"'A People's Tragedy' is a brilliantly written account of the Russian revolution which manages, in a work of great scholarship, to bring the ghastly events of this important world happening vividly to life," said Anderson, as he handed over the prize. Figes, who joins a group of distinguished former winners which includes the historian Simon Schama and Jung Chang of "Wild Swans" fame, was one of a shortlist of four. His book beat Lady Antonia Fraser's readable account of Guy Fawkes' conspiracy against King James I and his parliament, "The Gunpowder Plot," as well as Norman Davies' much-praised "A History of Europe" and Frank McLynn's biography of "Carl Gustav Jung."
On receiving the prize, Figes, a university lecturer in history based at Trinity College, Cambridge, and a fluent Russian speaker, expressed the hope that "some of my love and sympathy for these [the Russian] people, particularly in their present plight, is communicated, and that they understand more of the potential of that country."
This is the second major prize to be won by the 38-year-old son of novelist Eva Figes. "A People's Tragedy" also recently claimed the more mainstream W.H. Smith Literary Award, a tribute, in part, to its commercial success.
Not everyone is as enamored with Figes's work, however. Richard Pipes, the septuagenarian doyen of Russian historiography, reviewing the U.S. edition of the book this spring in The New Republic magazine, accused his young rival of sloppiness and plagiarism. He claimed to have identified more than 40 instances when Figes' text uncannily resembled sentences from his own great body of writing about the Russian Revolution.
Figes responded by conceding that while there were "regrettable similarities," these were the coincidental use of near-cliched phrases rather than conscious plagiarism. When The Sunday Times newspaper reprinted Pipes' attack, Figes demanded an apology.
Both parties reached an out of court settlement this week.
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