Over the last few months I have been working with John Levin on the pilot for a digital Russian literature project, and last week we launched the website, Mapping Petersburg: Experiments in Literary Cartography. The project aims to explore the role of Petersburg’s topography in shaping the literature for which the city is so famous, […]
All posts tagged St Petersburg
Mapping Petersburg
Posted by Sarah Young on April 6, 2011
https://sarahjyoung.com/site/2011/04/06/mapping-petersburg/
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 […]
Posted by Sarah Young on March 8, 2011
https://sarahjyoung.com/site/2011/03/08/atamansha/
Four short links: Russian oddments
1. Hermitage cats. For over 250 years – with a break during the siege when they sadly all perished – the Hermitage has been home to an army of 50 or so cats, and every year the museum holds a Cat Day in March with lots of cat-related events to celebrate the Winter Palace’s most […]
Posted by Sarah Young on February 5, 2011
https://sarahjyoung.com/site/2011/02/05/four-short-links-russian-oddments/
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: 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/
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
https://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
https://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
https://sarahjyoung.com/site/2010/08/26/four-short-links-old-russian-photos/