Podcasts about pushkin house

Rothenstein's enigmatic paintings are frequently characterised by a dreamlike quality. Mysterious figures often populate her flattened landscapes and interiors.The artist draws inspiration from found imagery, personal experience and memory, working instinctively to communicate atmosphere and psychological tension. Rothenstein's scenes are rendered with sinuous lines and a distinctive palette built up of thin washes of oil. Often painting directly on wood panel, the artist allows grain to blend with figure and landscape.Speaking of her artistic process, Rothenstein says, “My reasons, or intentions, when making a particular painting are quite mysterious to me. The spark is always lit from an existing image, a photograph or another painting, and I often don't discover why that image leaped out at me or what it is I'm exploring until the work is finished. Sometimes I never find out. It is almost entirely intuitive. Finding a rhythm, searching for balance, alert to missteps, to what is happening, to changes of direction. I am telling myself a story much of the time and asking questions. Who is this, where is this place, what is going on? This is what I think of as the noise of a painting. And of course, what I am trying to reach is the silence … There is a wonderful Philip Guston quote: “if you're really painting YOU walk out.” That is what I mean by reaching the silence.” Rothenstein is self-taught and lives and works in London. Born in 1949, the daughter of the late Michael Rothenstein and Duffy Ayres, she grew up in a lively and distinguished community of artists in the Essex village of Great Bardfield. Following a foundation course at Camberwell School of Art in the mid-1960s, Rothenstein worked as an actress for over a decade before gradually returning to painting. Rothenstein's recent solo exhibitions include Charleston, Sussex (2024) and Stephen Friedman Gallery, New York (2024). Other solo shows include Stephen Friedman Gallery, London (2022) and Beaux Arts Gallery, London (2021). A two-person exhibition by Rothenstein and Irina Zatulovskaya took place at Pushkin House, London in 2018. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode of The Poetry Exchange, poet Nick Makoha talks with us about the poem that has been a friend to him: 'White Egrets (I)' by Derek Walcott.Nick actually joined us back in 2017 at Pushkin House, London, and we are delighted to be sharing this conversation with you now. It is very special to hear Fiona in this conversation, with all her usual warmth and brilliance.Nick Makoha's latest collection 'The New Carthaginians' is published this month from Allen Lane - you can order/buy your copy here.The event for 'On the Brink of Touch' by Fiona Bennett is on 26th February at The Bedford in Balham, London, and live streamed. We'd love for you to join us, and you can book your places here!Dr Nick Makoha is a Ugandan poet. His new collection is The New Carthaginians published by Penguin UK. Winner of the 2021 Ivan Juritz Prize and the Poetry London Prize. In 2017, Nick's debut collection, Kingdom of Gravity, was shortlisted for the Felix Dennis Prize for Best First Collection and was one of the Guardian's best books of the year. He was the ICA 2023 Writer-in-Residence. He was the 2019 Writer-in-Residence for The Wordsworth Trust and Wasafiri. A Cave Canem Graduate Fellow and Complete Works alumnus. He won the 2015 Brunel African Poetry Prize and the 2016 Toi Derricotte & Cornelius Eady Prize for his pamphlet Resurrection Man. His play The Dark—produced by Fuel Theatre and directed by JMK award-winner Roy Alexander—was on a national tour in 2019. It was shortlisted for the 2019 Alfred Fagon Award and won the 2021 Columbia International Play Reading prize. His poems have appeared in the Cambridge Review, the New York Times, Poetry Review, Poetry Wales, Rialto, Poetry London, TriQuarterly Review, 5 Dials, Boston Review, Callaloo Birmingham Lit Journal and Wasafiri.*********White EgretsBy Derek Walcott I The chessmen are as rigid on their chessboard as those life-sized terra-cotta warriors whose vowsto their emperor with bridle, shield and swordwere sworn by a chorus that has lost its voice;no echo in that astonishing excavation.Each soldier gave an oath, each gave his wordto die for his emperor, his clan, his nation,to become a chess soldier, breathlessly erectin shade or crossing sunlight, without hours – from clay to clay and odourlessly strict.If vows were visible they might see oursas changeless chessmen in the changing lighton the lawn outside where bannered breakers tossand palms gust with music that is time's above the chessmen's silence. Motion brings loss.A sable blackbird twitters in the limes. From White Egrets by Derek Walcott, Faber & Faber 2010. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What may a misadventure from 17th century Russian imperial history tell us about modern Russia? Why, about the perils of information logjams and public-private empires!Details of the Pushkin House event I mentioned are here, and the Pertsev article is here.The podcast's corporate partner and sponsor is Conducttr, which provides software for innovative and immersive crisis exercises in hybrid warfare, counter-terrorism, civil affairs and similar situations.You can also follow my blog, In Moscow's Shadows, and become one of the podcast's supporting Patrons and gain question-asking rights and access to exclusive extra materials right here. Support the show

Empty rumours of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's death on the internet yesterday, got me thinking about his shrinking role, and the twilight of Russia's technocrats. Besides, he is already politically dead, so it's in a way not too early to deliver his obituary and use that to consider some of the dilemmas and characteristics of senior figures who are technocrats, not Putin cronies.The Pushkin House even I mentioned is here.The podcast's corporate partner and sponsor is Conducttr, which provides software for innovative and immersive crisis exercises in hybrid warfare, counter-terrorism, civil affairs and similar situations.You can also follow my blog, In Moscow's Shadows, and become one of the podcast's supporting Patrons and gain question-asking rights and access to exclusive extra materials right here. Support the Show.

Professor Catriona Kelly will be discussing her new book Russian Food Since 1800: Empire at Table with previous guest on this show, Alissa Timoshkina at Pushkin House in London on Friday 15th March 2024. It's an in-person & online hybrid event, which will from 6.30 to 8.00 pm GMT. Find out more about the event and buy tickets at pushkinhouse.org Our episode on Little Vera (dir. Vasily Pichul; 1988). Contact us: (We've changed the name of the show, but the social handles are staying the same for now). Email: russophilesunite@gmail.com Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/Ally_Pitts/ The platform formerly known as Twitter: @RussophilesU Listen to Ally's other podcast appearances on Podchaser    

After looking at a few recent news stories that caught my eye, on everything from the Ministry of Happiness to a surprisingly subversive economic plan, I look at four conventional wisdoms about Putin. He knows what he wants and it never changes. He doesn't have to care about public opinion. He needs the war to go on for ever. He can't be negotiated with. It's not, in my opinion, that they are all outright wrong, but two of them are, and two need more nuance. Without understanding that, we condemn us all to the current status quo so long as Putin is in the Kremlin -- at the very least.The events I mentioned are at De Balie in Amsterdam on 20 November (details here) and Pushkin House in London on 4 December (details here).The podcast's corporate partner and sponsor is Conducttr, which provides software for innovative and immersive crisis exercises in hybrid warfare, counter-terrorism, civil affairs and similar situations.You can also follow my blog, In Moscow's Shadows, and become one of the podcast's supporting Patrons and gain question-asking rights and access to exclusive extra materials right here. Support the show

در این اپیزود از زندگی یکی از نقاشان بزرگ روس حرف میزنیم و تابلویی از این نقاش را بررسی میکنیم.لینک تصویر با کیفیت تابلو:https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/79/Ilja_Jefimowitsch_Repin_-_Reply_of_the_Zaporozhian_Cossacks_-_Yorck.jpgپرتره های رپین از تولستوی:Portrait of Tolstoy (1887)https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bb/Ilya_Efimovich_Repin_%281844-1930%29_-_Portrait_of_Leo_Tolstoy_%281887%29.jpgTolstoy reading under a tree in the forest, Tretyakov Gallery Moscow (1891)https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/db/Leo_Tolstoy03.jpgTolstoy writing at Yasnaya Polyana, Pushkin House (1891)https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5c/Leo_Tolstoy02.jpgTolstoy barefoot, State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg (1901)https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8a/Ilya_Repin_-_Leo_Tolstoy_Barefoot_-_Google_Art_Project.jpgPortrait of Tolstoy shortly before his death (1908)https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3d/1908%D0%A0%D0%B5%D0%BF%D0%B8%D0%BD%D0%A2%D0%BE%D0%BB%D1%81%D1%82%D0%BE%D0%B9.JPGقطعات موسیقی:Persischer Marsch - Johann Strauss IIWhen we were at War (Когда мы были на войне) Russian Folk Song [Cossack version] Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Russia expert and author Dr Jade McGlynn joins Nick Cohen from Kyiv to talk about Ukraine's tragedy - a Russia that has been badly run by bad men - with a couple of rare exceptions here and there. And how this also happens to be Russia's tragedy.  Jade explains how the recent "Mad March on Moscow" by Wagner militia mafioso Yevgeny Prigozhin is a symptom of Vladamir Putin's dysfunction and despotism, and how hatred flows now flows between Ukraine and Russia like drones and missiles.Jade McGlynn - widely acknowledged as a brilliant and insightful author and Russian observer - is the author of two recent landmark books relating to the tragedy now playing out in Ukraine - Russia's  War,  published by Pushkin House, and Memory Makers, just published by Bloomsbury.  Memory Makers, The Politics of the past in Putin's Russia,  is based on Jade's analysis since 2014 of the start of Russia's illegal incursions into Ukraine. The book examines how Russia's repeated misadventures into its neighbour's territories are driven by the obsessive lies and myths it's gaslit into believing by Putin, and too many of his predecessors.Support the showListen to The Lowdown from Nick Cohen for in-depth analysis of the issues and events that shape our lives and futures. From Ukraine to Brexit, from Trump to the Tories - we hope to keep you informed - and sane! @NickCohen4

Russia's war against Ukraine has brought about a radical restructuring of the Russian political economy, placing transformative ideology and outright coercion firmly at the heart of power. Despite this, the war and its consequences have produced remarkably little resistance. This discussion delves beyond the dynamics of coercion and ideology, to investigate how the war has interacted with Russians' "vernacular knowledge" about power and powerlessness. This knowledge has thus far remained resilient to the cognitive challenges posed by the war, underpinning a social resilience that both enables the state's internal and external aggression, and limits it. - Sam Greene is professor in Russian politics at King's College London. His most recent book, co-authored with Graeme Robertson, is Putin v the People: The Perilous Politics of a Divided Russia (Yale University Press 2019). Alongside his work at King's, Sam is an Associate Fellow of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a Trustee of Pushkin House, and Editor-in-Chief of Russian Politics & Law.

Hosted by Andrew Keen, Keen On features conversations with some of the world's leading thinkers and writers about the economic, political, and technological issues being discussed in the news, right now. In this episode, Andrew is joined by Peter Pomerantsev, the author of This Is Not Propaganda. Peter Pomerantsev is a Senior Fellow at the Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University, and at the Institute of Global Affairs at the London School of Economics where he runs the Arena Initiative, dedicated to investigating the roots of disinformation and what to about them. He has testified on the challenges of information war to the US House Foreign Affairs Committee, US Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the UK Parliament Defense Select Committee. He is a Contributing Editor and columnist at the American Interest. His first book, Nothing is True and Everything is Possible, won the 2016 Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize, was nominated for the Samuel Johnson, Guardian First Book, Pushkin House and Gordon Burns Prizes. It is translated into over a dozen languages. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Artist: Dj Skif(Russia) Release Date: 15.06.2022 Soundcloud — @skifdj Instagram — www.instagram.com/djskif We continue the monthly cycle of programs with invited Dj`s. In this issue: Special guest: Dj Skif (Experiment/Highway Rec.) Resident of labels Highway Records, German Plastic City, representative of the South of Russia Consulate community. Possessing his own special style in dance sets, Skif quickly won the love of not only his native Krasnodar, becoming one of the main players in the electronic club scene of the entire South of Russia Продолжаем ежемесячный цикл программ с приглашенными Dj`s. В данном выпуске: Dj Skif (Experiment/Highway Rec.) Резидент лейблов Highway Records, немецкого Plastic City, представитель комьюнити South of Russia Consulate. Основатель проекта «EXPERIMENT» Обладающий своим особенным почерком в танцевальных сетах, Skif быстро завоевал любовь не только родного Краснодара, став одним из главных игроков на клубной электронной сцене всего Юга России

President Putin's decision to launch a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022 has plunged Russia into international isolation. The Russian economy is being hammered by sanctions, increasing numbers of brands and business are halting their operations in the country, and the Russian government has cracked down on anti-war protests and independent media. In this episode, our panel of young Russian leaders discuss their hopes, fears and ambitions for the future of the country. Giles Whittell, of Tortoise Media, speaks to Anton Barbashin, Editorial Director at Riddle Russia; Ella Rossman, doctoral student at UCL in the school of Slavonic and Eastern European Studies; Tonia Samsonova, former Head of Yandex. Q and former journalist; and Dr Denis Stolyarov, art historian and curator at Pushkin House.  This episode was recorded as a live broadcast on  3rd May 2022.

In this episode of “Keen On”, Andrew is joined by Peter Pomerantsev, the author of "This Is Not Propaganda." Peter Pomerantsev is a Senior Fellow at the Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University, and at the Institute of Global Affairs at the London School of Economics where he runs the Arena Initiative, dedicated to investigating the roots of disinformation and what to about them. He has testified on the challenges of information war to the US House Foreign Affairs Committee, US Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the UK Parliament Defense Select Committee. He is a Contributing Editor and columnist at the American Interest. His first book, Nothing is True and Everything is Possible, won the 2016 Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize, was nominated for the Samuel Johnson, Guardian First Book, Pushkin House and Gordon Burns Prizes. It is translated into over a dozen languages. Visit our website: https://lithub.com/story-type/keen-on/ Email Andrew: a.keen@me.com Watch the show live on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ajkeen Watch the show live on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ankeen/ Watch the show live on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lithub Watch the show on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/LiteraryHub/videos Subscribe to Andrew's newsletter: https://andrew2ec.substack.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Many of us, particularly women, experience endless frustration because we don't feel heard. At work and at home, it seems like we are constantly interrupted and rarely feel in control of a conversation. This week Viv Groskop, journalist, podcaster, stand-up comedian and author of How to Own The Room and Lift As You Climb, talks with Andrew about how to speak so that people will listen. Diving into the world of stand-up taught Viv about pacing, pausing and gauging people's reactions; but most importantly, about quieting your own ego and tuning into your audience. Andrew and Viv discuss why exactly it is that many women struggle to be heard. At the practical level, it is crucial to enter the discussion assertively. We also need to make sure we are not self-sabotaging by pre-judging our own contribution as “not good enough”.  Viv Groskop hosts the chart-topping podcast How to Own The Room. She has written five books and this year will be a judge for the International Booker Prize. She is a regular guest presenter on BBC Radio 4 and has appeared on Woman's Hour, Today and Front Row. Viv is also a fluent Russian speaker and is a trustee of Pushkin House, the  independent centre for Russian culture in London.    Follow Up Join our Supporters Club to access exclusive behind-the-scenes content, fan requests and the chance to ask Andrew your own questions. Membership starts at just £4.50: https://www.patreon.com/andrewgmarshall  Listen to How to Own the Room, Viv Groskop's podcast: https://vivgroskop.com/podcast/  Read How to Own the Room: Women and the Art of Brilliant Speaking, Lift As You Climb: Women, Ambition and How to Change the Story, Au Revoir Tristesse: Lessons in Happiness from French Literature and Viv Groskop's other books Visit Viv Groskop's website: https://vivgroskop.com  Follow Viv on Instagram and Twitter @VivGroskop Read Andrew's blog How to Be a Better Listener https://andrewgmarshall.com/help-better-listener/  Get Andrew's book on communicating better with your partner Help Your Partner Say Yes: Seven Steps to Achieving Better Co-operation and Communication: https://andrewgmarshall.com/book/help-your-partner-say-yes-seven-steps-to-achieving-better-co-operation-and-communication/  Andrew offers regular advice on love, marriage and finding meaning in your life via his social channels. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube @andrewgmarshall 

To mark the bicentenary of the birth of the great Russian writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky World Book Club revisits Crime and Punishment in an edition recorded at the elegant Pushkin House, London's Russian cultural hub, in 2016. To help us explore Dostoyevsky's haunting classic thriller Harriett Gilbert was joined by acclaimed Russian writer Boris Akunin and Russian scholar Dr Sarah Young. Consumed by the idea of his own special destiny, Rashkolnikov is drawn to commit a terrible crime. In the aftermath, he is dogged by madness, guilt and a calculating detective, and a feverish cat-and-mouse game unfolds. (Photo credit: Alexander Aksakov/Getty Images.)

Frankie Shalom speaks to Emily Couch, who lived in Russia as an ethnically Chinese British student, and Vijay Menon, who travelled on the Trans-Siberian Railway and wrote the book A Brown Man in Russia about his experiences. They discuss the trials and joys of travelling in Russia, and talk about their experiences of Russians' reactions to their presence. This episode was presented and recorded for Pushkin House by Frankie Shalom. The editor and series producer was Rafy Hay. Our thanks to Emily Couch and Vijay Menon. Listen here on the Pushkin House website, on Apple podcasts, or via Acast.

What is a banya? What do Russians do when they go to the steam-room, and what are those conical hats they're wearing? Madeleine Cuckson speaks to Banya No. 1 founder Andrei Fomin to answer all the questions you might have had about the traditions and future of the Russian bathhouse.This episode was presented and recorded for Pushkin House by Madeleine Cuckson. The series producer was Rafy Hay. Our thanks to Andrei Fomin and everyone at Banya No. 1.

Ada Wordsworth speaks to Maria Kuznetsova, Alina Z, and Alina D, three young Muscovites who took part in protests this week against Alexei Navalny's recent incarceration. They describe the reasons for their support of Navalny - even in the face of political disagreements with him - as well as the reaction of their friends and family, and the possible outcomes of the protest.This episode was presented and edited for Pushkin House by Ada Wordsworth, and produced by Jorrit Donner-Wittkopf. The series producer was Rafy Hay. Our thanks to all the participants.

Ada Wordsworth speaks to Alexander and Suzy, two young Russians. They recount their experiences of coming out to family, friends and colleagues; describe the differences in Russia between the ways gay men and lesbians are treated; and tell us about their hopes and expectations for the future of LGBT+ rights and opportunities in Russia.This episode was presented and edited for Pushkin House by Ada Wordsworth, and produced by Jorrit Donner-Wittkopf. The series producer was Rafy Hay. Our thanks to Alexander Ankudinov and Suzy for participating. Contains some strong language.

Young Pushkin volunteer Ada Wordsworth spoke remotely to three participants in the Fridays for Future strikes, who are on the frontline of climate activism in Russia: Arshak Makichyan in Moscow, Dasha Khamaza in St Petersburg, and Daria Anufrieva in Irkutsk. They describe the challenges and successes they've had in pressuring their local and national governments to respond to the gathering storm of climate change, and swimming against a current of apathy and scepticism from the rest of society.Presented and edited by Ada Wordsworth, and produced by Jorrit Donner-Wittkopf. Series produced for Pushkin House by Rafy Hay.

In this podcast, Irina Flige, human rights activist and director of the Memorial Research and Information Centre in St Petersburg, talks about her work that focuses on historical memory, the role of the Memorial Research and Information Centre and the current human rights situation in Russia. Irina was to appear at Pushkin House in April this year as a joint event of the Pushkin Club and Rights in Russia, but the event was postponed because of the coronavirus. The conversation touches upon the legacy of political repression and efforts to document – and counteract – it, the issue of why Memorial focuses on the physical evidence of repression, and includes topics such as the Sandormokh execution site, the case of Yury Dimitriev, the impact of Covid-19 and Memorial's latest projects.Josephine von Zitzewitz is a member of the board of Rights in Russia and a staff member at the UiT Arctic University in Norway. The video version of this podcast was first published by Pushkin House on 10 September 2020. See: https://www.pushkinhouse.org/blog/2020/9/10/historical-memory-in-russia?rq=fligeThe podcast is in the Russian language. You can also listen to this podcast via our website (https://rightsinrussia.org/podcasts) on SoundCloud (https://soundcloud.com/rightsinrussia) and on Spotify (open.spotify.com/show/7HdmvhzC2P6VQS8ijICNHZ) and Itunes (podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/simo...ei/id1495261418).The music is from Stravinsky's Elegy for Solo Viola, performed by Karolina Herrera.

In the latest of our archive recordings to be unearthed, we have here a 1969 lecture from the not-yet-29-year-old John Innes Stuart (1940-2003) - a renowned expert on Russian icons and historian of British biker culture. A remarkable character, Johnny was born in Aberdeen, educated at Eton, and was working as a porter at Sotheby's auctioneers when his extensive knowledge of Russian icons was found to be greater than any of their experts. A convert at the age of 18 to Russian Orthodoxy, he went on to establish the Russian department at Sotheby's in 1976, as well as his own consultancy with Ivan Samarine in 1995.Originally titled ‘Some aspects of collecting, restoring and studying icons, 1830-1917', this lecture gives an extensive history of the study and appreciation of Russian icons - from their creation and then literal concealment (by soot and the ornate silver okladki that covered them), to their appraisal as objects of academic interest, and of art in their own right.This episode was recorded on 9th May, 1969 at Pushkin House in Ladbroke Grove. The recording was catalogued and digitised by Anastasia Koro and Andrey Levitskiy, and was edited and produced for Pushkin House by Rafy Hay.

“The most essential horrors revealed by Gogol are not of Russia, but of the soul...”Nikolai Vasilevich Gogol (1809-1852) is one of the most important figures of Russian literature, initiating a prose tradition that influenced everyone who came after him. In this lecture from the Pushkin House salon at its old home in Ladbroke Grove, preeminent writer and critic Victor Erlich elucidates with characteristic wit and incision the elements of Gogol's metaphors and plots which draw on the grotesque. In these surreal and bizarre images, Gogol reveals truths about our world and our selves which are always strikingly compelling. This talk and discussion was recorded at some point between 1963 and 1968 — we know this to be the case as Erlich is mentioned as chair of the Yale department of Slavic languages and literature, a post he held between those dates — and likely near the end of that period, as his book Gogol (1969) is mentioned as upcoming. Erlich speaks about all of Gogol's main works, including the Ukrainian Tales, the Petersburg Tales — Nevsky Prospect, The Nose and The Overcoat; Taras Bulba, Diary of a Madman, and his final controversial masterpiece, Dead Souls.This episode was catalogued and digitised by Anastasia Koro and Andrey Levitskiy, and was edited and produced for Pushkin House by Rafy Hay.

Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh, in archive footage from 1961, enlightens the salon at Pushkin HouseMetropolitan Anthony Bloom (1914-2003), a bishop of the Russian Orthodox Church in Great Britain, was one of the most important figures in the Russian Orthodoxy of his day. His many admirers attest that he combined a philosophical understanding of Christianity with high intelligence and personal charm.He became widely known to English speaking audiences for his BBC radio and TV broadcasts, exploring the intellectual and spiritual roots of Christianity. In this talk, recorded in 1961 and recently discovered in the vaults of Pushkin House, Metropolitan Anthony shares insights on Russian faith and spirituality and challenges the assumption that it is rooted in paganism.This episode was catalogued and digitised by Anastasia Koro and Andrey Levitskiy, and was edited and produced for Pushkin House by Rafy Hay.

Darra Goldstein speaks about her new cookbook to Pushkin House's director Clem CecilSpeaking via Zoom from her home in Massachusetts, food writer and Russianist Darra Goldstein discusses the process and peculiarities of writing a book on Russian cuisine. ‘Beyond the North Wind' focuses on the food of the far north - the Kola Peninsula and the Solovetsky Islands - a land the ancient Greeks called Hyperborea.In conversation with Clem Cecil, Darra talks about how the hardy conditions in the north form the perfect crucible for a healthy, delicious cuisine. Check out her recipe for raspberry kvass, as mentioned in the podcast, here.This podcast was recorded on 13th April 2020 and was edited and produced for Pushkin House by Rafy Hay.

Charlotte Moore recounts the stranger-than-fiction tale of her great-great-great-uncleBenjamin Leigh Smith, born in 1828, was the polymath illegitimate son of an MP. Born into a radical family, by various twists and turns of fate he ended up as an explorer of the frozen north.His fifth expedition ended in the wreck of his ship, Eira, and ten months of gruelling survival in the arctic, before a daring escape via makeshift longboat. The only tragedy is that this story of ingenuity and resolve isn't better known.This podcast episode was recorded on 22nd January, 2020, and was edited and produced for Pushkin House by Rafy Hay.

Robert Chandler and Boris Dralyuk discuss the best translations of Russian literatureBy popular demand, Pushkin House presents a recording of our event from 15th January 2020. Acclaimed translators Robert Chandler and Boris Dralyuk discuss the best English versions of Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Gogol and others, with guest appearances from Antony Wood and Nicolas Pasternak Slater.This podcast episode was edited and produced for Pushkin House by Rafy Hay.

“He saw them in such an undeniably concrete way, that it would have seemed to him falsehood not to mention them…”Tolstoy's characters seem to come alive so much, George Steiner argues, because they have their own internal lives, hidden even from the author. Of course, it was the author who made it so, but Tolstoy's treatment of his characters as autonomous individuals may not have been an entirely conscious decision...As part of the celebrations of the 10th anniversary of the founding of Pushkin House, Dr Steiner of Cambridge gave this lecture, originally entitled 'Tolstoy and the Human Person', at the Pushkin Club in Ladbroke Grove, on 24th January, 1964. Steiner, who died in February 2020, was the author of numerous works on linguistics and comparative literature, and was hugely respected as a cultural critic and essayist.This podcast episode was edited and produced for Pushkin House by Rafy Hay.

“A man becomes a beast in three weeks, given heavy labour, cold, hunger, and beatings.”Under Stalin, poet and journalist Varlam Shalamov faced fifteen years of brutal enforced labour in the gold and coal mines of Kolyma. These years formed the basis of his life's work, Kolyma Tales, a monumental collection of short stories that took him nearly twenty years to complete. While Shalamov's work is often compared to Alexander Solzhenitsyn's, Shalamov refuses to sentimentalise his harrowing experiences or engage in ideological battles. The irredeemable exists, he insists, and this new volume centres on the seemingly boundless displays of immorality he witnessed in the camps and the mines.Author and translator Donald Rayfield speaks about the second volume of his new translation of Shalamov's Kolyma Tales, Sketches of the Criminal World, in conversation with Pushkin House's Rafy Hay.This podcast episode was edited and produced for Pushkin House by Rafy Hay.

More than melting ice. How should we understand the Russian Arctic?Elena Zaytseva talks with artist Ruth Maclennan about her exhibition exploring the Russian Arctic, as a place to live in, to travel through, to project onto, to control and exploit for its natural resources, in the context of the climate emergency.This podcast episode was edited and produced for Pushkin House by Borimir Totev.Music featured in this episode: Chad Crouch - Negentropy, Sergey Cheremisinov - Gray Drops, Sergey Cheremisinov - Northern Lullaby.

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? We took to the streets of Bloomsbury to figure out what the public sees.An outdoor projection animates the exterior wall of Pushkin House on Bloomsbury Square on the opening night of Icebreaker Dreaming, a new solo exhibition by the artist Ruth Maclennan. Borimir Totev took to the streets of Bloomsbury Square for a social experiment.This podcast episode was edited and produced for Pushkin House by Borimir Totev.

What would you ask Gorbachev if you ended up in the same room?Borimir Totev talks with British documentary film-maker and anthropologist, André Singer, about his film ‘Meeting Gorbachev'. Mikhail Gorbachev, former President of the Soviet Union, sat down to discuss the talks to reduce nuclear weapons, the reunification of Germany and the dissolution of his country.This podcast episode was edited and produced for Pushkin House by Borimir Totev.Music featured in this episode: Circus Marcus - The Fifth Life, Xylo-Ziko - Phase 2.

Why did the Soviets turn against religion?Borimir Totev talks with Roland Elliott Brown, author of ‘Godless Utopia: Soviet Anti-Religious Propaganda', about the USSR's war against religion of all denominations. Drawing on the early Soviet atheist magazines Godless and Godless at the Machine, and post-war posters by Communist Party publishers, Roland presents an unsettling tour of atheist ideology in the USSR.This podcast episode was edited and produced for Pushkin House by Borimir Totev.Music featured in this episode: Chad Crouch - Headwaters Instrumental, Chad Crouch - Cove Instrumental, Chad Crouch - The Light-filtering Canopy Instrumental.

An audio guide to the 'In Paradise' exhibition by Margarita Gluzberg.Borimir Totev follows artist Margarita Gluzberg, as she navigates the Zone of her Stalker inspired exhibition.This podcast episode was edited and produced for Pushkin House by Borimir Totev.Music featured in this episode: Chad Crouch - Moonrise, Chad Crouch - Algorithms, Chad Crouch - Elipsis, Chad Crouch - Negentropy.

About the Guest: Peter Pomerantsev (Питер Померанцев) is a Soviet-born British journalist, author and TV producer. His father is the writer and broadcaster Igor Pomerantsev. He is a Visiting Senior Fellow at the Institute of Global Affairs at the London School of Economics. He specialises on propaganda and media development, and has testified on the challenges of information war to the US House Foreign Affairs Committee, US Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the UK Parliament Defense Select Committee. He writes for publications including the Financial Times, London Review of Books, Politico, Atlantic and many others. His book on Russian propaganda, Nothing is True and Everything is Possible, won the 2016 Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize, was nominated for the Samuel Johnson, Guardian First Book, Pushkin House and Gordon Burns Prizes. It is translated into over a dozen languages. His forthcoming book, THIS IS NOT PROPAGANDA, looks at developments in the 'battle for hearts and minds' across the world. Check out his upcoming August release on Amazon! https://www.amazon.com/This-Not-Propaganda-Adventures-Against/dp/1541762118/ref=sr12?keywords=peter+pomerantsev&qid=1560456750&s=gateway&sr=8-2 You can find his previous award-winning book "Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible" here: https://www.amazon.com/Nothing-True-Everything-Possible-Surreal/dp/1610396006/ref=sr11?keywords=peter+pomerantsev&qid=1560456750&s=gateway&sr=8-1 Episode recorded April 25th, 2019 at the University of Texas at Austin. CREDITS Co-Producer: Tom Rehnquist (Connect: facebook.com/thomas.rehnquist) Co-Producer: Matthew Orr (Connect: facebook.com/orrmatthew) Associate Producer: Lauren Nyquist (Connect: facebook.com/lenyquist Instagram: @nyquabbit) Associate Producer: Milena D-K (Connect: facebook.com/profile.php?id=100010939368892 Instagram: @thedistantsea and @milena.d.k) Music/Sound Design: Charlie Harper (Connect: facebook.com/charlie.harper.1485 Instagram: @charlieharpermusic www.charlieharpermusic.com) Executive Producer & Creator: Michelle Daniel (Connect: facebook.com/mdanielgeraci Instagram: @michelledaniel86) Follow The Slavic Connexion on Instagram: @slavxradio, Twitter: @SlavXRadio, and on Facebook: facebook.com/slavxradio . Special Guest: Peter Pomerantsev.

What are the Vory? A history of Russia's super mafia from its Stalin era heydays to the late Soviet period.Borimir Totev talks with Mark Galeotti, author of The Vory: Russia's Super Mafia, about Russia's super mafia.This podcast episode was edited and produced for Pushkin House by Borimir Totev.Music featured in this episode: 4bstr4ck3r - Ukrainian riddim, Anamorphic Orchestra - Signs Of Life.

How do we explain the influx of Western culture to the Soviet Union?Clem Cecil talks with Eleonory Gilburd, author of ‘To See Paris and Die: The Soviet Lives of Western Culture'. The Soviet Union was a notoriously closed society until Stalin's death in 1953. Then, in the mid-1950s, a torrent of Western novels, films, and paintings invaded Soviet streets and homes, acquiring heightened emotional significance.This podcast episode was edited and produced for Pushkin House by Borimir Totev.Music featured in this episode: Blue Dot Sessions - Softly Villainous, Blue Dot Sessions - Watercool Quiet.

1983 holds an extraordinary and largely unknown Cold War story of spies and double agents, of missiles being readied, of intelligence failures, misunderstandings and the panic of world leaders.Borimir Totev talks with Taylor Downing, author of ‘1983: The World at the Brink' about what contemporary leaders can learn from the past and how we choose to remember fear.This podcast episode was edited and produced for Pushkin House by Borimir Totev.Music featured in this episode: Tagirijus - House Of Lost Souls Atmo, Blue Dot Sessions - Curiously and Curiously.

The blast that put the world on the brink of nuclear annihilation, contaminating over half of Europe with radioactive fallout.Andrew Jack talks with Pushkin House Book Prize 2019 winning author, Serhii Plokhy, about his book ‘Chernobyl: History of a Tragedy'. Serhii explores how the authorities scrambled to understand what was occurring, while workers, engineers, firefighters and those living in the area were abandoned to their fate.This podcast episode was edited and produced for Pushkin House by Borimir Totev.Music featured in this episode: Dan Yan-Key - Elegy for Argus, Dan Yan-Key - II Adagio First Snow.

Peter Pomerantsev is a Visiting Senior Fellow at the Institute of Global Affairs at the London School of Economics, an author and TV producer. He specialises on propaganda and media development, and has testified on the challenges of information war to the US House Foreign Affairs Committee, US Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the UK Parliament Defense Select Committee. He writes for publications including the Financial Times, London Review of Books, Politico, Atlantic and many others. His book on Russian propaganda, Nothing is True and Everything is Possible, won the 2016 Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize, was nominated for the Samuel Johnson, Guardian First Book, Pushkin House and Gordon Burns Prizes. It is translated into over a dozen languages. His next book, THIS IS NOT PROPAGANDA: ADVENTURES IN THE WAR AGAINST REALITY, which looks at developments in the 'battle for hearts and minds' across the world, will debut in hardcover August 2019. http://www.lse.ac.uk/iga/people/peter-pomerantsev Thanks for listening. Recorded Live at the Glickman Conference Center at the University of Texas at Austin on April 25th, 2019. www.slavxradio.com Follow us on Twitter: @SlavXRadio Instagram: @slavxradio Facebook: /slavxradio Associate Producer: Tom Rehnquist Music: Charlie Harper www.charlieharpermusic.com Sound effects: Daniel Simion and Mike Koenig Executive Producer: Michelle Daniel Please note: The views expressed by Info Wars speakers are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of The Slavic Connexion; the Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies; or the University of Texas at Austin. Special Guest: Peter Pomerantsev.

An audio guide to the 'Mother Tongue' exhibition by Yevgeniy Fiks.Borimir Totev follows New York-based Russian artist Yevgeniy Fiks, as he explores the historical gay Russian argot. This coded language dates back to Soviet times. We reclaim and celebrate Soviet-era Russian gay argot as a unique cultural phenomenon and give a historical context to today's post-Soviet LGBT+ community, whose language partially evolved from it.This podcast episode was edited and produced for Pushkin House by Borimir Totev.

Born into a Jewish family in Moscow in 1971, Yevgeniy Fiks moved to New York in 1994. His conceptual art reacts to amnesia about the USSR in the post-Soviet space, resisting nostalgia and commodification in favour of recovering repressed histories, especially those of LGBT and Jewish people; he also looks at the relationship with the USSR and the USA before and during the Cold War, and at histories of the American left, suppressed since the McCarthy witch-hunts. In this Suite (212) Extra, Juliet talks to Yevgeniy about his exhibition Mother Tongue at London’s Pushkin House from March-May 2019, dealing with the underground slang spoken by Russian gay men in the 1970s and 80s, and his wider practice. SELECTED REFERENCES PROJECTS BY YEVGENIY FIKS (https://yevgeniyfiks.com/) Song of Russia (2005-7) Lenin for Your Library (2007) Monitoring Lenin’s Sales on Amazon.com (2007) Communist Party USA (2007) The Communist Guide to New York City (2008) American Cold War Veterans’ Association (2009) A Gift to Birobidzhan (2009) Homosexuality is Stalin’s Atom Bomb to Destroy America (2012) Landscapes of the Jewish Autonomous Region (2012-16) Monument to Cold War Victory (2012-14) Anatoly (2014) Sovetish Kosmos, Yiddish Cosmos (2016) Soviet Moscow’s Yiddish-Gay Dictionary (2016) In Edenia, A City of the Future (2017) Mother Tongue (2018) Guy Burgess FRIEDRICH ENGELS, The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State (1884) – https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1884/origin-family/index.htm Gay Laboratory Masha Gessen Kama Ginkas – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kama_Ginkas Zinaida Gippius – https://www.rbth.com/literature/2014/11/20/a_life_unshackled_remembering_the_symbolist_poet_zinaida_gippius_41541.html Harry Hay – https://www.jacobinmag.com/2017/04/harry-hay-communist-mattachine-society-lgbtq DAN HEALEY, Homosexual Desire in Revolutionary Russia (2001) – https://www.history.ac.uk/reviews/review/307 Magnus Hirschfeld – https://minorliteratures.com/2018/05/17/berlins-third-sex Langston Hughes Nikita Kadan – http://nikitakadan.com Yevgeni Kharitonov – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yevgeny_Kharitonov_(poet) Vladimir Koslovsky – https://www.academia.edu/2074803/Between_lavender_and_light_blue_Negotiating_transnational_and_local_gay_identities_in_Russian MIKHAIL KUZMIN, Wings (1906) – http://chromajournal.blogspot.com/2007/09/review-wings-by-mikhail-kuzmin.html V. I. LENIN, Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism (1916) – https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1916/imp-hsc/index.htm Georgy Mamedov - https://soundcloud.com/suite-212/against-simple-answers-art-sexuality-and-society-in-kyrgyzstan Vladislav Mamyshev Monroe – https://www.calvertjournal.com/articles/show/2849/vlad-mamyshev-monroe-new-exhibition-marilyn Dmitri Merezhkovsky – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dmitry_Merezhkovsky Sergei Paradjanov – https://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/mar/13/sergei-paradjanov-films-gulag Queer in Space: Kollontai Communist Archive (dir. ShTAB, 2015) – http://www.frieze.info/article/juliet-jacques-school-theory-and-activisms-queer-space Rainbow Association (Moscow) Restricted Sensation (dir. Deimantas Narkevičius, 2011) – https://lux.org.uk/work/restricted-sensation Mykola Ridnyi – http://www.mykolaridnyi.com/ Paul Robeson SHEILA SAMPATH (ed.), Letters Lived: Radical Reflections, Revolutionary Paths (2013) – http://sheilasampath.ca/letters-lived-blog/2013/12/1/letters-lived-contributor-sheila-sampath Seekers of Happiness (dir. Vladimir Korsh, 1936) – https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0026119/ GENNADI TRIFONOV, ‘Letter from Prison’ (1978) – https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1986/04/10/the-case-of-gennady-trifonov/ Harry Whyte – https://www.marxist.com/letter-to-stalin-can-a-homosexual-be-in-the-communist-party.htm Aleksandr Zaremba – http://andrejkoymasky.com/liv/fam/bioz1/zaremba01.html KALMAN ZINGMAN, Edenia (1918) – https://www.calvertjournal.com/articles/show/8498/edenia-lost-yiddish-utopia-ukraine-afterlife-modern-day-kharkiv

When an old cassette tape has the power to change your whole future.Borimir Totev talks with artist Laura Footes, who was diagnosed with Crohn's disease at the age of 13 and told by doctors it was unlikely that she would ever be able to travel or be in regular employment. Mikhail Bulgakov's ‘The Master and Margarita' provided an alternative fantasy world and was formative for Laura as she lay in her hospital bed.This podcast episode was edited and produced for Pushkin House by Borimir Totev.Music featured in this episode: 'Transformations II', 'Time Passing I' and 'Devil in Details' by David Hilowitz.

Don't be so quick to blame King George V. There's more to the Romanovs story.Borimir Totev talks with Helen Rappaport, author of 'The Race to Save the Romanovs: the Truth Behind the Secret Plans to Rescue Russia's Imperial Family', about the Romanov family, the assumptions, and the important anniversaries.This podcast episode was edited and produced for Pushkin House by Borimir Totev.

How to transform from an oligarch into bourgeoisie in Putin's Russia?Borimir Totev talks with Elisabeth Schimpfossl, author of 'Rich Russians: From Oligarchs to Bourgeoisie'. We figure out how Russia's former robber barons transformed into a new social class.This podcast episode was edited and produced for Pushkin House by Borimir Totev.

What were you doing whilst the Soviets secretly mapped the world?After the collapse of the Soviet Union an astonishing treasure trove came to light. Borimir Totev talks with life-long map collector and co-author of 'The Red Atlas: How the Soviet Union Secretly Mapped the World', John Davies about the hundreds of thousands of Soviets maps showing in chilling detail countries and cities throughout the world.This podcast episode was edited and produced for Pushkin House by Borimir Totev.

An audio guide to the 'Amateur Bird Watching at Passport Control' exhibition by Alina Bliumis.Borimir Totev follows Belarus-born, New-York based artist Alina Bliumis around Pushkin House, while exploring her work built around a paradox that birds, the ultimate symbol of freedom, are used on documents controlling international movement.This podcast episode was edited and produced for Pushkin House by Borimir Totev.

In this episode you will hear writer and actor Roxy Dunn talking about the poem that has been a friend to her - 'How The World Gets Bigger' by Alyson Hallett. Roxy visited us at Pushkin House in London. We are very grateful to Pushkin House for hosting The Poetry Exchange so warmly. Thank you also to poet, Alyson Hallett for kindly granting permission for us to use this poem. www.pushkinhouse.org Alyson Hallett's website: www.thestonelibrary.com 'How The World Gets Bigger' is no longer in print but Alyson still holds a few copies. If you would like to buy a copy, you can contact her directly via The Stone Library website above. Roxy is in conversation with The Poetry Exchange team members Fiona Bennett and Michael Schaeffer. 'How The World Gets Bigger' is read by Fiona Bennett ***** How The World Gets Bigger by Alyson Hallett This morning there's a note pinned to your door explaining why you've had to rush out and cancel our meeting. I turn back into the rain, watch it falling on tarmac, rivering in gutters, little bullets exploding. I unbutton my jacket, lift my face to the sky. This is better than crying; nowehere to be and nothing to do. I walk the christened pavement, cherry tree hung like a chandelier, the corner at the end of the road suddenly appealing, the way it turns without revealing what lies beyond. From The Stone Library (Peterloo Poets, 2007) www.thestonelibrary.com

872 days that cost of almost a million lives make the siege of Leningrad one of the longest and deadliest in modern history.Clem Cecil talks with Pushkin House Book Prize 2018 winning author, Alexis Peri, about her book ‘The War Within: Diaries From the Siege of Leningrad'. Alexis shares the tragic story of how citizens struggled to make sense of a world collapsing around them. We explore how residents recorded in intimate detail the toll taken on minds and bodies by starvation, bombardment, and disease. For many, diary writing became instrumental to survival.This podcast episode was edited and produced for Pushkin House by Borimir Totev.

Get ready to take a leaf out of Viv Groskop's life book.Borimir Totev talks (and plays a game) with Viv Groskop, author of 'The Anna Karenina Fix: Life Lessons from Russian Literature', who offers us a number of life fixes for some of the most common and absurd scenarios. Viv has discovered the meaning of life in Russian literature. As she knows from personal experience, everything that has ever happened in life has already happened in these novels: from not being sure what to do with your life (Anna Karenina) to being in love with someone who doesn't love you back enough (A Month in the Country by Turgenev) or being socially anxious about your appearance (all of Chekhov's work).This podcast episode was edited and produced for Pushkin House by Borimir Totev.

Help! It's Eurovision and we need a doctor.Borimir Totev talks with Paul Jordan, a.k.a Dr. Eurovision, about the trends and concepts surrounding the contest. We explore the role the Eurovision Song Contest plays in terms of nation building and its wider implications concerning minority rights, freedom of expression and national identity.This podcast episode was edited and produced for Pushkin House by Borimir Totev.

An audio guide to the 'On the Eve' exhibition by Victoria Lomasko.Borimir Totev follows Victoria's metaphor of a snowy landscape, that muffles and hinders ideas and movements., exploring the meaning behind the murals in the main room of Pushkin House.This podcast episode was edited and produced for Pushkin House by Borimir Totev.

How different are the ordinary lives we take for granted when lived in Russia?Borimir Totev talks with artist and activist Victoria Lomasko who travels through the former Soviet Union to chronicle the daily lives of ordinary people rarely represented in the media. We touch on her work with marginal grassroots groups like striking truck drivers, humble housewives, protesting Muscovites, invisible and voiceless slaves of the metropolitan bourgeoisie, and the LGBT+ community.This podcast episode was edited and produced for Pushkin House by Borimir Totev.

Are we living in an Animal Farm like Orwellian present?Borimir Totev talks with ex-BBC Russian Service features editor Masha Karp about her new George Orwell biography and the parallels we can draw to our contemporary reality.This podcast episode was edited and produced for Pushkin House by Borimir Totev.

What is it like to live in the most polluted city in Russia?Borimir Totev talks with curator Anya Stonelake about the Russian city of Norilsk. The city's collective memory includes traumas that are inscribed into its expansive housing blocks, infinite mines, quarries, and factories, and a permafrost extending towards the horizon in every direction.This podcast episode was edited and produced for Pushkin House by Borimir Totev.

Unearthing stories of the construction of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow.Borimir Totev talks with Niall Hobhouse from Drawing Matter, Economist writer, Tim Abrahams, and Pushkin House Director, Clem Cecil, about architectural visualisations, realities on the ground, and a few of President Trump's tweets.This podcast episode was edited and produced for Pushkin House by Borimir Totev.

Restoring your own grandfather's building.What can we learn from the legacy of the Narkomfin building in Moscow? Clem Cecil talks with the building's chief restoration architect Alexei Ginzburg about Narkomfin, the building designed by his grandfather Moisei Ginzburg, one of the leading members of the Constructivist group. Alexei and his wife Natasha recently published in facsimile, the English translations of Moisei's books about architecture: 'Rhythm in Architecture' and 'Dwelling'.This podcast episode was edited and produced for Pushkin House by Borimir Totev.

Understanding the art of deejaying cats and vegetable puppetry.Borimir Totev talks with artist Ariadne Arendt. Ariadne moved to London from Moscow when she was 4 years old. We explore her personal experience of growing up between cultures and establishing her own sense of belonging. Her creative projects span from her gangster Russian cat deejay alter-ego to a fictional artistic movement dedicated exclusively to sandwiches, and a travelling vegetable puppet show, offering classic literature spin-offs like Anna Karrotenina, Crime and Radishment, and Eugene Onionegin.This podcast episode was edited and produced for Pushkin House by Borimir Totev.

How do women today relate to and build cultural bridges with Russia?Borimir Totev talks with three leading women about the ways in which they relate to Russia. Our conversation with Natasha Butterwick explores her tenure as owner of the online platform Russian Art and Culture. We discuss the role of women in pre-revolutionary and contemporary Russian cinema with Dr. Rachel Morley from the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, author of the book 'Performing Femininity: Woman as Performer in Russian Cinema'. Finally, we are taken on a journey to the snow covered streets of Moscow with the BAFTA award winning film and television director Margy Kinmonth, director of 'Revolution: New Art for a New World'.This podcast episode was edited and produced for Pushkin House by Borimir Totev.

Before she died in 1969, Margaret Watkins left a sealed trunk for her new neighbours. Little did they know what they were about to inherit.Borimir Totev talks with Joe Mulholland, proprietor of the Hidden Lane Gallery in Glasgow, who has championed the Margaret Watkins archive since discovering it some years after her death. Joe takes us on an exclusive walk through the classic images on display at Pushkin House, as part of the Margaret Watkins exhibition. We dive into the extraordinary story of this woman's life, work, and visit to post-revolutionary Russia.This podcast episode was edited and produced for Pushkin House by Borimir Totev.

Author Boris Akunin and broadcaster and writer Zinovy Zinik in conversation with Anne McElvoy, recorded with an audience at Pushkin House.Pushkin House has commissioned a pavilion on Bloomsbury Square in London from the architect and artist Alexander Brodsky, titled '101st km - Further and Everywhere', as part of the Bloomsbury Festival. Anne visits this with Pushkin House Director Clem Cecil.Boris Akunin is the pen name of Grigory Chkhartishvili, who was born in Georgia in 1956. An essayist, historian, playwright and translator, he is best known as the author of crime and historical fiction featuring the 19th-century detective Erast Fandorin.Zinovy Zinik is a Russian-born British novelist, essayist and short story writer whose books include The Mushroom Picker. Having lost his Russian citizenship with his emigration from the USSR in 1975, Zinik settled down in Britain in 1976.Part of Radio 3's Breaking Free: A Century of Russian CultureProducer: Torquil MacLeod.

Anne McElvoy looks at the style of the election campaign and how it's been reflected by political sketch writers with John Crace and Quentin Letts. As Common by DC Moore opens at London's National Theatre, Simon Jenkins and Jonathan Healey discuss the impact of the Enclosure Acts. New Generation Thinker Emma Butcher from the University of Hull marks 200 years since Branwell Brontë was born. The winner of this year's Pushkin House Russian Book Prize - Rosalind Blakesley - talks to Anne along with one of the judges, writer Charlotte Hobson.Rosalind Blakesley's prize-winning book is The Russian Canvas: Painting in Imperial Russia 1757-1881You can find more information about events including talks and guided walks for the Branwell Brontë anniversary at the Bronte Parsonage Museum and as part of the Bradford Lit Fest where a statue is being unveiled. https://www.bronte.org.uk/ https://www.bradfordlitfest.co.uk/ New Generation Thinkers is a scheme run by the BBC and the Arts and Humanities Research Council to find academics who can turn their ideas into radio and television. You can find more on the Free Thinking website. Producer: Torquil MacLeod

Azeri artist, Niyaz Najafov, and Elena Zaytseva, independent curator and former curator of Tretyakov Gallery and Pushkin House in conversation at Gazelli Art House on Tuesday, May 23rd. Elena Zaytseva is a curator, writer and historian of art, former curator at Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow and Pushkin House, London. She curated special projects of the Moscow Biennale of Contemporary art and exhibitions in independent art spaces in Moscow and London. She holds a PhD from Russian Academy of Art and MFA Curating from Goldsmiths. At the moment she works on an anthology ‘Cosmic Revolution: Contemporary Art Writing from Russia’, being published in October 2017. Niyaz Najafov lives and works in Paris. Inspired by other self-taught artists such as Paul Gauguin and Francis Bacon, it was only in 2003 that he began to experiment with oil paint. In a short span of time, Najafov has been touted to be the next “Francis Bacon” and has since been chosen to represent his country, Azerbaijan, at the 53 rd Venice Biennale in 2009 as well as appear in a number of shows across Europe and Russia - London, Paris, Berlin, Moscow, and Geneva.

Inspired by idealist proposals for a new way of life after the Russian Revolution, the panel interrogate the feasibility of co-living that is accessible to all, and suggest what other aspects of our everyday life could benefit from being more communal. Is there room for shared spaces in an individualistic society? Can a more communal attitude help tackle the issues of contemporary society, or does it make them more acute? Does shared responsibility lead to no responsibility? Speakers: Helen Jarvis – Reader in Social Geography at Newcastle University, whose research interests include the “social architectures” of shared space and self-governance in collaborative living arrangements. Anna Puigjaner – Co-founder of Barcelona-based MAIO studio, winner of the 2016 Wheelwright Prize for her proposal to study collective housing models across the world and their approaches to organising domestic spaces. Andy Willimott – Lecturer in Modern Russian/Soviet History at the University of Reading, author of 'Living the Revolution: Urban Communes & Soviet Socialism, 1917 – 1932'. Clem Cecil (chair) – Executive Director of Pushkin House, co-founder of the Moscow Architecture Preservation Society, Trustee of SAVE Europe’s Heritage, former director of SAVE Britain’s Heritage and SAVE Europe’s Heritage

Russian writer Dostoyevsky’s haunting classic thriller, Crime and Punishment, is celebrating its 150th birthday this year. Consumed by the idea of his own special destiny, Rashkolnikov is drawn to commit a terrible crime. In the aftermath, he is dogged by madness, guilt and a calculating detective, and a feverish cat-and-mouse game unfolds. Speaking on behalf of the novel are acclaimed Russian writer Boris Akunin and Russian scholar Dr Sarah Young who will be discussing this timeless Russian classic with the audience in the room at Pushkin House and around the world. The three extracts of the book were taken from Oliver Ready’s translation by Penguin Books. A special edition of World Book Club this month at London’s elegant Pushkin House, the UK capital’s Russian cultural hub. This month, as part of the BBC’s Love to Read Campaign, presenter Harriett Gilbert is picking her favourite novel to discuss. (Photo credit: Alexander Aksakov, Getty Images)

Anne McElvoy investigates the role of culture within historic Soviet expansionism and current Russian geopolitics. She talks to Charles Clover, author of Black Wind, White Snow: The Rise of Russia's New Nationalism about Eurasianism, an old idea with considerable traction in Putin's Russia and why bad ideas tend to win out over good ones . Historian Polly Jones, author of Myth Memory Trauma: Rethinking the Soviet past, 1953-70 and Clem Cecil, in-coming Director of Pushkin House, are in the studio to discuss the extent of Soviet interest in soft power alongside Mark Nash, curator of Red Africa and Ian Christie, co-curator of Unexpected Eisenstein, two new exhibitions in London. The continuing cultural legacy of Cold War relations between the Soviet Union and Africa is the subject of Red Africa, a season of film, art exhibition, talks and events, runs at Calvert 22 in London while at the same time Unexpected Eisenstein, a new exhibition at GRAD gallery in London, tells the story of the anglophile tendencies of a the great Soviet film-maker, Sergei Eisenstein. Eisenstein, whose epic and patriotic films Battleship Potemkin, Alexander Nevsky and Ivan the Terrible, together constitute a visual retrospective of Russian power, was himself hugely influenced by British writers from Shakespeare to Dickins. But as Anne McElvoy hears, the director went on to influence generations of British artists and film-makers, one legacy of his six-week sojourn in London in 1929. It was, as Christie explains, a trip ordered but not precisely sponsored, by Stalin. Producer: Jacqueline Smith