No country has been so divided over its past, or reinvented its story so often, as Russia. To understand what Putin’s regime means for the future we need to unravel Russia’s history. There can be few better guides than historian Orlando Figes, whose books have been translated into over 30 languages. In The Story of Russia – a book of 2022 in the Sunday Times, the FT and the Telegraph – he makes sense of the world’s largest nation through the vibrant characters whose stories remain so important, from Ivan the Terrible and Catherine the Great to the bitter last days of the Romanovs. In conversation with journalist and author Nick Cohen.