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.
Please note: dogs are not permitted on SCRSS
premises, with the exception of guide dogs.
Venue and Tickets
Most events take place at the SCRSS.
Evening events normally start at 19.00, with tea and coffee served
from 18.30.
Lecture and film tickets cost £3.00 (SCRSS members) and
£5.00 (non-members), unless otherwise stated. For all other
events, please see individual listings below. Please note:
tickets are payable by cash only on the door
(unfortunately, we are unable to accept debit or credit cards).
2020 Events Diary
January 2020
Thursday 23 January to Thursday
20 February, and Thursday 12 March to Thursday 26 March 2020,
17.45 - 19.45
Evening Class: Russian Language for Good Intermediate Level (Spring
Term 2)
This term's 8-week course is led by Christine Barnard, former
lecturer in Russian at the University of Westminster, and uses
Ruslan 3 as the textbook. Maximum 10 students.
Fees: £40.00 per term (SCRSS members), £60.00
per term (non-members). Full fee payable at start of term by cash
or cheque only.
Friday 24 January 2020, 19.00
Talk: Ed Pulford on Mirrorlands - the Russia-China Border
The Russia-China borderlands offer a unique vantage point from
which to understand the myriad peoples, places and political cataclysms
that have united and divided the world's largest countries by
territory and population respectively. With a unique past and
present as home to frontier-traversing tradespeople, cross-border
indigenous groups, local populations wrestling with ideas of 'Europe'
and 'Asia', migrants, exiles, and twenty-first century backpackers,
this juncture of worlds reveals a side to Russia-China relations
little known even to Muscovites or Beijingers.
Ed Pulford discusses his recent book Mirrorlands and
offers insight into these entangled pasts and presents. Mirrorlands
is based on a single journey through Siberia, Inner Mongolia,
the Russian Far East and Manchuria, but Ed also draws on his wider
experiences in the region. Through encounters with borderland
residents from diverse ethnic and linguistic backgrounds, we learn
much about how each old Eurasian empire has ruled its domain before,
during and since socialism, and how ordinary lives have reflected
each other across the borderline. This in turn aids us in better
understanding two countries that are as misrepresented as they
are important in today's world. Visit Hurst
Publishers' website for more information about the book.
Ed Pulford is a Cambridge-trained linguist and social anthropologist
who has spent over eight years living in the Russian Far East,
China, Korea and Japan. He now works as a postdoctoral researcher
at the University of Amsterdam.
The talk is open to both SCRSS members and non-members. Normal
entrance fees apply: SCRSS members £3.00 / non-members £5.00.
Pay cash on entry.
Monday 27 January 2020, 11.00
Event: Holocaust Memorial Day Ceremony at the Soviet War Memorial,
London
A wreath-laying ceremony takes place at 11.00 at the Soviet War
Memorial, organised by the Soviet War Memorial Trust (SWMT). This
is followed by a commemoration inside the Imperial War Museum,
organised by Southwark Council's Civic Office. Holocaust Memorial
Day marks the date of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration
and extermination camps by the Soviet Red Army on 27 January 1945.
The Soviet War Memorial
was unveiled in 1999 on the initiative of the SCRSS and the Society
has been supporting the work of the SWMT
since its foundation. The SWMT organises three main ceremonies
at the Memorial each year to mark Holocaust Memorial Day
(January); Victory Day (9 May) and Remembrance Sunday (November).
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February 2020
Saturday 1 February 2020, 11.00
- 16.00
Event: SCRSS Saturday Library Opening for Members
The Loan Library and General Reference Library will be open for
use by members without prior appointment. SCRSS Russian mugs,
de-acquired books and a selection of donated Soviet / Russian
souvenirs will be on sale. You can deal with your membership renewal
or even join the SCRSS on the spot to take advantage of access
to the SCRSS Loan Library.
SCRSS members only.
Saturday 1 February 2020, 14.00
Talk: Andrew Jameson on Why Russian is the Best Language for
Poetry
What is so special about Russian poetry? Surely the basic elements
of language are the same in all literary cultures? In this talk
Andrew Jameson discusses the various special features of Russian:
its sound system, its multiplicity of word endings, the wealth
and variety of word-building elements, and finally its freedom
of word order which make Russian a uniquely flexible medium for
the creation of poetry. The talk will be richly illustrated with
bizarre and fascinating examples, and a handout provided. A knowledge
of Russian and / or linguistics is helpful if attending this talk.
Andrew Jameson taught Russian language and culture at Portsmouth
and Lancaster universities, and organised many popular residential
courses for adults at Knuston Hall, Alston Hall, Essex, UEA and
Lancaster. His particular interests are the Russian avant-garde
in its various manifestations and the cultural history of the
Russian language. Since retirement he has often lectured in St
Petersburg, Moscow and Khabarovsk. He now works as a professional
translator.
The talk is open to both SCRSS members and non-members. Normal
entrance fees apply: SCRSS members £3.00 / non-members £5.00.
Pay cash on entry.
Friday 21 February 2020, 19.00
Talk: Jessica Sutcliffe on Helen Muspratt: Photographing the
Soviet Union in 1937
Born in 1907 in India where she spent the first seven years of
her life before her family returned to England, Helen Muspratt
was a lifelong communist, a member of the Cambridge intellectual
milieu of the 1930s, and a working mother. She was also a pioneering
photographer who worked in partnership with Lettice Ramsey to
make portraits of eminent scientists, writers and members of the
Bloomsbury group, many of whom were active in left-wing politics.
Both women were captivated by recent developments in photography,
in particular Man Ray's technique of solarisation, and rayograph
and multiple exposure techniques. Helen Muspratt was also a talented
documentary photographer. In 1937, in a visit organised by the
Society for Cultural Relations with the USSR (today's SCRSS),
she went to the Soviet Union with a group of architects, visiting
Leningrad and Moscow and then travelling down the Volga in a steamer
to Stalingrad. Her photographs of this trip are mainly of ordinary
Russians in markets, women working on collective farms and children
in creches. She later made the photographs into a filmstrip to
present at Workers Education Association classes and women’s
institutes.
Jessica Sutcliffe is Helen Muspratt's daughter and the author
of Face:
Shape and Angle: Helen Muspratt, Photographer (2016, Manchester
University Press). The book reproduces Helen's most important
photographic images, including documentary records of the Soviet
Union, and includes an accompanying memoir of her mother by Jessica.
The talk is open to both SCRSS members and non-members. Normal
entrance fees apply: SCRSS members £3.00 / non-members £5.00.
Pay cash on entry.
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March 2020
Saturday 7 March 2020, 11.00 -
16.00
Event: SCRSS Saturday Library Opening for Members
The Loan Library and General Reference Library will be open for
use by members without prior appointment. SCRSS mugs, de-acquired
books and a selection of donated Soviet / Russian souvenirs will
be on sale. You can deal with your membership renewal or even
join the SCRSS on the spot to take advantage of access to the
SCRSS Loan Library.
SCRSS members only.
Saturday 7 March 2020, 14.00
Talk: John Allan on Allied Aid to Russia in the Second World
War via the Persian Gulf - The Southern Artery
Please note: unfortunately this
talk has had to be cancelled at short notice. We apologise for any inconvenience.
While awareness of the Arctic Convoys to Northern Russia has been
growing, the Allies' wartime co-operation to get aid through to
Russia via the Persian Gulf remains relatively unknown. Aid by
this route, especially while it was being handled almost exclusively
by the Inland Water Transport Service of the Royal Engineers,
was vital to the success of the Red Army in surviving the German
invasion of 1941 and subsequently gaining the initiative after
its hard-fought victory in the Battle of Stalingrad. In his talk,
John Allan will set the local scene; describe the terrain, climate
and available resources; cover ways and means, and the contribution
of the Allied and Soviet forces; note the changes consequent on
the US entry into the war; emphasize the significance of aid via
the Gulf as compared to aid via the Arctic route and Vladivostock;
and draw conclusions. The talk will be illustrated by maps, documents
and photographs.
John Allan took a MA degree in Modern History at Oxford University.
Subsequently he worked in private practice as a solicitor in the
City of London. After retiring from his professional career, he
took a MA degree in Maritime History at the University of Greenwich,
submitting a dissertation on the subject of Allied Aid to Russia
via the Persian Gulf, 1941-45. His talk is based on his research.
The talk is open to both SCRSS members and non-members. Normal
entrance fees apply: SCRSS members £3.00 / non-members £5.00.
Pay cash on entry.
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April 2020
Saturday 4 - Sunday 5 April 2020,
10.00 - 16.30 daily
Event: SCRSS Advanced Russian Language Seminar
CANCELLED
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May 2020
Saturday 2 May 2020, 11.00 - 16.00
Event: SCRSS Saturday Library Opening for Members
CANCELLED
Saturday 9 May 2020
Event: Victory Day - SWMT Act of Remembrance at the Soviet War
Memorial, London
CANCELLED
The Soviet War Memorial
was unveiled in 1999 on the initiative of the SCRSS and the Society
has been supporting the work of the SWMT since its foundation.
The SWMT organises three main ceremonies at the Memorial each
year to mark Holocaust Memorial Day (January); Victory Day (9
May) and Remembrance Sunday (November).
Saturday 16 May 2020, 11.00 - 13.00
Event: SCRSS Annual General Meeting
PROVISIONALLY RESCHEDULED TO 24
OCTOBER 2020
Friday 29 May 2020, 19.00
Talk: Christine Lindey on Soviet and Western Representations
of Workers c 1930 to c 1970
CANCELLED (TO BE RESCHEDULED)
The stereotypical idea of Soviet depictions of workers as shiny-faced,
impossibly energetic men and women ever enthusiastic for endless
work, still prevails in the West. As does the assumption that
few Western artists tackled the subject; and that there was little
interaction between artists of the two power blocks. In her talk
Christine Lindey explains the far more complex, nuanced and changing
depictions of this subject, including the rarely discussed influences
between artists across the ideological divide.
Christine Lindey is an art historian with a particular interest
in socialist art. Art for All: British Socially Committed
from the 1930s to the Cold War (2018) is her fifth book.
Art in the Cold War: from Vladivostok to Kalamazoo (1990),
which pioneered the comparative study of Soviet and Western art,
is the most influential so far. A graduate of the Courtauld Institute,
she was formerly an Associate Lecturer at Birkbeck College and
at the University of the Arts, London. She will speak at the Oxford
Literary Festival in March 2020.
The talk is open to both SCRSS members and non-members. Normal
entrance fees apply: SCRSS members £3.00 / non-members £5.00.
Pay cash on entry.
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June 2020
Saturday 6 June 2020, 11.00 - 16.00
Event: SCRSS Saturday Library Opening for Members
CANCELLED
Monday 22 June 2020, 19.00 - 20.30
Event: Online Panel – Historical Memory and the Fight Against
Fascism
Joint SCRSS / Marx Memorial Library (MML) event. The panel will
explore the role of the Soviet Union / Communism in the fight
against Fascism in the 1930s and its defeat in the Second World
War. Seventy-five years since victory over Nazi Germany in 1945,
it will reflect on how and why this history is now under attack,
with particular reference to the resolution passed by the European
Parliament On the Importance of European Remembrance for the
Future of Europe in September 2019. Speakers: Dr Michael
Jones, historian and author of After Hitler: The Last Days
of the Second World War in Europe, Total War, Stalingrad
and other titles; Phil Katz, author of Freedom from Tyranny:
The Fight Against Fascism and the Falsification of History;
Jonathan White, MML tutor, Trade Union Official and Associate
Editor of Theory and Struggle. Meeting Chair: Meirian
Jump, MML Archivist and Library Manager. The event is free, but
please register in advance at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/online-panel-historical-memory-the-fight-against-fascism-tickets-104940337374
(and consider making a donation). Once registered, a link to join
the meeting will be sent to participants 24 hours in advance of
the event.
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July 2020
Saturday 4 July 2020, 11.00 - 16.00
Event: SCRSS Saturday Library Opening for Members
CANCELLED
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August 2020
Saturday 1 August 2020, 11.00 - 16.00
Event: SCRSS Saturday Library Opening for Members
TO BE CONFIRMED
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September 2020
Saturday 5 September 2020, 11.00 - 16.00
Event: SCRSS Saturday Library Opening for Members
TO BE CONFIRMED
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October 2020
Saturday 3 October 2020, 11.00 - 16.00
Event: SCRSS Saturday Library Opening for Members
TO BE CONFIRMED
Saturday 24 October, 11.00
Event: SCRSS Annual General Meeting
To be confirmed - the current proposal is for an online Zoom
meeting.
The AGM will discuss the Annual Report and Accounts for the Society,
as well as elect members of the SCRSS Council. The meeting provides
an excellent opportunity for members to question the Honorary
Secretary and Honorary Treasurer and other members of the SCRSS
Council, as well as discuss the events of the previous twelve
months and the future development of the Society.
The AGM is open to SCRSS members only.
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November 2020
Saturday 7 November 2020, 11.00 - 16.00
Event: SCRSS Saturday Library Opening for Members
TO BE CONFIRMED
Saturday 8 November 2020
Event: Remembrance Sunday - SWMT Act of Remembrance at the Soviet
War Memorial, London
Act of Remembrance at the Soviet War Memorial. Details to be confirmed.
The memorial is situated in Geraldine Mary Harmsworth Park, adjacent
to the Imperial War Museum, Lambeth Road, Southwark, London SE1
6HZ.
The Soviet War Memorial
was unveiled in 1999 on the initiative of the SCRSS and the Society
has been supporting the work of the SWMT since its foundation.
The SWMT organises three main ceremonies at the Memorial each
year to mark Holocaust Memorial Day (January); Victory Day (9
May) and Remembrance Sunday (November).
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December 2020
Saturday 5 December 2020, 11.00 - 16.00
Event: SCRSS Saturday Library Opening for Members
TO BE CONFIRMED
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