The Whisperers: Private Life in Stalin's Russia

The Whisperers is a social history of everyday private life in the Soviet Union during the era of Stalinism. The book begins with a background of the Russian Revolution and ends with the death of Stalin.[1] According to Figes,

"Many books describe the externals of the Terror – the arrests and trials, enslavements and killings of the Gulag – but The Whisperers is the first to explore in depth its influence on personal and family life. How did Soviet people live their private lives in the years of Stalin’s rule? What did they really think and feel? What sort of private life was possible in the cramped communal apartments, where the vast majority of the urban population lived, where rooms were shared by a whole family and often more than one, and every conversation could be overheard in the next room? What did private life mean when the state touched almost every aspect of it through legislation, surveillance and ideological control?[lower-alpha 1][2]

As the above author statement reveals, the book is mainly focused on life during Stalinist urbanization and industrialization in the 1930s, and how this period impacted the private lives of average Soviet citizens. The author seeks to reveal how average individuals lived their private lives, how living in the Stalinist system impacted thinking and memory, how it impacted they way individuals communicated with others in their daily lives, and how Stalinism changed the notion of self and family. Figes refers to the moral sphere of the family as he explores how family and internal lives were shaped by personal strategies and choices to survive difficult and often dire circumstances.[1]

The Whisperers is based on an indepth oral history and archival research project. Together with a team of Russian researchers from Memorial,[lower-alpha 2] Figes collected over 250 extensive interviews, along with letters, personal papers, memoirs, diaries, photographs, and physical artifacts "illuminating the inner world of ordinary Soviet citizens living under Stalin's tyranny."[3]

The title of the work builds off two meanings of the Russian word for Whisperers; one meaning to speak softly and quietly for fear of being overheard by others, the second meaning individuals who inform or gossip about another, reflecting both the atmosphere of fear that enveloped individuals during this era and the role informers played in creating this atmosphere.[3]

Academic journals

• Epstein, Mikhail (2009). "The Whisperers: Private Life in Stalin's Russia (review)". Common Knowledge. 15 (3): 506–507. Retrieved 15 January 2021.
• Legvold, Robert (2007). "Review of The Whisperers: Private Life in Stalin's Russia". Foreign Affairs. 86 (6): 197–197. Retrieved 14 January 2021.
• Marsh, Nicholas (2009). "Review of The Whisperers: Private Life in Stalin's Russia". Journal of Peace Research. 46 (3): 454–455. Retrieved 14 January 2021.
• Perks, Rob (2008). "Review of The Whisperers: Private Life in Stalin's Russia". Oral History. Oral History Society. 36 (2): 107–108. Retrieved 14 January 2021.
• Rees, Edward Arfon (2008). "Review of The Whisperers: Private Life in Stalin's Russia". Europe-Asia Studies. 60 (7): 1265–1267. Retrieved 14 January 2021.
• Viola, Lynne (2008). "Review of The Whisperers: Private Life in Stalin's Russia". Slavic Review. 67 (2): 440–443. Retrieved 14 January 2021.

Popular media

• Rubenstein, Joshua (25 November 2007). "Stalin's Children: Review of The Whisperers by Orlando Figes". The New York Times. Retrieved 14 January 2021.

Awards and recognition

• New York Times Notable Book (2007).[4]

Teaching

• Bellinger, Laura (2008). "Cultivating curiosity about complexity: what happens when Year 12 start to read Orlando Figes' "The Whisperers"?". Teaching History (132): 5–15. Retrieved 14 January 2021.

• Hardcover: 2007 (First Edition), Metropolitan Books (Macmillian), 740pp. ISBN 978-0805074611.
• Paperback: 2008 (First Edition), Metropolitan Books (Macmillian), 748pp. ISBN 978-0141013510.
• Audiobook: 2018, Narrated by John Telfer, Audible Studios, 29 hours and 47 minutes.

• Everyday Stalinism by Sheila Fitzpatrick, Oxford University Press (2007).[lower-alpha 3]
• Life and Terror in Stalin's Russia by Robert W. Thurston, Yale University Press (1998).[lower-alpha 4]

Orlando Guy Figes is a British historian and author known for his works on Russian, Soviet, and European history. He is professor of history at Birkbeck College, University of London. Figes serves on the editorial board of the journal Russian History,[5] and is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.[6]

• Stalinism
• History of the Soviet Union (1927–1953)
• Industrialization in the Soviet Union
• Collectivization in the Soviet Union
• Intensification of the class struggle under socialism

• Whisperers, Orando Figes, author's official website with archive of interviews and other materials used to write The Whisperers.
• Memorial, International Historical Educational Charitable and Human Rights Society