Orlando Figes was born in 20 November, of 1959 in London. He belongs to the Figes family that has three writers. Eva Figs who is his mother and Kate Figs her sister are also writers. His mother has written thirteen novels and many other non-fictional books. These include the seminal feminist, patriarchal attitudes work she did in the early 70s. He grew up in the Northern part of London in Hamstead. This was quite a feminist environment. His father left them when he was three years old. As such, a single parent brought him up.
His studies
Orlando Figes started his studies in North London at William Ellis School. This was a grammar school but later it became comprehensive. By then, he was in form six. It 1979, he went to Cambridge where he studied history at Caius and Gonville college. During that time, the institution was under Vic Gatrell and McKendrick direction. It was one of the best and leading colleges of history in Cambridge. Figes studied alongside other European historians such as Norman Stone and Peter Burke. He had his dissertation for undergraduate published in the yearbook of Leo Baeck Institute in 1984. He graduated with a first form that was double starred from Cambridge. He started studying for his Ph. D where he specialized in Russian history under Norman stone’s direction.
He did a dissertation on Peasantry majoring in Volga region at the time of the civil war and Russian revolution. This later became the first book that he published, the Peasant Russian. This Volga countryside during the revolution of 1917 to 1921 was published in the year 1989.
Influences
He got major influences from Teodor Shanin. This was a sociology professor at Manchester University. He developed Alexander Chayonov ideas, which were an alternative to the popular capitalist Marxist notions, which were established in Russian countryside. He worked in Moscow together with Victor Danilov who was a leading historian in the field of soviet peasantry. This historian helped Figes access archives of unprecedented information that he used in writing his first book. In writing, Orlando emphasized on the Agrarian revolution explaining how it developed and even social justice notions. He has also lectured in the university as he researched for his books. His later books, which include A People’s Tragedy and the most recent, the Crimea have seen him become very popular in the field of Russia historical writing. Orlando Figes intends to have another publication that is set to be out in 2013.