Fewer people in this world than a handful of historians have been able to make their mark as widely and strongly as the renowned historian Orlando Figes. His prowess doesn’t only lie in the writing of history but also in the art of writing in general. Figes is one of the three people in his family who are renowned for their writing skills after his mother, Eva and sister, Kate, who are both renowned authors in non fiction based fields. Coming back to the life of Figes, he is renowned in specific terms for his understanding and rendition of Russian history in his pieces of work. He based much of his work on the facts of Russian history related to the time of the Russian Civil War, a topic he has been in love with since he wrote his dissertation paper on the peasants of Volga during the period of the Civil War.
As far as his education is concerned, Orlando Figes completed his primary education at William Ellis School which is based in North London where he came under the influence of future historians Toby Abse and Mark Mazower. Here onwards Cambridge was to be his next destination as Gonville and Caius College began his tryst with History as a pure subject. Hereafter a Ph.D. was the obvious choice for a man who was obsessed with history in a good way. A string of books on Russian history followed which not only won him several accolades and good critical reviews in the entire circuit but also ensured that his stock as a credible historian rose a whole lot. He was taken up as a research fellow at the most esteemed Trinity College hereafter. He also began to teach his subject at Cambridge. Apart from this he was also given a Chair of History at London University.