Diaghilev fever is taking London by storm. The V&A's major exhibition 'Diaghilev and the Golden Age of the Ballets Russes, 1909-1929' reveals Diaghilev's enduring influence on 20th-century art, design and fashion. The V&A is also holding a number of other Diaghilev themed events, including 'The Music of Diaghilev with the Philharmonia Orchestra' and 'Rephrasing the Ballets Russes', in collaboration with the English National Ballet. And the perfect accompaniment to this year's season of Diaghilev events is Sjeng Scheijen's new biography of the arguably the greatest (and most controversial) impresario of all time.

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.

Saturday 19 June, 7.30pm & 10.30pm, PizzaExpress Jazz Club
A long established leading figure in Russian jazz and an internationally acclaimed pianist, Daniel Kramer will visit London to perform two live concerts exclusively for the audience of the PizzaExpress Jazz Club. The innovator of Russia's jazz scene and artistic director of no less than four jazz festivals, he lectures at Moscow State Conservatory and Central Music School while also being the Chairman of the Jazz

A historian of medieval Russia by training, Vladimir Sharov (b. 1952) is the son of a geneticist who turned to writing prose, for children and adults, in the 1960s. Sharov himself began writing fiction in the late 1970s, but it was not until the 1990s that his highly unusual historiosophical novels came before the public gaze. In so doing, they caused genuine acrimony and controversy among influential editors of the literary journals (especially Novyi mir).

A historian of medieval Russia by training, Vladimir Sharov (b. 1952) is the son of a geneticist who turned to writing prose, for children and adults, in the 1960s. Sharov himself began writing fiction in the late 1970s, but it was not until the 1990s that his highly unusual historiosophical novels came before the public gaze.

June 11-14
The Foundry
Genesis Cinema
From its remote beginnings eight years ago in the Siberian town of Kansk, an alternative Russian film festival is making its inaugural trip to London. The Kansk Film Festival started off as an artistic pun on ‘Cannes’ - inspired by a troupe of avant-garde Russian filmmakers who decided to put Eastern Siberia on the map.

The first day ended with an evening with Dmitry Bykov and Bridget Kendall at Waterstone’s, Piccadilly. Bykov entertained the large audience with, along with everything else, a joke. It went like this: “At birth you get a label put on your arm, after death, it’s put on your foot. If someone gets the same number both times, they win a prize – a pressure cooker.”

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.

A historian of medieval Russia by training, Vladimir Sharov (b. 1952) is the son of a geneticist who turned to writing prose, for children and adults, in the 1960s. Sharov himself began writing fiction in the late 1970s, but it was not until the 1990s that his highly unusual historiosophical novels came before the public gaze. In so doing, they caused genuine acrimony and controversy among influential editors of the literary journals (especially Novyi mir). Many were appalled both by Sharov's literary method and by his exploration through fiction of the mythological and religious substrata of Russian (and especially Revolutionary) history and thought - in particular, of its Utopian, eschatological, and messianic tendencies. Undeterred, Sharov has continued in his distinctive groove, writing, in the opinion of many critics (some of whom now consider him a ‘living classic') one and the same book: an ongoing commentary on philosophy, history, and the sacred texts. In these complex meditations, the views of the author himself remain elusive.

Filmmaker, historian
Evgeny Tsymbal is the only BAFTA-winning Russian film director. Little known to mainstream film goers, he is well respected in Russian and European artistic and intellectual circles as a documentary filmmaker, writer and film historian.

31 January and 1 February 2009
Barbican Hall
In January 2009 Barbican is delighted to present two special performances of the Soloists, Orchestra and Chorus of the Mariinsky Theatre directed by Valery Gergiev, a general director and artistic director of the Mariinsky Theatre, principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra and the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and principal guest conductor of the Metropolitan Opera.

Imperial Russian Ballet
Oranienbaum: Chinoiserie a la Russe
A la Russe: the Russian art of performance through the 18th and 19th centuries is celebrated in this issue, dedicated to Russia’s most famous ballets and to Catherine the Great’s personal Dacha – Oranienbaum.

Imperial Russian Ballet
Oranienbaum: Chinoiserie a la Russe
A la Russe: the Russian art of performance through the 18th and 19th centuries is celebrated in this issue, dedicated to Russia’s most famous ballets and to Catherine the Great’s personal Dacha – Oranienbaum.