Josef Stalin is commonly credited with the aphorism, "A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic." Given the lives lost during his rule, the attribution is fitting regardless of whether it is accurate.  Yet the latest exploration of Russian history by British historian Orlando Figes goes beyond the deaths as he tries to show us through individuals just how markedly Stalin's rule affected tens of millions.

With The Whisperers: Private Life in Stalin's Russia, Figes brings documentary, family and oral history to bear in an in-depth exploration of what it was like to live during Stalin's reign. Executions and deaths in the gulag during purges or The Great Terror are but one aspect of the work. Figes delves into how the person arrested or forced out of their home was not the only victim. The ramifications could range from a spouse being arrested simply because their significant other was (hence the gulag installation actually called the "Camp for Wives of Traitors to the Motherland") to spending the rest of your life suffering from or hiding a "spoilt biography" because a family member had been arrested. Ultimately, though the victimization extended to the nation as a whole.

Even the title reflects the societal impact of life under Stalin. The Russian language has two words for "whisperer." One means somebody who whispers out of fear of being overheard. The other means a person who informs or whispers to authorities behind a person's back. "The distinction," Figes writes, "has its origins in the idiom of the Stalin years, when the whole of Soviet society was made up of whisperers of one sort or another."

Many whispered to avoid being heard by neighbors or co-workers who might be informers. Others whispered to the authorities, whether out of party pressure or loyalty, because they felt they had no choice or because they believed what they were doing was right. Even the family unit was not entirely safe. Young children often did not understand the political implications of repeating what was said at home. Moreover, the Soviet state encouraged children, particularly those in party youth organizations like the Pioneers, to inform. In fact, a provincial publication "warned that Pioneers who failed to inform on their families should be treated with suspicion." Still, many children were taught or learned instinctively not to speak to anyone about their family because "the walls have ears" and, if the wrong ears heard, the ramifications to the family could be disastrous.

The Whisperers gives us firsthand accounts of those ramifications from the the years immediately following the Russian revolution through collectivization, The Great Terror, World War II and even after Stalin's death in 1953. Thus, Figes notes that one writer's diary from 1937 indicated "people were becoming so adept at concealing meaning in their speech that they were in danger of losing the capacity to speak the truth altogether." This, in turn, simply bred more mistrust because "no one knew what was concealed behind the mask." As a result, many turned to diaries or other outlets as they "sought refuge in a private world of truth."