AtomicQuote

Orlando Figes Quote

The link between literacy and revolutions is a well-known historical phenomenon. The three great revolutions of modern European history -- the English, the French and the Russian -- all took place in societies where the rate of literacy was approaching 50 per cent. Literacy had a profound effect on the peasant mind and community. It promotes abstract thought and enables the peasant to master new skills and technologies, Which in turn helps him to accept the concept of progress that fuels change in the modern world.

Orlando Figes

The link between literacy and revolutions is a well-known historical phenomenon. The three great revolutions of modern European history -- the English, the French and the Russian -- all took place in societies where the rate of literacy was approaching 50 per cent. Literacy had a profound effect on the peasant mind and community. It promotes abstract thought and enables the peasant to master new skills and technologies, Which in turn helps him to accept the concept of progress that fuels change in the modern world.

Tags: peasants, revolutionary wars

Related Quotes

Belief is a wonderful way to pass the time until the facts come in.

Carl R White

Belief is a wonderful way to pass the time until the facts come in.

Tags: aetheism, agnostic, agnostic atheism, agnostic theism, agnosticism, agnostics, allah, almighty, angels, arguments

What infinite heart's-easeMust kings neglect, that private men enjoy!And what have kings, that privates have not too,Save ceremony, save general ceremony?And what art thou, thou idle ceremony?What kin...

William Shakespeare

What infinite heart's-easeMust kings neglect, that private men enjoy!And what have kings, that privates have not too,Save ceremony, save general ceremony?And what art thou, thou idle ceremony?What kin...

Tags: burdens, ceremony, emptiness, empty form, equality, exaltation, feudal society, flattery, fulfillment, honors

Give the peasants neither life nor death.

Ieyasu Tokugawa

Give the peasants neither life nor death.

Tags: life, give, peasants

The peasant is the only species of human being who doesn't like the country and never looks at it.

Jules Renard

The peasant is the only species of human being who doesn't like the country and never looks at it.

Tags: nature, peasants

The greatest sorrow in the life of a peasant is that his donkey is lost. And the greatest happiness is that he finds it back.

Khalid Farooq

The greatest sorrow in the life of a peasant is that his donkey is lost. And the greatest happiness is that he finds it back.

Tags: happiness, life, misery, peasants, poverty, sorrow
About Orlando Figes

Orlando Guy Figes () is a British historian and writer. Until his retirement, he was Professor of History at Birkbeck College, University of London, where he was made Emeritus Professor on his retirement.
Figes is known for his works on Russian history, such as A People's Tragedy (1996), Natasha's Dance (2002), The Whisperers: Private Life in Stalin's Russia (2007), Crimea (2010) and Just Send Me Word (2012). A People's Tragedy is a study of the Russian Revolution, and combines social and political history with biographical details in a historical narrative. Figes has also contributed significantly on European history more broadly, notably with his book The Europeans (2019).
He serves on the editorial board of the journal Russian History, writes for the international press, broadcasts on television and radio, reviews for The New York Review of Books, and is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. In 2023, Figes was awarded an Honorary Degree by the Universidad Internacional Menéndez Pelayo in Santiago, Spain.