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Events

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. The opinions expressed in lectures are those of the individual speakers and not necessarily those of the SCRSS.

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 are normally every first Saturday of the month, but please check the calendar below.

2025 Events Diary

January 2025 July 2025
February 2025 August 2025
March 2025 September 2025
April 2025 October 2025
May 2025 November 2025
June 2025 December 2025

January 2025

Please note: there is no Saturday library opening in January 2025.

From Thursday 23 January 2025 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, suitable for more advanced-level speakers who would like to practise their conversational skills. The group is small, friendly, informal and strictly non-competitive. Each session includes one hour of free conversation, followed by one hour of reading, with a short break in between. The group reads a variety of short stories or short extracts from longer books, with suggestions welcome. The new book for this 10-week term is 'Vitya Maleyev v shkole i doma'.

There is currently availability for new members to join the class. For more information or to request a free one-evening trial, please email Christine Barnard direct on rtstrans1@gmail.com.

Fee for 10 weeks: £60.00 (discounted rate for SCRSS members: £40.00), payable in advance. Why not become an SCRSS member to join at the special discounted rate?

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February 2025

Saturday 1 February 2025, 11.00 - 16.00
Event: SCRSS Library Opening


Library opening for SCRSS members - other visitors by appointment. Access the library collections and borrow books from the Literature and Quick Loan sections. Tea and coffee available. Buy a copy of the Society's definitive history: An Unpopular Cause: A Centenary History of the Society for Cultural Relations with the USSR 1924-2024 by Jane Rosen (SCRSS, 2024, ISBN: 978-1-3999-7216-1, Paperback, 176pp, 24 colour plates, £15.00). Or order by post.

Saturday 8 February 2025, 15.30 - 16.30
Zoom Online Lecture in Russian: Tatiana Borodina on The Artist Ilya Repin (1844-1930) and the 'Penaty' Museum-Estate / Khudozhnik Il'ya Repin (1844-1930) i Muzey-usad'ba "Penaty"


Talk in Russian for SCRSS members and affiliates only - live from St Petersburg.

Ilya Repin (1844-1930) was an artist whose work is famous worldwide and includes paintings such as Barge Haulers on the Volga, Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan and Reply of the Zaporozhian Cossacks. Repin spent the last 30 years of his life at his estate 'Penaty' in the village of Repino (formerly Kuokkola) on the shores of the Gulf of Finland, and wished to be buried there. The museum-estate was opened in 1940 and the house retains the original appearance of Repin's studio, dining room, study and veranda, reflecting the owner's tastes and habits. In her illustrated talk, Tatiana Borodina will discuss Repin's life and work at 'Penaty', the museum and its history. Her presentation will include historical photographs, reproductions of Repin's works, and contemporary photographs of the museum exhibition and the surrounding park.

Full details in English and Russian available on Eventbrite.

Booking: via Eventbrite (booking closes on 6 February 2025 at 20.00). Free of charge (SCRSS members and affiliates only). Shortly 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). So do book if interested, even if you cannot attend live.

Tatiana Borodina is an art historian, Honoured Cultural Worker of the Russian Federation, and works at Ilya Repin's Museum-Estate 'Penaty', near St Petersburg.

Please note: This talk is organised by the SCRSS in partnership with the St Petersburg Association for International Co-operation, a non-governmental organisation. The speaker is a member of the St Petersburg Association and appears in a personal capacity.

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March 2025

Saturday 1 March 2025, 11.00 - 16.00
Event: SCRSS Library Opening


Library opening for SCRSS members - other visitors by appointment. Access the library collections and borrow books from the Literature and Quick Loan sections. Tea and coffee available. Buy a copy of the Society's definitive history: An Unpopular Cause: A Centenary History of the Society for Cultural Relations with the USSR 1924-2024 by Jane Rosen (SCRSS, 2024, ISBN: 978-1-3999-7216-1, Paperback, 176pp, 24 colour plates, £15.00). Or order by post.

Wednesday 12 March 2025, 19.00 - 20.00
Zoom Online Lecture: Zhanna Andrianova on Shamanism and Paganism in Russia


Ancient beliefs continue to play an important role in Russia connecting humans and nature in the 21st century. From the religion of Mari El and Slavic witchcraft to shamanism in Siberia, the spiritual traditions of Russia live through healers, shamans and storytellers, commonly known as 'the wise people'. Musical instruments like khomus, gusli, topshur and the shamanic drum are used for healing and communicating the tales of the ancestors. Mysticism and old rituals co-exist with advancements in modern science, computer technologies and spaceflight. This knowledge from the ancient times is present and passed down from generation to generation of practitioners both in the cities and the villages.

Slavic mythology continues to influence the society in Russia with common beliefs, mass celebrations of ancient holidays such as Maslenitsa, ancestry veneration, many cultural references to Baba Yaga and the spirits inhabiting both nature and the cities. Today you can find the healers and practitioners of ancient traditions through word of mouth in many villages and towns in Russia, just like in the old days. Shamanism is a major practice in Buryatiya, Altai, Yakutiya and Tuva with sacred places such as Olkhon Island on Lake Baikal. The Mari people, a Volga Finnic ethnic group, practice their rituals in the sacred groves and at home. Russia is a mystical place with a complex and fascinating culture rooted in long-standing traditions.

Booking: via Eventbrite. Normal fees apply. Booking closes on 11 March 2025 at 17.00. Shortly 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). So do book if interested, even if you cannot attend live.

Zhanna Sebast'yanovna Andrianova, known professionally as Jahna Sebastian, is a music composer, singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and philosopher, born in Moscow. She attended the Bolshoi Theatre kindergarten, played domra in the Loktev Ensemble of Russian folk music for eight years from the age of seven, and graduated from the Gnesin Russian Academy of Music in 2006. With her cultural background in traditional, classical and modern music, she launched her studio Multivizion Music in London in 2007 and Alchemist TV covering spirituality, music, art and modern society.

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April 2025

From Thursday 3 April 2025 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, suitable for more advanced-level speakers who would like to practise their conversational skills. The group is small, friendly, informal and strictly non-competitive. Each session includes one hour of free conversation, followed by one hour of reading, with a short break in between. The group reads a variety of short stories or short extracts from longer books, with suggestions welcome. The group is currently reading 'Vitya Maleyev v shkole i doma'.

There is currently availability for new members to join the class. For more information or to request a free one-evening trial, please email Christine Barnard direct on rtstrans1@gmail.com.

Fee for 10 weeks: £60.00 (discounted rate for SCRSS members: £40.00), payable in advance. Why not become an SCRSS member to join at the special discounted rate?

Saturday 5 April 2025, 11.00 - 16.00
Event: SCRSS Library Opening


Library opening for SCRSS members - other visitors by appointment. Access the library collections and borrow books from the Literature and Quick Loan sections. Tea and coffee available. Buy a copy of the Society's definitive history: An Unpopular Cause: A Centenary History of the Society for Cultural Relations with the USSR 1924-2024 by Jane Rosen (SCRSS, 2024, ISBN: 978-1-3999-7216-1, Paperback, 176pp, 24 colour plates, £15.00). Or order by post.

Tuesday 8 April 2025, 19.00 - 20.00
Zoom Online Lecture: Alexei Pavlovsky on Imaginary Cinema of the Great Patriotic War: How Do Unmade Soviet Films Show the Siege of Leningrad?


Marking the 80th Anniversary of the Allied Victory over Fascism in 1945.

Talk in English for SCRSS individual / joint members only - live from St Petersburg.

In the eighty years since the end of World War II, dozens of feature films and documentaries have been made about the Siege of Leningrad (1941-44). However, it is also true that dozens of films about this heroic and catastrophic time were planned but never made. 'Imaginary cinema' is a body of all unrealised scripts and original versions of films that were later subjected to harsh censorship during the Soviet era and which we can reconstruct today only by relying on documents stored in Russian literary and art archives. What was this unmade 'imaginary cinema' about? Why did the authors imagine such images, plots, characters? Why were these cultural fantasies banned or not in demand? Without becoming part of the active cultural memory of the 1940s-1990s, these film projects have become a vast reservoir of the unspoken about the Great Patriotic War - a truly intriguing and sometimes frankly unexpected history of Soviet culture that will surprise even experts.

Alexei Pavlovsky is an historian. He is Associate Fellow at the Center for the Study of Cultural Memory and Symbolic Politics at the European University in St Petersburg.

Booking: SCRSS individual / joint members only, free of charge. See SCRSS e-newsletters for details of how to book. Shortly after the event, a link to the online recording of this talk will be sent to all SCRSS members who book (available for up to 30 days). So do book if you are interested, even if you cannot attend live. Booking closes 19.00 on Monday 7 April.

Please note: This talk is organised by the SCRSS in partnership with the Interregional (St Petersburg) Association for International Co-operation, a non-governmental organisation. The speaker is a member of the Association and appears in a personal capacity.

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May 2025

Saturday 3 May 2025, 11.00 - 16.00
Event: SCRSS Library Opening


Library opening for SCRSS members - other visitors by appointment. Access the library collections and borrow books from the Literature and Quick Loan sections. Tea and coffee available. Buy a copy of the Society's definitive history: An Unpopular Cause: A Centenary History of the Society for Cultural Relations with the USSR 1924-2024 by Jane Rosen (SCRSS, 2024, ISBN: 978-1-3999-7216-1, Paperback, 176pp, 24 colour plates, £15.00). Or order by post.

Saturday 17 May 2025, 11.00 - 13.00
In-person / Online (Hybrid) Event: SCRSS Annual General Meeting


Hybrid participation. Either: in-person attendance at the SCRSS office. Or: Zoom online attendance for those unable to travel to the SCRSS office. SCRSS members only.

Note: SCRSS members who attend the AGM in person may stay on for the talk and film screening event that follows at 14.00 free of charge (otherwise standard fees apply).

Saturday 17 May 2025, 14.00 - 15.15
In-person Talk and Film Screening: Assiya Issemberdiyeva on 'Song of the Giant' (dir. Roshal and Stroyeva, USSR, 1942)


Marking the 80th Anniversary of the Allied Victory over Fascism in 1945.

In-person event at the SCRSS office (not streamed online).

Join us for a rare screening and discussion with film scholar Assiya Issemberdiyeva on Song of the Giant (Pesn' o velikane), a 35-minute Soviet wartime film made in 1942 as part of the anthology Brave Warriors of the Steppe (Batyry stepei). Directed by Vera Stroyeva under the supervision of Grigory Roshal, the film was produced during the evacuation of Mosfilm and Lenfilm to Almaty, amid harsh wartime conditions and growing tensions between Soviet European filmmakers and local Kazakh creatives.

Set on the frontline, the film follows a Red Army soldier, Koregen (based on real-life war hero Tolegen Toktarov), as he recounts to his comrades the legend of Tolagai, a mythical Kazakh warrior who gave his life for his people. This film-within-a-film structure intertwines folk legend with Soviet wartime narrative, mobilising Kazakh cultural heritage in the service of Soviet patriotism and socialist heroism. Written by Abdilda Tazhibaev, the film is a vivid example of wartime Sovietisation through cinema, blending national identity with ideological purpose.

Despite technical limitations and its modest scale, Song of the Giant succeeds in fusing Kazakh folklore with Soviet myth-making. Stroyeva's work was recognised with the title Honoured Artist of the Kazakh SSR in 1944.

Never previously released in the UK, this screening features newly created English subtitles. Assiya Issemberdiyeva, an expert on Soviet Central Asian and Kazakh cinema, will explore its artistic, political, and historical significance.

Booking: Tickets available on the door from 13.45. Normal fees apply. (Free entry to SCRSS members who attend the preceding AGM.)

Assiya Issemberdiyeva holds a Collaborative Doctoral Award with Queen Mary University of London and the SCRSS, funded by the London Arts and Humanities Partnership. Her PhD thesis explores the representation of Central Asia in wartime Soviet cinema. Assiya is a member of the Association of Kazakhstani Film Critics. She has contributed to Apparatus, KinoKultura, and The Calvert Journal, as well as edited volumes, including 'Gender and Kazakh Society' (Almaty, 2022) and 'Kazakh Cinema: Cultural Matrix and Trends' (Almaty, 2023).

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June 2025

Saturday 7 June 2025, 11.00 - 16.00
Event: SCRSS Library Opening


Library opening for SCRSS members - other visitors by appointment. Access the library collections and borrow books from the Literature and Quick Loan sections. Tea and coffee available. Buy a copy of the Society's definitive history: An Unpopular Cause: A Centenary History of the Society for Cultural Relations with the USSR 1924-2024 by Jane Rosen (SCRSS, 2024, ISBN: 978-1-3999-7216-1, Paperback, 176pp, 24 colour plates, £15.00). Or order by post.

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July 2025

Saturday 5 July 2025, 11.00 - 16.00
Event: SCRSS Library Opening


Library opening for SCRSS members - other visitors by appointment. Access the library collections and borrow books from the Literature and Quick Loan sections. Tea and coffee available. Buy a copy of the Society's definitive history: An Unpopular Cause: A Centenary History of the Society for Cultural Relations with the USSR 1924-2024 by Jane Rosen (SCRSS, 2024, ISBN: 978-1-3999-7216-1, Paperback, 176pp, 24 colour plates, £15.00). Or order by post.

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August 2025

Saturday 2 August 2025, 11.00 - 16.00
Event: SCRSS Library Opening


Library opening for SCRSS members - other visitors by appointment. Access the library collections and borrow books from the Literature and Quick Loan sections. Tea and coffee available. Buy a copy of the Society's definitive history: An Unpopular Cause: A Centenary History of the Society for Cultural Relations with the USSR 1924-2024 by Jane Rosen (SCRSS, 2024, ISBN: 978-1-3999-7216-1, Paperback, 176pp, 24 colour plates, £15.00). Or order by post.

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September 2025

Saturday 6 September 2025, 11.00 - 16.00
Event: SCRSS Library Opening


Library opening for SCRSS members - other visitors by appointment. Access the library collections and borrow books from the Literature and Quick Loan sections. Tea and coffee available. Buy a copy of the Society's definitive history: An Unpopular Cause: A Centenary History of the Society for Cultural Relations with the USSR 1924-2024 by Jane Rosen (SCRSS, 2024, ISBN: 978-1-3999-7216-1, Paperback, 176pp, 24 colour plates, £15.00). Or order by post.

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October 2025

Saturday 4 October 2025, 11.00 - 16.00
Event: SCRSS Library Opening


Library opening for SCRSS members - other visitors by appointment. Access the library collections and borrow books from the Literature and Quick Loan sections. Tea and coffee available. Buy a copy of the Society's definitive history: An Unpopular Cause: A Centenary History of the Society for Cultural Relations with the USSR 1924-2024 by Jane Rosen (SCRSS, 2024, ISBN: 978-1-3999-7216-1, Paperback, 176pp, 24 colour plates, £15.00). Or order by post.

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November 2025

Saturday 1 November 2025, 11.00 - 13.30
Event: SCRSS Library Opening and Centenary Exhibition


Library opening for SCRSS members - other visitors by appointment. Access the library collections and borrow books from the Literature and Quick Loan sections. Tea and coffee available. Buy a copy of the Society's definitive history: An Unpopular Cause: A Centenary History of the Society for Cultural Relations with the USSR 1924-2024 by Jane Rosen (SCRSS, 2024, ISBN: 978-1-3999-7216-1, Paperback, 176pp, 24 colour plates, £15.00). Or order by post.

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December 2025

Saturday 6 December 2025, 11.00 - 13.30
Event: SCRSS Library Opening and Centenary Exhibition


Library opening for SCRSS members - other visitors by appointment. Access the library collections and borrow books from the Literature and Quick Loan sections. Tea and coffee available. Buy a copy of the Society's definitive history: An Unpopular Cause: A Centenary History of the Society for Cultural Relations with the USSR 1924-2024 by Jane Rosen (SCRSS, 2024, ISBN: 978-1-3999-7216-1, Paperback, 176pp, 24 colour plates, £15.00). Or order by post.

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SCRSS exhibition poster - Soviet Modernist Art and Design 1917 - 1991(copyright SCRSS)
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