About the book "The Empire Must Die" reviews are of interest to many who are fond of domestic history. This is the new book of the Russian journalist Mikhail Zygar, which was published in 2017. Her appearance was dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the October Revolution. The author focused on the events of the beginning of the 20th century, which preceded and directly led to the collapse of the Russian Empire. This article provides a brief summary of the work, the reviews that experts and ordinary readers left about it.
About the book
About the work "The Empire Must Die" reviews are often diametrically opposed. Zygar began to study the history of the Russian revolution in 2015. The result of the work was this book.
She appeared in print on the eve of the 100th anniversary of the October Revolution. It is noteworthy that on the bookstores options were available simultaneously in Russian and English. Its release was engaged in the publishing house Alpina Publisher.
The book "The Empire Must Die" talks about how the life of Russian society took shape 100 years ago, at the beginning of the 20th century. The fate of Diaghilev and Tolstoy, Stolypin and Rasputin, Lenin and Azef intertwine on the pages of this deep and rigorous documentary study.
Author
The author of this book is a domestic journalist, a war correspondent who from 2010 to 2015 worked as the editor-in-chief of the Dozhd TV channel. He is now 38 years old.
Mikhail Viktorovich Zygar is a graduate of the faculty of international journalism at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations, received his second higher education at Cairo University.
Journalistic career
His career began at the Kommersant Publishing House. From 2000 to 2009, he specialized in reporting from hot spots. He visited Lebanon, Iraq, Palestine, covered the revolutions in Kyrgyzstan and Ukraine, the unrest in Estonia provoked by the transfer of the Bronze Soldier, as well as riots in Kosovo and Serbia.
On the Dozhd TV channel, he was remembered for leading the coverage of 2011-2012 protest rallies. He was the producer and author of the Sobchak Alive program, the host of the final news program Here and Now, the show Top View.
Over the years, he directed the historical mini-series "The Past and the Duma", documentaries "Who is Power. Four versions of the shooting of the White House", "Bury Stalin."
Creative writing
At the end of 2015, it became known that Zygar was leaving the channel in order to start implementing copyright projects. In the same year, he became famous by writing the book “The entire Kremlin army”.
According to researchers, this is the most serious and in-depth study of everything that has happened in Russia over the past 20 years.
What is Empire about to die about?
This study is about the beginning of the twentieth century, the events that preceded the October Revolution. It became the second serious historical and journalistic work of the author.
In the book "Empires Must Die" Zygar pays attention to all significant aspects of the life of the country. Moreover, not only political processes, but also what was happening in public life, culture, what place Russia occupied in the international arena.
It is difficult to tell the book "Empire must die" in a brief summary. But nevertheless, it is possible to make a general impression of what events the author pays priority attention to, and this focuses his attention in the first place.
Zigar begins his book with a chapter in which he tells how the great Russian writer Leo Tolstoy turns into the main ideologist of the opposition and a symbol of the struggle against the regime.
Important events of history
Each next chapter is devoted to a particular event that has influenced the social and political life of the empire. This is the capture of Beijing after the Russian invasion of China, the creation of a powerful opposition party by Grigory Gershuni and Mikhail Gots, a fashion for liberalism, which is personified by Pavel Milyukov and Petr Struve.
Important points in the story Zygar devotes to the first leader of the popular protest Georgy Gapon, the creation of a conservative party in power, Alexander Dubrovin, alternative ways of reforming Russia, which were developed by Dmitry Trepov and Peter Stolypin.
It is noteworthy that Zygar devotes a lot of attention to key changes in culture, which at that time had a significant impact on public life. In particular, he describes in detail how the "Russian Seasons" by Sergey Diaghilev appeared. Among the other fundamental points that the author draws attention to are the attempts of Alexander Guchkov and Pavel Ryabushinsky to attract big business to the government. And also the transformation of Grigory Rasputin into the most influential Russian corruptionist, the emergence of another leader of the popular protest, which this time becomes Alexander Kerensky.
The writer and journalist Zygar ends his documentary research with chapters in which Irakli Tsereteli seeks to build parliamentary democracy in Russia, and Vladimir Lenin hinders him from doing this, while Lev Kamenev and Lev Trotsky oppose the Bolshevik coup, considering it completely unnecessary.
The book ends with the Bolsheviks finally coming to power, headed by Vladimir Lenin. True, to stabilize the situation is still very far. Ahead is almost five years of the Civil War, years of foreign intervention, but this is another story that the author does not concern yet, confining herself to a description of the events of 1917.
Expert Opinions
Many experts praised the work of the Zygar. For example, Vladimir Pozner said that the book is so fascinating that it is impossible to tear yourself away from it. Accessible and understandable, it tells about the most important moment in Russian history. Key personalities are described as vividly and graphically as possible. The book is striking in its accuracy, completeness and power, with which it describes what happened in these years.
Boris Akunin noted that it was such a presentation of history that seemed to him the most optimal. This is an analytical and balanced study, besides not boring, which is a rather rare combination.
Thekla Tolstoy was surprised that such a book had not appeared before. Despite the fact that it describes the events of a century ago, the work is very relevant and modern. It refers to modern ideas about how power mechanisms interact, how the country's history is going on.
Vladimir Voinovich, calling Zygar’s work remarkable, noted that it describes in detail what crimes, mistakes were made by the authorities a century ago, which led to such a crushing collapse. Therefore, it will be useful for the creators of modern history to read this study in order to learn a useful lesson for themselves.
Reader Reviews
Readers left highly controversial reviews. "Empire Must Die" is a book that has found both fans and irreconcilable opponents. Noting all the advantages of this study, readers emphasized that it is not a monograph, but an entertaining non-fixation in which there are many parallels, simplifications and analogies with modern reality. As a result, there is a feeling that it was only for their sake that the author took up writing this work.
Judging by the reviews, "Empire must die" has significant shortcomings. All the historical figures of that period at Zygar perform an applied function, contributing to the consolidation of his basic idea of the need to avoid mistakes and draw conclusions.
It is difficult to argue with this, but it seems doubtful that such a large book was worth writing for one simple purpose. As a result, there is a feeling of redundancy, which is difficult to overcome.