Reading: “The Question of Brotherhood or Relatedness, and the Reasons for the Unbrotherly, Dis-Related, or Unpeaceful State of the World, and of the Means for the Restoration of Relatedness” (from Philosophy of the Common Task) So we come to the penultimate lecture for this course, and turn our attention more fully to the question of […]
Russian thought lecture 9: Nikolai Fedorov and the utopia of the resurrected
http://sarahjyoung.com/site/2013/03/05/russian-thought-lecture-9-nikolai-fedorov-and-the-utopia-of-the-resurrected/
Top ten beards in Russian literature
I know I said I’d write another post about Mapping Petersburg, but I’m still thinking about that, so in the mean time, another top ten. But this time it is not the works, but the writers themselves, and specifically their facial adornments, that interest me. Beards, as Elif Batuman has affirmed, are hugely important to […]
http://sarahjyoung.com/site/2011/04/20/top-ten-beards-in-russian-literature/
Atamansha
According to one of my mailing lists, a poll to identify the women who best symbolize modern-day Russia has seen the top two places given to ageing lite entertainment diva and staple of celebrity gossip magazines, Alla Pugacheva (I could never see the point, even ironically – perhaps because I like music), and the arch-Putinite […]
http://sarahjyoung.com/site/2011/03/08/atamansha/
Lenin in London: A Reply to Helen Rappaport
I recently received a comment from Helen Rappaport, responding to the criticisms I made of of her book Conspirator: Lenin in Exile (New York: Perseus, 2010) in my post on Lenin in London. You can read her comments on my Contact Me page, but I have decided to reply here rather than there, as I […]
http://sarahjyoung.com/site/2011/02/27/lenin-in-london-a-reply-to-helen-rappaport/
Russians in London: Russian and Jewish radicals
In this post, the penultimate in the series, instead of focusing on a single figure, I’m going to explore one of the lines that connects Russian radicals, and in particular their agitational/publishing activities, to the work of their Russian-Jewish counterparts. Some may suggest that this stretches the definition of ‘Russians’ too far, as Jews would […]
http://sarahjyoung.com/site/2011/01/23/russians-in-london-russian-and-jewish-radicals/
Russians in London: Lenin
I’m no fan of Lenin, but he spent a good deal of time in London, so must be included in this series. I haven’t chosen this mugshot as an expression of my disapproval – it’s just that most of the photos that are available were taken after the revolution, and this one is the closest […]
http://sarahjyoung.com/site/2011/01/16/russians-in-london-lenin/
Kropotkin: an addendum
I’ve finally got round to reading Rudolf Rocker, The London Years, trans. Joseph Leftwich (Nottingham: Five Leaves; Oakland, CA: AK Press, 2005). It’s a powerful and readable book, even if the translation is a bit clunky. Among many points of interest, it contains a couple of marvellous descriptions of Kropotkin that really give a very strong […]
http://sarahjyoung.com/site/2011/01/12/kropotkin-an-addendum/
Russians in London: Turgenev
In the history of Russians in London, Ivan Turgenev (1818-1883) in many ways acts as a transitional figure, because although most of his visits were quite short (except during the Franco-Prussian war, when he decamped to England for a year), they were frequent, and span a much longer period than those of his contemporaries. He […]
http://sarahjyoung.com/site/2010/12/26/russians-in-london-turgenev/