The SCRSS organises a regular programme of lectures,
film shows, exhibitions, seminars and other events at its premises
in London. The Society is also involved in educational and commemorative
events associated with the Soviet War Memorial in London. Events
are open to both SCRSS members and non-members, unless otherwise
stated.
Venue and Tickets
Standard ticket prices for talks are £3.00 (SCRSS members)
and £5.00 (non-members). All other events or classes are
priced as indicated. Our library openings for members are normally
every first Saturday of the month.
2023 Events Diary
January 2023
Please note: there is no Saturday library opening in January
2023.
From Thursday 19 January 2023
for 10 weeks, 18.00 - 20.00
Zoom Online Evening Class: Russian Language for Good Intermediate
Level
Rolling 10-week Zoom evening class, taught by Christine Barnard,
former lecturer in Russian at Westminster University. The group
is friendly, informal and strictly non-competitive. One hour free
conversation, one hour reading, with a short break in-between.
The current book is 'Dyadya Vanya' (Uncle Vanya) by Chekhov -
once this is finished, the class will move onto a more modern
writer. Current availability for new members to join the class
- for more information or to request a free one-session trial,
email Christine Barnard direct on rtstrans1@gmail.com.
Fee for 10 weeks: £40.00 (SCRSS members only).
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February 2023
Saturday 4 February
2023, 11.00 - 16.00
Event: SCRSS Library Opening
Library opening for SCRSS members - other visitors strictly
by appointment only. Access the library collections and borrow
books from the Literature and Quick Loan sections. Surplus book
stock is also usually available for a small donation. Tea and
coffee available. Members may attend without prior notification
- please bring your membership card.
Tuesday 21 February 2023, 19.00
Zoom Online Lecture: Andrew Jameson on Navigating Russian Conversations
and the Devices We Use
Andrew Jameson continues his series of presentations on the Russian language.
This is a updated and expanded repeat of Andrew's well-received talk originally given in
February 2022.
We don't notice the devices we use to manage our own English conversations, we use
them instinctively. But they are there, in English and in Russian. We shall look at ways of
communicating more effectively in Russian, using the devices that Russians use, rather than
using sentences awkwardly created on English models. These will include hesitation
phenomena, filler sequences, initiating, presenting, interrupting, enquiring, self-correcting
and much more. We shall also note some of the common contractions used in everyday
speech. A handout will be available to online attendees, so that you can enjoy the talk and
have a record of the material. The materials have been checked by a member of the Institute
of Russian Language in Moscow.
Booking: via Eventbrite.
Normal ticket prices apply. To view the event online,
you'll also need to have set up a free account with Eventbrite,
using the same email address you use to book the event. If you
don't have an Eventbrite account yet, you can set it up before
or after booking this event. Once booked, you'll receive a confirmation
email from Eventbrite about the events, and reminders with the
link at two days, two hours and ten minutes before the event starts.
Andrew Jameson came top of course in Russian language and radio technology at the
Joint Service Language School, and served in signals intelligence at Flugplatz Gatow in
Berlin. At Oxford he played leading roles in Russian plays and first visited Russia when
Khrushchev was in power. At Essex University he formed part of a group who produced
ground-breaking BBC Russian courses. At the same time he worked for the Nuffield-funded
Russian Language Project, requiring two long stays in Russia as a sound recordist, collecting
samples of different styles of Russian, and also set up a sound archive of Russian recordings.
Still in Russia he met prominent Russian linguists, and a number of well-known dissidents of
the time. He was able to make further recordings on his own account of Russian bards, etc,
and (most importantly) copies of readings at a Russian literary salon which included
prominent writers, including Solzhenitsyn, Akhmatova, Ginzburg and others. Next he moved
to Portsmouth Polytechnic, helped design a new degree in Russian and recruited 25 students
at the first intake, before moving to Lancaster University. During a long stay here he created
with colleague Mike Kirkwood a well-designed beginners intensive language course to
degree level, and developed interests in translation theory, Russian lexicology and
substandard Russian (slang). On taking early retirement he worked in Russian adult
education as before and also as a professional translator, and lectured on English linguistics
and English studies for periods of 1-2 months per year in universities in St Petersburg,
Moscow and Khabarovsk / Birobidzhan.
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March 2023
Saturday 4 March
2023, 11.00 - 16.00
Event: SCRSS Library Opening
Library opening for SCRSS members - other visitors strictly
by appointment only. Access the library collections and borrow
books from the Literature and Quick Loan sections. Surplus book
stock is also usually available for a small donation. Tea and
coffee available. Members may attend without prior notification
- please bring your membership card.
From Thursday 30 March 2023
for 10 weeks, 18.00 - 20.00
Zoom Online Evening Class: Russian Language for Good Intermediate
Level
Rolling 10-week Zoom evening class, taught by Christine Barnard,
former lecturer in Russian at Westminster University. The group
is friendly, informal and strictly non-competitive. One hour free
conversation, one hour reading, with a short break in-between.
The group will read a variety of short stories and short extracts
from longer books. Current availability for new members to join
the class - for more information or to request a free one-session
trial, email Christine Barnard direct on rtstrans1@gmail.com.
Fee for 10 weeks: £40.00 (SCRSS members only).
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April 2023
Saturday 1 April 2023, 11.00 - 16.00
Event: SCRSS Library Opening
Library opening for SCRSS members - other visitors strictly
by appointment only. Access the library collections and borrow
books from the Literature and Quick Loan sections. Surplus book
stock is also usually available for a small donation. Tea and
coffee available. Members may attend without prior notification - please
bring your membership card.
Tuesday 4 April 2023, 19.00
Zoom Online Lecture: Assiya Issemberdiyeva on The Wartime
Evacuation of Soviet Cinema and the National Question
In late 1941, all Soviet central film studios started evacuation
to Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. Hence virtually all
major Soviet wartime films were produced in Central Asia. Local
functionaries considered the evacuation as an opportunity to develop
national cinema/s, and to promote visibility of local culture/s,
while the Committee for Cinematography Under the Sovnarkom of
the Soviet Union resisted, with its pre-existing agendas prioritised.
Alongside wartime hardships, this created uneasiness behind the
facade of a united and harmonised production.
The Soviet press initially labelled the evacuation as a chance
to create a Soviet Hollywood in Central Asia, yet while the studios
were successful in making a number of important films during the
war (She Defends the Motherland, 1943; Rainbow,
1944; Ivan the Terrible, 1944, etc), as soon as circumstances
allowed, they hurried back.
Records at the Tashkent and Almaty archives attest to local officials'
many attempts to have local stories filmed, actors involved in
the evacuated studios, and cadres trained - but the results were
negligible. Among these are works rarely discussed in academia,
such as Dziga Vertov's Kazakh-themed film To You, Front (1942),
Yakov Protazanov's Adventures in Bukhara (1943), and
footage of Sergei Eisenstein's meeting with Kazakh intelligentsia.
While the local officials and artists hoped to contest the centralisation
of the Soviet system and its emphasis on Slavic peoples, most
scripts were turned down as film officials were reluctant to make
films on Central Asian themes. These failures suggest that, despite
the internationalist aspirations of the Soviet state, there remained
a deep-seated disregard for Central Asia as merely 'Russia's Orient'.
This talk will re-evaluate the evacuation from a Central Asian
perspective, and discuss the tensions between central and local
aspirations, briefly note the major films of the period, as well
as local-themed productions, and shed some light on 'national'
scripts and films that were either postponed or turned down.
Booking: via Eventbrite.
Normal ticket prices apply. To view the event online,
you'll also need to have set up a free account with Eventbrite,
using the same email address you use to book the event. If you
don't have an Eventbrite account yet, you can set it up before
or after booking this event. Once booked, you'll receive a confirmation
email from Eventbrite about the events, and reminders with the
link at two days, two hours and ten minutes before the event starts.
Assiya Issemberdiyeva is a PhD student in Visual Cultures at
Queen Mary University of London. She holds a fully funded Collaborative
Doctoral Award from the London Arts and Humanities Partnership,
a doctoral training program funded by the Arts and Humanities
Research Council. Her thesis, supervised by Professor Jeremy Hicks
and Dr Guy Westwell, explores the representation (and its British
reception) of Central Asian identities in wartime Soviet cinema.
Assiya studied Films (MA) at Queen Mary University of London,
and Journalism (BA, MA) at the Al-Farabi Kazakh National University.
She has written extensively on film for the Kazakhstani press,
programmed the Kazakh Film Week in London (2019, 2021), has led
a course on film language (2022, Internews), and presents a TV
show KinoScope for El Arna (Kazakhstan).
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May 2023
Saturday 6 May 2023, 11.00 - 16.00
Event: SCRSS Library Opening
Library opening for SCRSS members - other visitors strictly
by appointment only. Access the library collections and borrow
books from the Literature and Quick Loan sections. Surplus book
stock is also usually available for a small donation. Tea and
coffee available. Members may attend without prior notification
- please bring your membership card.
Saturday 13 May 2023 11.00 - 13.00
In-person Event: SCRSS Annual General Meeting
Held at the SCRSS office. SCRSS members only.
Note: the lecture by SCRSS Honorary Archivist Jane
Rosen at 14.00 (see below) is free to members who attend the AGM.
Saturday 13 May 2023, 14.00
In-person Lecture: Jane Rosen on The Co-operators, the Peacemakers
and the Enigmas: Women in the SCR
In-person talk at the SCRSS office by Jane Rosen, SCRSS Honorary
Archivist.
Women were central to the formation of the Society for Cultural
Relations Between the Peoples of the British Commonwealth and
the USSR (SCR) in 1924. Looking at the list of the Society's original
supporters, we find that thirteen of them were women. It is not
the majority, but for the time it is a significant number. The
first executive committee of the Society consisted of five women
out a total of ten members. And three of the women held the highest
offices - Chair, Vice Chair and Hon Secretary: the Co-operator,
the Peacemaker and the Enigma.
Based on her work in the SCRSS Archive and research for the preparation
of the book to mark the Society's centenary in 2024, Jane Rosen
examines the contribution of these women and others who have played
an important role in its formation, development and survival.
The talk will discuss key players, placing them in the context
of their wider work and their efforts to ensure the continuing
exchange of cultural, professional and scientific developments
between the two countries, even under the most difficult circumstances.
Booking: Via Eventbrite
or tickets available on the door. Free to SCRSS members who
attend the preceding Annual General Meeting at 11.00. Otherwise
normal ticket prices apply: £3.00 (SCRSS members), £5.00
(non-members).
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June 2023
Saturday 3 June 2023, 11.00 -
16.00
Event: SCRSS Library Opening
Library opening for SCRSS members - other visitors strictly
by appointment only. Access the library collections and borrow
books from the Literature and Quick Loan sections. Surplus book
stock is also usually available for a small donation. Tea and
coffee available. Members may attend without prior notification
- please bring your membership card.
From Thursday 22 June 2023 for 10 weeks, 18.00 - 20.00
Zoom Online Evening Class: Russian Language for Good Intermediate
Level
Rolling 10-week Zoom evening class, taught by Christine Barnard,
former lecturer in Russian at Westminster University. The group
is friendly, informal and strictly non-competitive. One hour free
conversation, one hour reading, with a short break in-between.
The group will read a variety of short stories or short extracts
from longer books, with suggestions welcome. Current text is Petya
i volk, followed by Tyotya Dyadi Fyodora.
Current availability for new members to join the class - for more
information or to request a free one-session trial, email Christine
Barnard direct on rtstrans1@gmail.com.
Fee for 10 weeks: £40.00 (SCRSS members only).
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July 2023
Saturday 1 July 2023, 11.00 - 16.00
Event: SCRSS Library Opening
Library opening for SCRSS members - other visitors strictly
by appointment only. Access the library collections and borrow
books from the Literature and Quick Loan sections. Surplus book
stock is also usually available for a small donation. Tea and
coffee available. Members may attend without prior notification - please
bring your membership card.
Back to top
August 2023
Note: There will be no first-Saturday-of-the-month
library opening in August.
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September 2023
Saturday 2 September 2023, 11.00
- 16.00
Event: SCRSS Library Opening
Library opening for SCRSS members - other visitors strictly
by appointment only. Access the library collections and borrow
books from the Literature and Quick Loan sections. Surplus book
stock is also usually available for a small donation. Tea and
coffee available. Members may attend without prior notification
- please bring your membership card.
From Thursday 7 September 2023
for 10 weeks, 18.00 - 20.00
Zoom Online Evening Class: Russian Language for Good Intermediate
Level
Rolling 10-week Zoom evening class, taught by Christine Barnard,
former lecturer in Russian at Westminster University. The group
is friendly, informal and strictly non-competitive. One hour free
conversation, one hour reading, with a short break in-between.
The group will read a variety of short stories or short extracts
from longer books, with suggestions welcome. Current text is Petya
i volk, followed by Tyotya Dyadi Fyodora.
Current availability for new members to join the class - for more
information or to request a free one-session trial, email Christine
Barnard direct on rtstrans1@gmail.com.
Fee for 10 weeks: £40.00 (SCRSS members only).
Wednesday 27 September 2023,
18.00 - 19.00
Zoom Online Talk: Sergei Abramovich on Tsifrovaya Rossiya:
kogda goroda stanut umnymi i kakie nuzhny dlya etogo tekhnologii
(Digital Russia: when will cities become smart and the technology
needed for this)
Special free event for SCRSS
members only.
A 45-minute illustrated talk in Russian, with 15 minutes of Q&A,
aimed at SCRSS members with a good understanding of spoken Russian.
The idea of creating a fully digital city has been discussed
by governments worldwide for some time, but no one has managed
to realise this to date. Technology is crucial to provide accessible
digital services in key areas of everyday life such as transport,
finance and trade, the social sphere, media and the government
sector. Sergei Abramovich is a Russia-based specialist in IT and
ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance). He will discuss when
such cities are likely to appear in Russia and what is hindering
their development, as well as highlighting a number of examples,
from Moscow and across to the Russian Far East.
Full details in Russian, including the speaker's biography, are
available on Eventbrite.
Booking: via Eventbrite.
Free event, SCRSS members only. Access to this online
event is via Eventbrite, so you'll need to have set up a free
account with Eventbrite, using the same email address you use
to book the event. Once booked, you'll receive a confirmation
email with a link to the Eventbrite page for this event, where
a launch button will become active shortly before the event start.
The SCRSS usually also sends a reminder email nearer the date
with a direct link to the Zoom meeting.
After the event, a link to the online ecording of this talk will
be sent to all members who book (available for up to 30 days).
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October 2023
Wednesday 4 October 2023, 18.00
- 19.00
Zoom Online Talk: Charlie Buxton on Civil Society in Central
Asia at a Time of Conflict
The five Central Asian republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan,
Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan formed part of the Soviet Union until
1991, when they gained their independence. Today, they receive
little coverage in the Western media and many British people would
struggle to locate them on a map. Yet Central Asia is an important
region politically, economically and strategically - bordered
by the Russian Federation to the north, the Caspian Sea to the
west, Iran and Afghanistan to the south, and China to the east.
While each country has followed its own path since 1991, regionally
they have worked together through the Commonwealth of Independent
States, and they have many similar features in political, economic
and social development.
Economically, China is the biggest investor in Central Asia today
through its global Belt and Road programme. The Russian Federation,
in contrast, retains an important political and security role,
also providing a destination for mass work migration from the
region. Western countries' influence has grown and waned over
the independence period, covering trade, business and good government
promotion, infrastructure and civil society development through
NGOs. The poorer countries in the region (Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan)
remain heavily dependent on Western funding.
The main discourse in Western political and academic circles
regarding civil society in Central Asia is about 'authoritarian
regimes' and the 'shrinking space' for NGOs. This is despite long-term
efforts to build multi-party and parliamentary systems in several
countries, the active role of NGOs and human rights groups, and
highly contested transfers of political power in Kyrgyzstan and
Kazakhstan, for example.
In his talk Charlie Buxton gives an introduction to recent events
and tendencies in Central Asian civil society generally, and Kyrgyzstan
in particular (the most open country in Central Asia in this respect)
against the background of growing international tensions, bringing
his overview up to date with the implications for Central Asia
of the USA's and its allies' withdrawal from Afghanistan and the
continuing Russia-Ukraine conflict.
Booking: via Eventbrite
(booking now open). Normal ticket prices apply. Access
to this online event is via Eventbrite, so you'll need to have
set up a free account with Eventbrite, using the same email address
you use to book the event. Once booked, you'll receive a confirmation
email with a link to the Eventbrite page for this event, where
a launch button will become active shortly before the event start.
The SCRSS usually also sends a reminder email nearer the date
with a direct link to the Zoom meeting. After the event, a link
to the online recording of this talk will be sent to all those
who book (available for up to 30 days).
Charlie Buxton has lived in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, since 2002 and
is director of Books for Development (Knigi dlya razvitiya), a
locally registered public foundation (www.books4develop.org),
set up in 2019. With degrees in Russian and Sociology of Literature,
he has worked for almost 40 years in the voluntary sector –
20 in the UK, 20 in the Former Soviet Union. From 2002-18 he was
the representative for Central Asia at the International NGO Training
& Research Centre (INTRAC), working as programme manager,
consultant and trainer with a host of different international
and local NGOs. He is the author of three books on the role of
civil society in development processes in the region, including
Ragged Trousered NGOs: Development Work under Neoliberalism
(Routledge, 2019) and Russia and Development (Zed Books,
2014).
Saturday 7 October 2023, 11.00
- 16.00
Event: SCRSS Library Opening CANCELLED
due to lack of volunteers
Wednesday 11 October 2023, 19.00
- 20.00
Zoom Online Talk: Dr James C Pearce on Soviet Memories of
Rus': Why The Soviet State Needed the Golden Ring Cities
In the late 1960s, several forces came together almost by coincidence.
Local preservation societies, artists, journalists, the Soviet
state and the population's desire to escape modernity all gave
birth to a new tourist route around Russia's ancient heartlands.
A collection of provincial cities became known overnight as the
Golden Ring. Promoted to tourists as a unique place to catch a
glimpse of a forgotten golden age, its picturesque landscapes
with gold-topped churches didn't seem a likely place for the Marxist
state to champion. Yet, since the time of Ivan III, the legitimacy
of the Muscovite state rested on the Golden Ring's legacy. What
many inside Russia and abroad associate with the Russian folk
culture originated from this region. National heroes, the autocracy
and very crucial moments from Russia's past ran through the Golden
Ring. Joseph Stalin had already tried to resurrect their memory
and reframe it within a Soviet context. But by the late Soviet
era, its churches and monasteries were falling into disrepair
and decay. The economy was getting sluggish, particularly in the
regions, and the people wanted something more than slogans. Just
like the USSR, the spiritual and cultural centres of Old Rus'
needed a renewal.
Booking: via Eventbrite
(booking now open). Normal ticket prices apply. Access
to this online event is via Eventbrite, so you'll need to have
set up a free account with Eventbrite, using the same email address
you use to book the event. Once booked, you'll receive a confirmation
email with a link to the Eventbrite page for this event, where
a launch button will become active shortly before the event start.
The SCRSS usually also sends a reminder email nearer the date
with a direct link to the Zoom meeting. After the event, a link
to the online recording of this talk will be sent to all those
who book (available for up to 30 days).
Dr James C Pearce is a cultural historian of Russia at the College
of West Anglia. Dr Pearce previously worked at the University
of Liverpool and the College of the Marshall Islands, and lived
in Russia for almost a decade. He is the author of The Use
of History in Putin’s Russia (Vernon Press, 2020),
and has written on Russian memory politics, historical narratives,
education policy and historical anniversaries. He is currently
writing a history of Russia’s Golden Ring Cities and has
written for a number of prominent outlets, including The Moscow
Times and New Eastern Europe Magazine.
Wednesday 18 October, 2023, 18.00
- 19.00
Zoom Online Talk: Professor Igor Nabok on Korennye, malochislennye
narody Severa, Sibiri i Dal'nego Vostoka Rossii - Istoriya i sovremennost'
(The Indigenous Small-Numbered Peoples of the Russian Far
North, Siberia and Far East - Past and Present)
Free event for SCRSS members
only.
A 45-minute illustrated talk in Russian, with 15 minutes of Q&A,
aimed at SCRSS members with a good understanding of spoken Russian.
Forty-three indigenous small-numbered peoples live in the Russian
North across a huge territory stretching from the Kola Peninsula
to Chukhotka, Kamchatka and Sakhalin, including the Arctic. Each
group comprises less than 50,000 people, with an overall population
of 244,000 according to the 2022 census. These indigenous peoples
live on the same land as their ancestors and have preserved a
unique and traditional way of life, based on reindeer herding,
hunting, beekeeping, fishing, gathering, and the creation of folk
handicrafts. Some of the indigenous peoples are nomadic. The talk
will include photo materials showing folk art, traditional artifacts,
and a short clip of the folk dance ensemble Severnoe siyanie
(Northern Lights).
Full details in Russian, including the speaker's biography, are
available on Eventbrite.
Booking: via Eventbrite.
Free event, SCRSS members only. Access to this online
event is via Eventbrite, so you'll need to have set up a free
account with Eventbrite, using the same email address you use
to book the event. Once booked, you'll receive a confirmation
email with a link to the Eventbrite page for this event, where
a launch button will become active shortly before the event start.
The SCRSS usually also sends a reminder email nearer the date
with a direct link to the Zoom meeting.
After the event, a link to the online recording of this talk
will be sent to all members who book (available for up to 30 days).
Back to top
November 2023
Saturday 4 November 2023, 11.00
- 16.00
Event: SCRSS Library Opening
Library opening for SCRSS members - other visitors strictly
by appointment only. Access the library collections and borrow
books from the Literature and Quick Loan sections. Surplus book
stock is also usually available for a small donation. Tea and
coffee available. Members may attend without prior notification
- please bring your membership card.
Wednesday 8 November 2023, 19.00
- 20.00
Zoom Online Talk: Colin Turbett on A People's History of the
Cold War: Stories from East and West
Colin Turbett gives an illustrated talk on his new book A
People's History of the Cold War (Pen & Sword Books,
2023). The book is an attempt to provide readers from the Western
side of the Cold War divide with an alternative narrative to that
typically found in the multiple histories found in libraries and
bookshops - often by well-known authors whose accounts are taken
for granted as impartial and factual.
Western Cold War histories start with a misleading interpretation
of events at the end of the Second World War and proceed on the
basis of Soviet intent on invasion of Europe and then the world.
This view is inevitably generous towards the aggressive actions
of the West - driven by the economic imperative of the Military
Industrial Complex rather than any quest for peace. This eventually
shaped political and economic decisions in the USSR, and resulted
in its downfall - it simply could not compete with either US military
spending, or the consumerist aspirations of its own citizens that
also flowed from the West. The book takes the reader through the
post-colonial and other military flare-ups from Korea to Afghanistan
and, although highly critical of the US and NATO, does not spare
the USSR's leadership from criticism over their failed attempts
to extend and save 'really existing socialism'. Although the book
was largely completed before the present conflict in Ukraine,
it provides some useful background to events since the end of
the Cold War.
Booking: via Eventbrite
(booking now open). Normal ticket prices apply. Access
to this online event is via Eventbrite, so you'll also need to
have set up a free account with Eventbrite, using the same email
address you use to book the event. Once booked, you'll receive
a confirmation email with a link to the Eventbrite page for this
event, where a launch button will become active shortly before
the event start. The SCRSS usually also sends a reminder email
nearer the date with a direct link to the Zoom meeting. After
the event, a link to the online recording of this talk will be
sent to all those who book (available for up to 30 days).
Colin Turbett is a long-time socialist and activist rather than
professional historian. He sees the recent past through the eyes
of an actor, basing the book on the first-hand accounts of other
ordinary actors rather than the usual narratives. Colin's new
book, with photographs providing a flavour of the post-war era
in both East and West, therefore treads a path found in his other
social histories of the period published by Pen & Sword Books
(Red Star at War: Victory at All Costs, 2020; The
Anglo-Soviet Alliance: Comrades and Allies During WW2, 2021;
Soviets in Space: The People of the USSR and the Race to the
Moon, 2021).
Saturday 11 November 2023, 14.00 - 16.00
In-Person Event: Jean Turner Memorial Event for SCRSS Members
Only
Jean Turner (1929-2023) served as Secretary, Honorary Secretary
and Honorary Treasurer of the Society from 1985 until her death
earlier this year, aged 93. She was also Honorary Secretary of
the Soviet Memorial Trust Fund (SMTF, now the Soviet War Memorial
Trust), from 1997 to 2006, continuing as a Trustee until February
2023. She was at the helm through the perestroika period
in the 1980s, as a new period of intense interest in the USSR
took hold in this country, before navigating the Society through
the resulting break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991 to reconfirm
its continuation under a new name (SCRSS). The SCRSS was instrumental
in bringing together interested parties through the SMTF to establish
the Soviet War Memorial in London in 1999, and Jean was the prime
mover in the project - from early planning and fundraising through
to the Memorial's official unveiling in 1999. And Jean's 38 years
of leadership helped ensure the Society has survived to celebrate
its Centenary next year (2024).
The afternoon event will include speakers, a small exhibition,
a memory book of condolences, drinks and buffet.
Attendance: All SCRSS members are invited.
The event is organised by the SCRSS and Jean's family.
Saturday 18 November 2023, 14.00
- 16.00
In-Person Talk and Book Launch: Kate Clark on Twilight of
the Soviet Union: Memoirs of a Moscow Correspondent
Joint event SCRSS - Marx Memorial Library: talk and book-signing,
with refreshments, held in-person at the SCRSS centre. Books can
be paid for in cash or by debit card.
Kate Clark discusses her new book Twilight of the Soviet
Union, published by Bannister Publications (2023).
Kate, her husband Ricardo and their three children arrived in
Moscow, as the new Moscow correspondent for the Morning Star,
in February 1985. Within days, the Soviet Union's elderly leader
Konstantin Chernenko died and the younger, energetic Mikhail Gorbachov
came to power.
Kate’s new book tells of the immense changes begun then,
setting in train centrifugal forces that became uncontrollable.
In six short years these led to the dissolution of the USSR.
How did it happen? Why did it happen? Was it inevitable? As a
journalist, Kate witnessed it all from beginning to end, and her
book tells the story. Alongside documenting the country's momentous
political and social changes, Kate gives a vivid picture of her
family's life in the USSR - from having three children at a Soviet
school to the frustrations of everyday life. Her travels to different
parts of the vast country, which she loves, provide a fascinating
backdrop to the book.
Booking: either pre-book via Eventbrite
or tickets available on the door. Note: the event is
in-person only at the SCRSS centre in Brixton. Normal ticket
prices apply (£3.00 SCRSS members, £5.00 non-members)..
Kate Clark studied Russian at the University of Manchester in
the early 1960s and, following two years' work as a translator,
won a scholarship from the Society for Cultural Relations with
the USSR (SCR) to study Russian at Moscow State University in
1967-68. In Moscow she met her future husband, Ricardo Figueroa,
a university lecturer from Chile. She and Ricardo lived in Chile
from 1969-74, but were forced to leave the country following the
Pinochet coup in 1973 and came to Britain in 1974. After the birth
of her children in the late 1970s, Kate taught Linguistics at
the University of Edinburgh, was a tutor at the Open University
and taught Russian at the SCR in London. From 1985-90 Kate and
her family moved to Moscow, where Kate worked as a Moscow correspondent
for the Morning Star during the Gorbachov period, while
also contributing a weekly column about the changes in the USSR
to The Scotsman from 1989-90 under the pen name Tess
Armand. Returning to the UK in 1989, Kate worked on a BBC television
series about the perestroika period, Second Russian Revolution.
She taught Russian at the Universities of Westminster and Greenwich,
and joined the BBC World Service in 1993 as the Russian Service's
Deputy Features Editor, before setting up a translation agency
in 1996. Now retired, Kate's publications include her translation
of Women in Russia (Verso, 1994) and, as author, Chile:
Reality and Prospects of Popular Unity (Lawrence & Wishart,1972)
and Chile in my Heart (Bannister Publications, 2013).
Her new book Twilight of the USSR is published in 2023.
Wednesday 29 November 2023, 19.00
- 20.00
Zoom Online Talk: Helen Mercer on James Aldridge: A Real Literary Idol of Soviet Readers
In 1984 the Society for Cultural Relations with the USSR (SCR),
together with the National Book League, organised a very successful
travelling exhibition of British Books Translated into Russian
and Other Languages of the Soviet Union. The accompanying
catalogue provided statistics on Soviet publications of translations
of British authors. James Aldridge topped the list of contemporary
novelists: his works had been published 67 times with a total
of 5,738,000 copies in 11 languages.
James Aldridge was born in Australia in 1918 and died in London
in 2015. By 1940 he had become a respected war correspondent,
covering the fighting in Finland, Greece, Egypt, the Middle East
and the Soviet Union. His first novels, on aspects of the fighting
in Greece and Crete, were published during the Second World War,
post war he focused on his novel writing.
Although his earlier novels were instant best-sellers and although
over sixty years he won several literary prizes, Aldridge was
never a well-known author in the West. This may be due to the
fact that, according to his own report, by the time he was 16
he had adopted a Marxist outlook that was to inform all his work.
Internationally his work for peaceful relations with the socialist
countries won him recognition. Seventy years ago in 1953 the World
Peace Council awarded him the Gold Medal for his 1949 novel The
Diplomat, a book espousing the cause of Iranian independence.
Fifty years ago in 1973 he received the Lenin Peace Prize for
“his outstanding struggle for the preservation of peace".
This talk will outline the tenor and message of Aldridge’s
novels and provide an insight into the basis of Aldridge’s
popularity in the Soviet Union. It will reflect on his attitude
to the USSR and his work in support of the SCR.
Booking: via Eventbrite
(booking now open). Normal ticket prices apply. Access
to this online event is via Eventbrite, so you'll need to have
set up a free account with Eventbrite, using the same email address
you use to book the event. Once booked, you'll receive a confirmation
email with a link to the Eventbrite page for this event, where
a launch button will become active shortly before the event start.
The SCRSS usually also sends a reminder email nearer the date
with a direct link to the Zoom meeting. After the event, a link
to the online recording of this talk will be sent to all those
who book (available for up to 30 days).
Helen Mercer is a retired teacher and lecturer who has published
professionally on British postwar economic history. She has been
an active member of the peace movement since the 1980s and has
a special interest in the history of the Cold War, contributing
to a critique of British textbooks' portrayal of that history.
As a campaigner for the NHS, she has contributed to research on
the effects of the Private Finance Initiative. In retirement she
writes occasional pieces for the Morning Star and online
websites and blogs. Her research into James Aldridge is a recent
interest inspired by the message of peace and anti-colonialism
in his books.
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December 2023
From Thursday 30 November 2023
for 10 weeks (with a break in January - see below), 18.00
- 20.00
Zoom Online Evening Class: Russian Language for Good Intermediate
Level
Rolling 10-week Zoom evening class, taught by Christine Barnard,
former lecturer in Russian at Westminster University. Note:
The term runs from 30 November to 21 December 2023, then breaks
until 25 January 2024 when it resumes for the remaining 6 weeks
until 29 February 2024. The group is friendly, informal and
strictly non-competitive. One hour free conversation, one hour
reading, with a short break in-between. The group will read a
variety of short stories or short extracts from longer books,
with suggestions welcome. The current text is Tyotya dyadi
Fyodora. There is availability for new members to join the
class - for more information or to request a free one-session
trial, email Christine Barnard direct on rtstrans1@gmail.com.
Fee for 10 weeks: £40.00 (SCRSS members only).
Saturday 2 December 2023, 11.00
- 14.30
Event: SCRSS Library Opening
Library opening for SCRSS members - other visitors strictly
by appointment only. Access the library collections and borrow
books from the Literature and Quick Loan sections. Surplus book
stock is also usually available for a small donation. Tea and
coffee available. Members may attend without prior notification
- please bring your membership card. Please
note: the library will close at 14.30 due to the SCRSS Centenary
Launch and Christmas Party taking place from 14.30 - 17.00 (see
below).
Saturday 2 December 2023, 14.30
- 17.00
In-Person Event: SCRSS Centenary Launch and Christmas Party for
SCRSS Members Only
Come and join us to celebrate Christmas and launch the SCRSS's
Centenary Year 2024!
Our Society was founded on 9 July 1924 as the Society for Cultural
Relations between the Peoples of the British Commonwealth and
the USSR (SCR). Next year, in July 2024, we celebrate our Centenary.
This informal afternoon event will kickstart our Centenary with
a short introduction to what's in store next year: a new history
of the SCRSS, written by our Honorary Archivist Jane Rosen; an
exhibition; and a party on 6 July 2024 - the closest Saturday
to the date of our foundation.
At today's event there will also a small exhibition, a buffet
and drinks (wine and soft drinks), and plenty of time to mingle
and chat with fellow members and SCRSS Trustees.
Attendance: This free event is for SCRSS members
(and their partners) only.
For more information on our SCR / SCRSS history, visit About
Us.
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January 2024
Please note: there is no Saturday library
opening in January 2024.
From Thursday 25 January 2024 - 29 February 2024, 18.00
- 20.00
Zoom Online Evening Class: Russian Language for Good Intermediate
Level
Rolling 10-week Zoom evening class, taught by Christine Barnard,
former lecturer in Russian at Westminster University. Note:
this is the remaining 6 weeks of the term that started on 30 November
2023, following a break. The group is friendly, informal and
strictly non-competitive. One hour free conversation, one hour
reading, with a short break in-between. The group will read a
variety of short stories or short extracts from longer books,
with suggestions welcome. The current text is Tyotya dyadi
Fyodora. There is availability for new members to join the
class - for more information or to request a free one-session
trial, email Christine Barnard direct on rtstrans1@gmail.com.
Fee for 10 weeks: £40.00 (SCRSS members only).
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February 2024
Saturday 3 February 2024, 11.00
- 16.00
Event: SCRSS Library Opening
Library opening for SCRSS members - other visitors strictly
by appointment only. Access the library collections and borrow
books from the Literature and Quick Loan sections. Surplus book
stock is also usually available for a small donation. Tea and
coffee available. Members - please bring your membership card.
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