The Whisperers

Private Life in Stalin's Russia

By: Orlando Figes

Narrated by: John Telfer

Length: 29 hrs and 47 mins

Publisher's summary

Drawing on a huge range of sources - letters, memoirs, conversations - Orlando Figes tells the story of how Russians tried to endure life under Stalin. Those who shaped the political system became, very frequently, its victims. Those who were its victims were frequently quite blameless.

The Whisperers re-creates the sort of maze in which Russians found themselves, where an unwitting wrong turn could either destroy a family or, perversely, later save it: a society in which everyone spoke in whispers - whether to protect themselves, their families, neighbours or friends - or to inform on them.

©2018 Orlando Figes (P)2018 Audible, Ltd

Well worth the time invested

It’s not an easy topic and not always easy to follow the story. At the beginning it feels disjointed and lacking in purpose but very quickly Figes paints small brush strokes into a beautiful evolving artwork. Individual stories become a history lesson and pull together to form a plot. This is a masterful telling of Stalinist Russia and the years after.

A moving look at a terrible crime against humanity

I'd recommend it! Gets a little bogged down at points but the fact that the author is speaking for people long since murdered and forgotten by the system that they lived under is important.

wow. this book was amazing.

this was an incredible exploration of the in er lives of people living under stalin.

In-depth

I have listened to several books on the subject of the Stalin regime/the Gulag, and this book elaborates on the subject in its own unique way. Highly recommend it for anyone interested in learning more of the Soviet regime.

Another Figes marvel

There have been multiple exceptional books written about Russia during the time of Stalin's terror. Orlando Figes's work stands out as one of the very best. The story, though it revolves around multiple personalities, from famous Russian personas to regular persons, is easy to follow and continually riveting. Without a doubt, the story of Konstantin Simonov is exceptionally fascinating. This is the perfect fusion of author and narrator. John Telfer gives the perfect voice inflection for the precise time, never over doing it, reverting to monotone. It's utter perfection, just like this book.

Required Reading

I have listened to SO many books on the broad topic of Soviet Russia. Despite this, this is the first type of book I have listened to of its kind. the only other book series thus far that is somewhat similar is the Gulag Archipelago series. However, the difference primarily lies in that it follows a limited number of families and what happened to the individual members of those families as a result of living under one of the most readily identifiable totalitarian systems in the past 100 years. It does an outstanding job of bridging the gap between macro third person and micro third person. This book would be enjoyed by anyone interested in the result of philosophy, propaganda, historic examples of the danger of religious faith/scientific faith in human logic, the danger of group think, lovers of Russian history, people of religious faith desiring examples of the consequences of faith in everything but a supernatural, and those fascinated by communism from a position of hate yet high intrigue.

Very Personal History, Well Read

I loved the book and listened through it quickly. It covers a relatively narrow, but extremely interesting, fascinating and often incredible, period of Russian history y great depth, offering an abundance of individual “small” stories to illustrate how people pretty much like you and me lived through that time during which the soviet utopia became ever more dystopic. Very well read, with only the right amounts of inflection to let the strong emotion the text suggests, come through nicely.

Fascinating, personal, thorough

This is the best book I've read about the effects of Stalin's personality cult on the people in Russia. Most histories focus on top officials or government policies or the military, but The Whisperers is all about ordinary citizens. Orlando Figes used first-hand accounts from people in every part of the USSR in every walk of life. He follows the lives of several families all the way from the October Revolution to the break-up of the Soviet Union, tracking the effects of systemic fear and repression through multiple generations.

John Telfer did a great job reading. His voice was very clear and precise, distinguishing easily between quotations and exposition. I would gladly listen to anything read by him again!

A classic only hampered by poor editing

First, this is read beautifully. The shear number of stories of children's experiences of Stalinist Russia crushes any faith in humanity the reader may have harboured. The book though loses its way somewhat with an arbitrary biography of Simonov and several other stories that seem unrelated.

IMPORTANT

I encourage you to read “The Whisperers “ so that you can learn and understand the evils of Marxism.
I especially have the current generation in mind.
Our public school system has been indoctrinating our children with liberal ideas for years.
Mr. Orlando Figes is a most amazing author.
I have read/ listened to most of his books and there are still a few in my library.
John Telfer did a terrific job narrating.
My thanks to all involved, JK