figes reveals the spirit of "Russianness" as rich and uplifting, complex and contradictory--and more lasting than any Russian ruler or state.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780312421953
Publisher:	Picador
Publication date:	10/01/2003
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	768
Product dimensions:	9.00(w) x 6.08(h) x 1.36(d)

About the Author

Orlando Figes is the author of A People's Tragedy, and recipient of the Wolfson Prize for History and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, among others. A regular contributor to The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Times Literary Supplement, he is a professor of history at the University of London. He lives in Cambridge, England.

Read an Excerpt

With the shift of political power to St. Petersburg, Moscow became the capital of the good life for the nobility. Its grandees gave themselves to sensual amusement. Count Rakhmanov, for example, spent his whole inheritance in eight years ofgastronomy. He fed his poultry with truffles. He kept his crayfish in cream and parmesan instead of water. And he had his favorite fish, found only in the Sosna River a thousand miles away, delivered live to Moscow every day. Count Stroganov gave "Roman dinners" — his guests lay on couches and were served by naked boys. Caviar and herring cheeks were typical hors d'oeuvres. Next came salmon lips, bear paws, and roast lynx. Then they had cuckoos roasted in honey, halibut liver, and burbot roe; oysters, poultry, and fresh figs; salted peaches and pineapples. Afterward, they would go into the banya and drink, eating caviar to build up a real thirst . . . Petersburgers despised Moscow for its sinful idleness, yet no one could deny its Russian character.

Orlando Figes is the author of A People's Tragedy and the recipient of the Wolfson Prize for History and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, among others. A regular contributor to The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Times Literary Supplement, he is a professor of history at the University of London. He lives in Cambridge, England.

Table of Contents

	List of Illustrations and Photographic Acknowledgements
	Notes on the Maps and Text
	Maps
	Introduction
1	European Russia	1
2	Children of 1812	69
3	Moscow! Moscow!	114
4	The Peasant Marriage	217
5	In Search of the Russian Soul	289
6	Descendants of Genghiz Khan	355
7	Russia Through the Soviet Lens	431
8	Russia Abroad	523
	Notes	587
	Glossary	643
	Table of Chronology	646
	Acknowledgements	657
	A Guide to Further Reading	661
	Index	691

Editorial Reviews

"Scintillating. . .an exceptional history of Russian culture and a joy to read." —San Francisco Chronicle

"Stunning and ambitious. . .Figes captures nothing less than Russians' complex and protean notions regarding their national identity." —The Atlantic Monthly

“Staggering. . .A vivid, entertaining, and enlightening account of what it has meant to be culturally a Russian over the last three centuries." —Los Angeles Times

"[A] masterly work." —New York Review of Books

"A big, bold, interpretative cultural history." —Foreign Affairs

From the Publisher

Scintillating. . .an exceptional history of Russian culture and a joy to read.

San Francisco Chronicle

Stunning and ambitious. . .Figes captures nothing less than Russians' complex and protean notions regarding their national identity.

The Atlantic Monthly

Staggering. . .A vivid, entertaining, and enlightening account of what it has meant to be culturally a Russian over the last three centuries.

Los Angeles Times

[A] masterly work.

New York Review of Books

A big, bold, interpretative cultural history.

Foreign Affairs

A People's Tragedy, Orlando Figes's history of the Russian Revolution, garnered several literary prizes for its narrative sweep and historical insights. Natasha's Dance is history on an even grander scale. Panoramic and richly anecdotal, it traces Russia's cultural history from the building of St. Petersburg in the 18th century to the radical upheavals of 1917. Figes's abundant narrative covers culture high and low; from Dostoevsky and Tolstoy to Stravinsky and Chagall; from opera and ballet to folk embroidery and peasant superstitions. A breathtaking dance indeed.

Even if one takes nothing else away from this elegant, tightly focused survey of Russian culture, it's impossible to forget the telling little anecdotes that University of London history professor Figes (A People's Tragedy) relates about Russia's artists, writers, musicians, intellectuals and courtiers as he traces the cultural movements of the last three centuries. He shares Ilya Repin's recollection of how peasants reacted to his friend Leo Tolstoy's fumbling attempts to join them in manual labor ("Never in my life have I seen a clearer expression of irony on a simple peasant's face"), as well as the three sentences Shostakovich shyly exchanged with his idol, Stravinsky, when the latter returned to the Soviet Union after 50 years of exile (" `What do you think of Puccini?' `I can't stand him,' Stravinsky replied. `Oh, and neither can I, neither can I' "). Full of resounding moments like these, Figes's book focuses on the ideas that have preoccupied Russian artists in the modern era: Just what is "Russianness," and does the quality come from its peasants or its nobility, from Europe or from Asia? He examines canonical works of art and literature as well as the lives of their creators: Tolstoy, Tchaikovsky, Chagall, Stanislavsky, Eisenstein and many others. Figes also shows how the fine arts have been influenced by the Orthodox liturgy, peasant songs and crafts, and myriad social and economic factors from Russian noblemen's unusual attachments to their peasant nannies to the 19th-century growth of vodka production. The book's thematically organized chapters are devoted to subjects like the cultural influence of Moscow or the legacy of the Mongol invasion, and with each chapter Figes moves toward the 1917 revolution and the Soviet era, deftly integrating strands of political and social history into his narrative. This is a treat for Russophiles and a unique introduction to Russian history. (Oct.) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

Figes (history, Univ. of London; A People's Tragedy) describes the twists and turns of Russian history through cultural and artistic events from the founding of Rus in the 12th century through the Soviet era. He uses Tolstoy's War and Peace as a centerpiece of art imitating life. The title of Figes's book comes from the scene in which Natasha Rostov and her brother Nikolai are invited by their "uncle" to a rustic cabin to listen to him play Russian folk music on his guitar. Natasha instinctively begins a folk dance that is prompted by "unknown feelings in her heart." Tolstoy would have us believe that "Russia may be held together by unseen threads of native sensibilities," writes Figes. Nowhere is the clash between the European culture of the upper class and the Russian culture of the peasantry more evident. "The complex interactions between these two worlds had a crucial influence on the national consciousness and on all the arts of the 19th century." This interaction is a major feature of this book, which traces the formation of a culture. The writing style is distinctly nonacademic, making for a very enjoyable read. Recommended for academic and public libraries. Harry Willems, Southeast Kansas Lib. Syst., Iola Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

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