Podcast appearances and mentions of natalia golysheva

Tamara Kvesitadze, a kinetic artist from Georgia, is best known for Man and Woman, a 26-feet tall moving sculpture located in the coastal city of Batumi. Each evening, along the seafront, the two huge steel figures move closer together, and momentarily merge, before passing through one another. Tamara’s large-scale kinetic sculptures often combine elaborate moving mechanisms with evocative imagery, and her latest project, Sigh, is no exception. Due for installation at a Buddhist resort in the Chinese city of Wuxi, Sigh has been commissioned to be a reflection on the country’s traditional philosophy, as well as the more progressive thinking of modern day China. Natalia Golysheva follows the story of Sigh by joining Tamara as she works on the project across several months, taking her from London to Georgia and back, and searches for the perfect way to balance the modern and the traditional.

Founded in the 15th century on a remote archipelago in the White Sea, Solovetsky monastery (or “Solovki”) was once one of Russia’s most religious sites. But in the 20th century Solovki gained notoriety as the “Mother of Gulags” – the first and most brutal of the concentration camps of the Soviet time, a stark embodiment of repression. With the fall of the communism in the early 1990's, the monastery was re-established though and a small group of monks were allowed to settle. Monks and historians have worked together to keep the dual-legacy of Solovki alive, but spiritual revival on the bones of the dead has proved complicated; the Russian Orthodox Church wants to make the entire archipelago the stronghold of belief it had once been, while historians and human rights activists say that traces of Gulag are being gradually and forcibly removed. Natalia Golysheva, whose grandfather was a Gulag prisoner, explores Solovki’s legacy. She joins pilgrims on their journey to the far-off skits, hears from local residents and speaks to the granddaughter of perhaps the most famous Gulag survivor Dmitry Likhachov asking her what Solovki represents in modern day Russia. Is it a place of religious worship or a memorial to its most painful past, and will reconciliation ever be possible? Produced and Presented by Natalia Golysheva (Geyser Media) for BBC World Service Image: Nadezhda Terekhova

Waiting for elections and trying to answer awkward questions about sex in the DRC. Kate Adie introduces correspondents' stories from around the world: William Edmundson is in the Democratic Republic of Congo wondering just how democratic it really is. Katty Kay looks at how the mood in the #metoo movement has gone from hope to concern in the US. Will Grant boards a rather empty flight from Miami to Havana and assesses US –Cuba relations under President Trump - there may be turbulence ahead. Natalia Golysheva travels to the Russian Far East to meet some of the Old Believer sect, who’ve recently returned home. And Chris Bockman reports on the French island of Faisans that is soon to be Spain.

Old Belief communities formed as a result of Russian Orthodox Church theological reforms of the 17th century. After a period of torture and mass executions and unrecognised by the state, Old Believers were forced to go underground or move to unreachable parts of this vast country, where they lived independent of state and official church. The Revolution of 1917 led to a further exodus – even as far as Latin America. In the last decade, the population decline led the Russian government to invite families to return "home", to practice their faith in the land of their fathers, only to find fierce opposition from neighbours and local authorities. Natalia Golysheva travels to the Far East in Russia to meet the Old Believers, who relocated here from Bolivia after a century in exile. Here, in Dersu village they find salvation in their own community, refute most technological advances and home school their children. Natalia takes part in the community’s rituals Old Believers have carefully preserved, but not before they also put her through an unexpected test. Why is it important for them to return to Russia to practice their faith? Why continue to stay despite all the hardships? Produced and Presented by Natalia Golysheva Picture: Murachev family in Dersu village, Far East of Russia. Credit: PrimDiscovery/ Alexander Khitrov