Book on life under Stalin banned by Kremlin, claims Orlando Figes
Atticus, the Russian publishers, have cancelled their contract with the award-winning British author for his latest work, The Whisperers: Private Life in Stalin's Russia.
Their decision comes after masked officers from the Russian general prosecutor's office raided the offices of Memorial, a human rights organisation which helped Professor Figes research the book.
As well as confiscating about a third of the material used for the book, the officers seized Memorial's entire St Petersburg archive, according to Prof Figes.
The archive included vast historical databases containing information on repression in the country, as well as recordings and transcripts of interviews, he said.
Writing in The Guardian, Prof Figes said: "The raid was part of a broader ideological struggle over the control of history publications and teaching in Russia that may have influenced the decision of Atticus to cancel my contract."
He added: "The history in my book... is inconvenient to the current regime in Russia... The Kremlin has been actively for the rehabilitation of Stalin. Its aim is not to deny Stalin's crimes but to emphasise his achievements as the builder of the country's 'glorious Soviet past'."
Prof Figes, the chair of history at Birkbeck College, University of London, pointed out that in 2007, Vladimir Putin, who was then president and is now prime minister, "called on Russia's schoolteachers to portray the Stalin period in a more positive light".
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Their decision comes after masked officers from the Russian general prosecutor's office raided the offices of Memorial, a human rights organisation which helped Professor Figes research the book.
As well as confiscating about a third of the material used for the book, the officers seized Memorial's entire St Petersburg archive, according to Prof Figes.
The archive included vast historical databases containing information on repression in the country, as well as recordings and transcripts of interviews, he said.
Writing in The Guardian, Prof Figes said: "The raid was part of a broader ideological struggle over the control of history publications and teaching in Russia that may have influenced the decision of Atticus to cancel my contract."
He added: "The history in my book... is inconvenient to the current regime in Russia... The Kremlin has been actively for the rehabilitation of Stalin. Its aim is not to deny Stalin's crimes but to emphasise his achievements as the builder of the country's 'glorious Soviet past'."
Prof Figes, the chair of history at Birkbeck College, University of London, pointed out that in 2007, Vladimir Putin, who was then president and is now prime minister, "called on Russia's schoolteachers to portray the Stalin period in a more positive light".