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Cigarettes Opened Soviet Archive Doors
- In Soviet archives foreigners lacked catalog access, so Figes traded cigarettes and used Soviet footnotes to obtain document references.
- He socialised in the smoking toilet and cultivated contacts to get catalogue numbers hidden from Western researchers.
Learn Languages Before Doing Archives
- Learn the languages of your subject; Figes argues historians should speak at least two or three languages to read different historiographies and to be taken seriously in archives.
- He learned Russian via a scholarship, language labs, immersive stays, and relationships while in Moscow to reach the fluency required for archival work.
Bestseller Success Brought Academic Resentment
- Figes experienced academic snobbery after A People's Tragedy became a bestseller at 36: colleagues praised style but dismissed its scholarship, hindering promotions and recognition.
- He recounts Quentin Skinner calling it 'terribly well written' as a coded academic slight undermining his scholarly credentials.