Natasha's Dance and Russian Cultural History
Published in 2002, Natasha's Dance is a broad cultural history of Russia from the building of St.Petersburg during the reign of Peter the Great in the early eighteenth century. Taking its title from a scene in Tolstoy's War and Peace, where the young countess Natasha Rostova intuitively dances a peasant dance, it explores the tensions between the European and folk elements of Russian culture, and examines how the myth of the 'Russian soul' and the idea of 'Russianness' itself have been expressed by Russian writers, artists, composers and philosophers.
The film director Joe Wright revealed that Natasha's Dance was the inspiration for his 2012 film "Anna Karenina" starring Keira Knightley and Jude Law with a screenplay by Tom Stoppard. Figes is credited as the historical consultant on the film
Figes has also written essays on various Russian cultural figures, including Leo Tolstoy, Dmitri Shostakovich, Sergei Prokofiev . In 2003 he wrote and presented a TV feature documentary for the BBC, The Tsar's Last Picture Show, about the pioneering colour photographer in Tsarist Russia Sergei Prokudin-Gorsky.
Read more about this topic: Orlando Figes
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“The history of the genesis or the old mythology repeats itself in the experience of every child. He too is a demon or god thrown into a particular chaos, where he strives ever to lead things from disorder into order.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)