Mikhail Viktorovich Zygar, "The Empire must die": reviews, summary

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

About the book "The Empire Must Die" reviews are of interest to many who are fond of national history. This is a new book by Russian journalist Mikhail Zygar, which was published in 2017. Its appearance was timed to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the October Revolution. The author paid the main attention to 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 summary of the work, reviews left about it by experts and ordinary readers.

About the book

About the work "The Empire Must Die" reviews are often diametrically opposed. Zygar began studying the history of the Russian revolution in 2015. This book was the result of the work.

She appeared in print on the eve of the 100thanniversary of the October Revolution. It is noteworthy that the books were available on the bookshelf at the same time in Russian and English. The publishing house "Alpina Publisher" was engaged in its release.

The book "The Empire Must Die" tells how the life of Russian society developed 100 years ago, at the beginning of the 20th century. The fates of Diaghilev and Tolstoy, Stolypin and Rasputin, Lenin and Azef are intertwined on the pages of this deep and scrupulous documentary research.

Author

The author of this book is a domestic journalist, 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 of 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. Traveled to Lebanon, Iraq, Palestine, covered the revolutions in Kyrgyzstan and Ukraine, 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 is remembered for being in charge of the coverage of protest rallies in 2011-2012. He was the producer and author of the program "Sobchak Alive", the host of the final news program "Here and Now", the show"View from above".

Over the years, he has filmed the historical mini-series "The Past and the Duma", documentaries "Who is in power here. Four versions of the execution of the White House", "Bury Stalin".

Writing creativity

At the end of 2015, it became known that Zygar was leaving the TV channel to start implementing his own 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 The Empire Must Die about?

This is a study 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 "The Empire Must Die" Zygar pays attention to all significant aspects of the life of the country. And not only political processes, but also what happened in public life, culture, what place Russia occupied in the international arena.

The book "The Empire Must Die" is difficult to describe in summary. But still, you can get a general impression of what events the author pays priority attention to, what he focuses on in the first place.

Zygar 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 fight againstmode.

Important events in history

Each next chapter is devoted to one or another event that influenced the social and political life of the empire. These are the capture of Beijing after Russia's invasion of China, the creation of a powerful opposition party by Grigory Gershuni and Mikhail Gots, the fashion for liberalism, embodied by Pavel Milyukov and Pyotr Struve.

Zygar gives important places in the narrative to the first leader of the popular protest Georgy Gapon, the creation of a conservative party in power by Alexander Dubrovin, and alternative ways of reforming Russia, which were developed by Dmitry Trepov and Pyotr Stolypin.

It is noteworthy that Zygar pays 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 Sergei Diaghilev's "Russian Seasons" appeared. Among other fundamental points to which the author draws attention are the attempts of Alexander Guchkov and Pavel Ryabushinsky to attract big business to the government. As well as the transformation of Grigory Rasputin into the most influential Russian corrupt official, the emergence of another leader of the popular protest, which this time is Alexander Kerensky.

The writer and journalist Zygar concludes his documentary research with chapters in which Irakly Tsereteli seeks to build parliamentary democracy in Russia, but Vladimir Lenin prevents him from doing this, and Lev Kamenev and Leon Trotsky oppose the Bolshevik coup, considering itcompletely unnecessary.

The book ends with the final coming to power of the Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin. However, the stabilization of the situation is still very far away. There are almost five years of the Civil War ahead, the years of foreign intervention, but this is another story, which the author does not touch on yet, limiting himself to describing the events of 1917.

Expert opinions

Many experts highly appreciated Zygar's work. 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 of national history. Key personalities are described as vividly and clearly as possible. The book impresses with the accuracy, completeness and power with which it describes what happened during these years.

Boris Akunin noted that such a presentation of history seemed to him the most optimal. This is an analytical and balanced study, and not boring, which is a rather rare combination.

Fyokla Tolstaya was surprised that such a book had not appeared earlier. 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 history of the country is created.

Vladimir Voinovich, calling Zygar's work remarkable, noted that it describes in detail what crimes and mistakes were committed by the authorities a century ago, which led to such a crushing collapse. Therefore, the creators of modern history will benefit from reading thisstudy to learn a useful lesson for yourself.

Reviews from readers

Readers left very mixed reviews. "The Empire Must Die" is a book that has found both admirers and implacable opponents. Noting all the advantages of this study, readers emphasized that it is not a monograph, but an entertaining non-fiction, in which there are many parallels, simplifications and analogies with modern reality. As a result, there is a feeling that only for the sake of them the author undertook to write this work.

Judging by the reviews, "The Empire Must Die" has significant flaws. All historical personalities of that period perform an applied function for Zygar, helping to consolidate his main idea about the need to avoid mistakes and draw conclusions.

It's hard to argue with that, but it seems doubtful that such a large book was worth writing for one simple purpose. The result is a feeling of redundancy that is hard to overcome.