I’ve been interested in Alexandra Kollontai’s work for a while, and would like to do some research and write about her at some point. But at the moment I’ve got so many other projects on the go that I can’t see how I can possibly fit anything else in. So, as a statement of intent [...]
All posts in category Russia
Four short links: Alexandra Kollontai
Posted by Sarah Young on October 20, 2010
http://sarahjyoung.com/site/2010/10/20/four-short-links-alexandra-kollontai/
Chto delat? at the ICA
Chto delat? (What is to be Done?) is a collective of artists, theorists and political activists from Moscow, Petersburg and Novgorod, formed in 2003. In general I’m more au fait with their political work, via their Russian blog, where I’ve been reading intermittently about the activities and persecution (both official and unofficial) of anti-fascist, ecological and [...]
Posted by Sarah Young on October 5, 2010
http://sarahjyoung.com/site/2010/10/05/chto-delat-at-the-ica/
Vavilov and the Pavlovsk Experimental Station
My knowledge of science in Russia is pretty limited. Like most students of Russian literature, I know that Dmitry Mendeleev, of periodic table fame, was the father-in-law of the poet Alexander Blok. Shalamov, in his story Courses, tells the tale of having to pass an oral exam in Chemistry, his weakest subject, in order to [...]
Posted by Sarah Young on September 20, 2010
http://sarahjyoung.com/site/2010/09/20/vavilov-and-the-pavlovsk-experimental-station/
Four short links: old Russian photos
I’ve been interested in old photos of Russia since visiting a fabulous exhibition at the Manezh in St Petersburg in late 2004. I still have vivid memories of pictures of the elderly Tolstoy riding his horse with his beard streaming, and a fascinating set of photos of the first trams in Petersburg. My love of [...]
Posted by Sarah Young on August 26, 2010
http://sarahjyoung.com/site/2010/08/26/four-short-links-old-russian-photos/
Siberian narratives on archive.org and Google Books
While I’ve been working on my article on narratives of imprisonment and exile, I’ve come across a fair amount of digitized material on the subject. Particularly surprising was the number of works about Siberian exile published in English in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries — aside from George Kennan’s wonderful Siberia and the Exile [...]
Posted by Sarah Young on July 29, 2010
http://sarahjyoung.com/site/2010/07/29/siberian-narratives-on-archive-org-and-google-books/
Porfiry: a poor pastiche
In response to the disappointment I expressed in my review of Tom Rob Smith’s Child 44, a reader alerted me (please note: not ‘recommended’) to the existence of a series of crime novels by R. N. Morris set in 19th century St Petersburg, and featuring Porfiry Petrovich. The detective from Crime and Punishment is a [...]
Posted by Sarah Young on July 1, 2010
http://sarahjyoung.com/site/2010/07/01/porfiry-a-poor-pastiche/
Soviet jokes
The book I’ve been reading for fun over the last few days could, for once, actually be described as fun: Ben Lewis, Hammer and Tickle: A History of Communism Told Through Communist Jokes (2008). Actually, it isn’t that funny, partly because analyses of humour never are (the worst research seminar I’ve ever been to was [...]
Posted by Sarah Young on June 10, 2010
http://sarahjyoung.com/site/2010/06/10/soviet-jokes/
Imagining St Petersburg
I’ve finally got round to reading Solomon Volkov’s St Petersburg: A Cultural History (Simon & Schuster, 1995). I’ve felt a bit ashamed that I haven’t managed to read it before, but since I reached the half-way point I’ve changed my mind about how important it is, for me at least. It mainly deals with twentieth-century [...]
Posted by Sarah Young on May 20, 2010
http://sarahjyoung.com/site/2010/05/20/imagining-st-petersburg/
Four short links: Russian avant-garde
Not exactly my speciality, but it will keep a certain someone happy. 1. Architecture and the Russian Avant-Garde: a decent collection of videos on YouTube on the Russian avant-garde of the 1910s and 20s, mainly covering visual arts — Malevich, Tatlin and Rodchenko are particularly well represented. 2. Tango with Cows: really interesting site connected with [...]
Posted by Sarah Young on May 12, 2010
http://sarahjyoung.com/site/2010/05/12/four-short-links-russian-avant-garde/
Villains and Victims
I’ve just got back from a conference at the University of Nottingham, organized by Sarah Badcock in the History department, entitled ‘Villains and Victims: Justice, violence and retribution in late Imperial and early Soviet Russia.’ It was a small, workshop-style conference with a couple of dozen participants, and like many of the other people there, [...]
Posted by Sarah Young on April 8, 2010
http://sarahjyoung.com/site/2010/04/08/villains-and-victims/
@russianist
- #FF @saveUNlibrary for fighting the good fight. Closing libraries impoverishes us all
(about 3 hours ago) - RT @phoebetaplin: Is poetry always Lost in Translation? | Russia Beyond The Headlines http://t.co/1XKb1Mrx
(about 1 day ago) - RT @UCLSSEESLibrary: Online exhibition 'Bodies In Formation: Mass Gymnastics Under Communism' http://t.co/grRMXjoK via @osaarchivum #CE
(about 2 days ago) - RT @PlashingVole: My rough guide to what I'm looking for when I'm marking: http://t.co/1ksP3p5D
(about 2 days ago) - No sooner have I dispatched one set of exam scripts to the second examiner than another enormous pile lands on my desk #gradinghell
(about 2 days ago)