This year, Russia will become the main participant in the international literary event in the UK. Some 50 Russian writers, poets, and literary critics, along with about 70 publishers, will take part in the Russian program at the annual London Book Fair in April."This is very symbolic, that in the 40th year of the London Book Fair, Russia has become its central party," says the head of the event, Alister Bertenshou.

A firm believer that architects should be gardeners not morticians enshrouding a city in cement, David Sarkisyan, Director of the Shchusev Museum of Architecture in Moscow, has been featured in the new issue of the Russia Now supplement to the Daily Telegraph, published today. Under David Sarkisyan's administration, the Shchusev museum became the centre of Moscow’s architectural and artistic life and now his old office is a memorial of his life's work.

The International Lounge at the Moscow International Book Fair is a space where the Russian publishing world can form links with the international book industry. Alongside the extensive programme of seminars and roundtables, it is a place for networking and deals, as well as being an information centre on international collaboration. The International Lounge is organised by Academia Rossica with the support from the Federal Agency for Press and Mass Communication and the Moscow International Book Fair. The programme of seminars and presentations is focused on the preparation for Russia Market Focus at the London Book Fair 2011.

19-21 June
London Review Bookshop
One of our aims has been to place the translator centre stage (the programme features works translated from Arabic, Chinese, Croatian, French and Russian) and we are fortunate that this year’s winning translator of the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, Anne McLean, is taking part in the panel discussion with three other eminent translators: her English language edition of Evelio Rosero’s The Armies was launched at the bookshop last October.

26 May
Moscow
On the 26th of May, the names of the writers shortlisted for the 'Big Book' literary prize were announced. 13 authors have been shortlisted. Two of the shortlisted books were entered into the competition as manuscripts: Mariam Petrosyan's 'The House Where'and Andrei Baldin's 'The Extension of the Full Stop'.

Alexander Arkhangelsky was born in Moscow in 1962. He graduated in pedagogy and wrote a dissertation about Pushkin. At different times he has been a radio-journalist, written for literary journals and political newspapers, and has taught.

Leicester Square Theatre
9 & 16 March
£12/£10
‘A Sense of Delicacy’, one of Chekhov’s best comic stories, comes to the London stage, performed by the Romanian actor Mihai Arsene. Actor Mihai Arsene was born in Pitesti, Romania. He studied Performing Arts at the University of Craiova, where he graduated in 2001. Just before graduation, he was awarded The Best Actor Award for the role Mr. Bogoiu in "The Holiday Game" by Mihail Sebastian, which was part of the Student Actor Festival in Iasi, Romania.

by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Translated by Ignat Avsey
One World Classics, 2008, pp. 391
Oscar Wilde claimed that Humiliated and Insulted is not "at all inferior to the other great masterpieces" and Friedrich Nietzsche is said to have wept over it. Its construction is that of an intricate detective novel, and the reader is plunged into a world of moral degradation, childhood trauma and, above all, unrequited love and irreconcilable relationships.

by Various
Translated by Oleg Burkov, Larissa Fomenko, Andrei Konstantinov, Nika Skandiaka, Lika Sokolovskaya and Vitaliy Eyber
Smokestack Books; 2007; pp.83
This anthology brings together, for the first time in English, a selection of contemporary poetry from Novosibirsk, Siberia's largest city and the exact geographical centre of Russia. Writing about their extraordinary country, they have adapted Russian literary traditions to its exceptional conditions.

Martin Dewhirst has lectured on Russian language and literature at the University of Glasgow since 1964. He is particularly interested in twentieth century Russian literature and has compiled many bibliographies on the subject for The Year's Work in Modern Language Studies. He has worked periodically on the Samizdat staff of Radio Liberty in Munich and is also a specialist on Soviet censorship and archives.

Artistic Director, BFI Southbank
Eddie is also contributing to the BFI's vision to develop a purpose-built international centre for film and moving image culture in London for 2012.

Artistic Director of BFI Southbank
Eddie is also contributing to the BFI's vision to develop a purpose-built international centre for film and moving image culture in London for 2012.

Now - 31 August 2008
Modern Art Oxford Gallery
Entry Free

Now - July 18 2008
RS&A Ltd. Gallery, London
Entry Free

Moscow art collecive of four, AES+F, presents video installation and porcelain work in their first solo exhibition in the UK. 'First Riot' brought new prominence to their already illustrious careers, when it met with sensational success at the Venice Biennale in 2007...

Norman Stone has been described as ‘a legendary teacher’ when he was professor of modern history at Oxford University. Always controversial and never dull, his outspoken views on many aspects of European and Russian history are always thought-provoking and guaranteed to stimulate fierce debate. He is the prize-winning author of books on the First World War and Hitler. He was professor of modern history at Oxford from 1984 to 1995, from where he moved to take up the post of director of the Russian-Turkish Centre at Bilkent University, Ankara. For the last ten years he has divided his time between Oxford and Turkey, and he believes that living abroad there has given him a new perspective on Europe, and particularly on Russia, about which he has said, ‘When you realise that Tatar-Turkey dimension, you understand the thing an awful lot better.’ It is a privilege to have Professor Norman Stone as a guest at our Russian Language and Literature Week and audiences will not fail to be stimulated by his erudition and originality of thought.

Moscow – The Third Rome,
Stalin’s Capital, Global City
This issue focuses on Russia’s capital city as myth, as physical history, and as the future.

Moscow – The Third Rome,
Stalin’s Capital, Global City
This issue focuses on Russia’s capital city as myth, as physical history, and as the future.

Professor of International Politics, Norman Stone has been described as ‘a legendary teacher’ when he was professor of modern history at Oxford University. Always controversial and never dull, his outspoken views on many aspects of European and Russian history are always thought-provoking and guaranteed to stimulate fierce debate. He is the prize-winning author of books on the First World War and Hitler. He was professor of modern history at Oxford from 1984 to 1995, from where he moved to take up the post of director of the Russian-Turkish Centre at Bilkent University, Ankara.