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 […]
All posts in category Russians in London
Kropotkin: an addendum
Posted by Sarah Young on January 12, 2011
https://sarahjyoung.com/site/2011/01/12/kropotkin-an-addendum/
Russians in London: Vladimir Solov’ev
On 11 July 1875, the philosopher and poet Vladimir Solov’ev arrived in London. Having finished his studies (in natural sciences, then history and philology) at Moscow University and at the seminary at Sergiev Posad, Solov’ev was already, at the tender age of 22, teaching philosophy at Moscow University. On the advice of various friends and […]
Posted by Sarah Young on January 2, 2011
https://sarahjyoung.com/site/2011/01/02/russians-in-london-vladimir-solovev/
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 […]
Posted by Sarah Young on December 26, 2010
https://sarahjyoung.com/site/2010/12/26/russians-in-london-turgenev/
Russians in London: Dostoevsky
Dostoevsky left St Petersburg for his first trip to Europe on 7th June 1862. He spent most of his time in France and Italy, but also visited London for 8 days – his only trip to Britain – arriving on 9th July (Dryzhakov, p. 328). Like many other writers, one of his chief aims was […]
Posted by Sarah Young on December 19, 2010
https://sarahjyoung.com/site/2010/12/19/russians-in-london-dostoevsky/
Russians in London: Mikhail Bakunin
Mikhail Bakunin, anarchist and revolutionary, already had a reputation in England before his arrival in London in 1861. The story of his alleged links with the Russian state reached the press in the form of an article in the Morning Advertiser, ‘Was Bakunin a Russian Agent or Not?’ (23 August, 1853), written by the conservative […]
Posted by Sarah Young on December 12, 2010
https://sarahjyoung.com/site/2010/12/12/russians-in-london-mikhail-bakunin/
Russians in London: Lev Tolstoy
There are two sources devoted solely to Tolstoy’s two-week stay in London in March 1861, Victor Lucas’s book Tolstoy in London (1979), and A. V. Knowles’s snappily titled article, ‘Some Aspects of L. N. Tolstoy’s Visit to London in 1861: An Examination of the Evidence’ (1978). They’re very different, but share a similar and telling fault: […]
Posted by Sarah Young on December 5, 2010
https://sarahjyoung.com/site/2010/12/05/russians-in-london-lev-tolstoy/
Russians in London: Alexander Herzen, with a note on Nikolai Ogarev
When researching the history of Russians in London, Alexander Herzen presents a considerable problem. He is without doubt the most significant of all the writers and activists who visited London in the nineteenth century, not only because he settled in the capital for some years (1852-64), but also because many of his compatriots — Turgenev, […]
Posted by Sarah Young on November 28, 2010
https://sarahjyoung.com/site/2010/11/28/russians-in-london-alexander-herzen-with-a-note-on-nikolai-ogarev/
Russians in London: Peter the Great
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 […]
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/