For such a famous visit, Peter the Great’s stay in London in 1698 seems to be surrounded by confusion and apocryphal tales (this article from the Torygraph retails its fair share of them), from the misplaced plaque that once adorned 15 Buckingham Street, several streets away from where he actually stayed on his arrival, to […]
Russians in London: Peter the Great
Posted by Sarah Young on November 23, 2010
https://sarahjyoung.com/site/2010/11/23/russians-in-london-peter-the-great/
Russians in London: Introduction
Over the next few weeks, I will be publishing a series of posts entitled ‘Russians in London’. The project came to mind when I was researching Dostoevsky and the Crystal Palace earlier this year. I started thinking about his description of Whitechapel and the Haymarket in Winter Notes on Summer Impressions, and imagined him haunting […]
Posted by Sarah Young on November 21, 2010
https://sarahjyoung.com/site/2010/11/21/russians-in-london-introduction/
Four short links: Russian icons
Continuing the theme of traditional Russian culture, icons, even though they are part of other cultures too, are among the most recognizably Russian art works (although they’re not works of art at all…). They’re also possibly the most mysterious. For me the mystery lies in the idea that they access the spiritual world whilst being entirely […]
Posted by Sarah Young on November 12, 2010
https://sarahjyoung.com/site/2010/11/12/four-short-links-russian-icons/
Four short links: Russian folk art
Like many people who’ve spent time in Russia, I’ve picked up various bits of decorative art over the years. I’ve always liked the contrast between the really beautiful side of Russian folk art, such as Palekh boxes (the picture on this one is from Ruslan and Liudmila): and its amusing and slightly vulgar side – […]
Posted by Sarah Young on November 9, 2010
https://sarahjyoung.com/site/2010/11/09/four-short-links-russian-folk-art/
Forest palaces
I recently discovered a great website by a Russian photographer, Andrei Kuzman, or Qzmn. He specializes in travel photography, the Russian wilderness, and its architecture. It’s really worth exploring the site, whether you’ve ever been to Russia and long for the birch forests (I’m a city girl but the Russian countryside definitely speaks to me), […]
Posted by Sarah Young on November 2, 2010
https://sarahjyoung.com/site/2010/11/02/forest-palaces/
Marriage in late imperial Russia
Today I went to a really great seminar given by Barbara Alpern Engel at SSEES on marriage breakdown in the reigns of Alexander III and Nicholas II. Engel is very well known as a specialist on women’s history who, among other things, has written the brilliant Mothers and Daughters: Women of the Intelligentsia in Nineteenth-Century Russia. […]
Posted by Sarah Young on October 27, 2010
https://sarahjyoung.com/site/2010/10/27/marriage-in-late-imperial-russia/
Russkii vestnik: random volumes on archive.org
This is just a hotch-potch of five volumes ranging from 1871 to 1888 that are on archive.org. It includes a couple of instalments of Leskov’s At Daggers Drawn and Dostoevsky’s Demons and, tantalizingly, there’s a notice in volume 138 advertising Brothers Karamazov starting in the new year. Otherwise I’m mainly interested in a couple of […]
Posted by Sarah Young on October 24, 2010
https://sarahjyoung.com/site/2010/10/24/russkii-vestnik-random-volumes-on-archive-org/
Four short links: Alexandra Kollontai
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 […]
Posted by Sarah Young on October 20, 2010
https://sarahjyoung.com/site/2010/10/20/four-short-links-alexandra-kollontai/
Russkii vestnik 1856
1856 saw the first volumes of Russkii vestnik appear, and as Russian culture began to emerge from the stagnation that characterized the final years of Nicholas I’s rule, the journal began with a strong set of contributors, many of whom then continued to appear in the journal for many years. Literary works include Ostrovsky’s play […]
Posted by Sarah Young on October 17, 2010
https://sarahjyoung.com/site/2010/10/17/russkii-vestnik-1856/
Russkii vestnik 1857
The 1857 volumes feature poetry by the usual suspects, Maikov, Fet, Tiutchev, and A. K. Tolstoy, all of whom obviously formed an early and lasting attachment to the journal. Prose is represented in works by Pechersky, Petrichenko and Evgeniia Tur, as well as a number of stories by Shchedrin. Tur also contributes an essay on […]
Posted by Sarah Young on October 10, 2010
https://sarahjyoung.com/site/2010/10/10/russkii-vestnik-1857/