I see Russia’s future in the brightest of hues. Admittedly, this sort of statement does not befit a dystopian writer like me, who is supposed to make dire predictions, though for some what I am going to tell you will sound as bad as an anti-utopia (while I see it as an almost ideal outcome).

I see Russia’s future in the brightest of hues. Admittedly, this sort of statement does not befit a dystopian writer like me, who is supposed to make dire predictions, though for some what I am going to tell you will sound as bad as an anti-utopia (while I see it as an almost ideal outcome).

The Beanpole Publishing House was created as a subsidiary of the famous St. Petersburg publishers ‘Signs’. They provide a broad range of publishing services and specialise in the publication of fine art albums and Russian and English catalogues of contemporary Russian orthodox icons. The Beanpole Publishing House collaborates with authors and collectors.

Defined, in many ways, by the place of his birth, German Sadulaev was born in 1973 in the small village of Shali within the Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic of Chechnya-Ingushestia. His father was a Chechen, his mother a Russian Cossack, and he had two sisters. Schooled in Grozny, Sadulaev intended to study journalism at the then Leningrad State University, but switched at the last minute to the Faculty of Law. He moved to St Petersburg in 1989, aged sixteen, and has never returned to the Caucasus. Neither his first published piece of literary prose, in 2005, ‘Одна ласточка ещё не делает весны’ (‘One Swallow doesn’t make a Summer’) nor his first novel, which appeared in 2006, ‘Радио FUCK’ (‘Radio FUCK’) made any mention of Chechen issues. All changed, however, with his second major work, ‘Я – чеченец!’ (‘I am a Chechen!), a lyrical fusion of exotic legends, stories and memories, which dealt head on with the plight of his homeland. The book was shortlisted for National Bestseller Prize. Although Sadulaev was invited to meet Putin in 2007, the novel’s impassioned outcry against the Chechen war elicited a heated response within Russia’s political and literary elite. Sadulaev writes that ‘only art has the magic power to convey the insight that all life forms in this universe are one - and that there’s no such thing as someone else’s pain’. Sadulaev describes himself as ‘the last of the classical realists’ but his two most recent novels contain fantastical elements. ‘Таблетка’ (‘the Tablet’) published in 2008 is the story of a consignment of magical pills shipped into Russia from the West. Sadulaev works as a lawyer in a Russian import firm and continues to live in St Petersburg.

26 February, 20.00
£8
Charlie Wright's, Old Street
"Mass Ave Project" is a fusion of styles, personalities, grooves and harmonies consisting of some of the best graduates and students of the world-renowned Berklee College of Music. The music played is all-original instrumental Jamiroquai meets John Scofield meets Herbie Hancock with elements of jazz and fusion.

by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Translated by Hugh Aplin
Hesperus Press, 2008, pp. 155
From one of the world's greatest prose writers, this is a remarkable psychological novel examining the duality of the human consciousness. Velchaninov, a rich and idle man undergoing a moral crisis, is confronted in St. Petersburg by Trusotsky, the loyal husband of Velchaninov’s former lover.

by Maria Galina
Translated by Amanda Love Darragh
Glas; 2008; pp. 368
The central theme of "Iramifications" is the eternal misunderstanding between East and West. Misconceptions and the notion of identity are explored on a journey from Odessa to the symbolic Oriental city of Iram, via the complexity of friendship and the blurring of borders between fantasy and reality. Tales are woven, deserts are crossed, and battles are fought. East and West are worlds apart...or are they?

by Tolstoy
Translated Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky
Vintage Classics; 2007; pp. 1215
War and Peace is one of the richest novels ever written. Tolstoy’s enthralling epic combines history and fiction in his depiction of Russia’s lengthy war with the French armies of Napoleon and its effects on the domestic lives of those caught up in the conflict.

St Petersburg – 300

14-16 April
London Book Fair, Earls Court, London
The first ever Russian stand at the London Book Fair will present books and publishing programmes of 20 leading publishers from St Petersburg and Moscow as well as a continuous 3-day programme of debates on contemporary Russian culture, politics and the future of Russo-British relations.

Hermitage Rooms in London
Art moves in mysterious ways. Works of art travel through the world, weaving it with invisible threads into one realm of culture. Seemingly random, their paths combine in strangely coherent patterns as if guided by some inner unseen Providence.

St Petersburg – 300
This special issue, with a foreword by Her Majesty The Queen, celebrates the Tercentenary of Russia’s imperial capital, known as the Venice of the North and one of the world’s most enigmatic cities – St Petersburg.

Hermitage Rooms in London
Art moves in mysterious ways. Works of art travel through the world, weaving it with invisible threads into one realm of culture. Seemingly random, their paths combine in strangely coherent patterns as if guided by some inner unseen Providence.

St Petersburg – 300
This special issue, with a foreword by Her Majesty The Queen, celebrates the Tercentenary of Russia’s imperial capital, known as the Venice of the North and one of the world’s most enigmatic cities – St Petersburg.

14-16 April
London Book Fair, Earls Court, London
The first ever Russian stand at the London Book Fair will present books and publishing programmes of 20 leading publishers from St Petersburg and Moscow as well as a continuous 3-day programme of debates on contemporary Russian culture, politics and the future of Russo-British relations.

Director of the State Russian Museum in St Petersburg since the perestroika years, cavalier of the French Legion d’Honneur award for the promotion of Russan-French cultural ties. Used to be the Chairman of St.Petersburg committee for culture under Anatoly Sobchak, at the time when other committees were headed by the future leaders of Russia, including Vladimir Putin. Ogranizer of numerous exhibitions of Russian art in Russia and overseas. Hosts a TV show about the museum.