5 –23 October
Celebrating Anton Chekhov's 150th Birthday, Caroline Blakiston performs her play at the Jermyn Street Theatre. Black Bread and Cucumber is Caroline Blakiston's acclaimed one-woman show about how she made history as the first British actress to play Chekhov in Russia, in Russian! Black Bread and Cucumber was written during 1992-3, following Caroline Blakiston’s unique experience playing Charlotta in The Cherry Orchard in Russia. She was the first English actress to play Chekhov in Russia in Russian.

We are as disappointed as you are that the ash cloud stopped our Russian authors from making it to the UK for our SLOVO festival. However, the festival has not been cancelled, merely postponed. We are working hard to bring the events to London at a later date, so keep a close eye on our website! In the meantime, Academia Rossica is delighted to support The East End Film Festival (22 April – Friday 30) in their focus on new Russian cinema.

On 19 – 25 April ACADEMIA ROSSICA will bring you SLOVO, the Russian Literature Festival that knows no boundaries. Packed with a kaleidoscope of genre-defying events, SLOVO will offer a unique insight into Russian literary culture, presenting not only the foremost contemporary Russian writers and highly opinionated public figures, such as Dmitry Bykov, Sergei Lukyanenko, Olga Slavnikova, Maria Galina and Vladimir Sharov, but also cutting edge young writers and poets from right across Russia’s eleven time zones. This year’s festival sees a particular focus on fantasy and magical realism. Lukyanenko’s 'Night Watch' series clearly comes under this genre, but ‘Living Souls’ by Dmitry Bykov,‘2017’ by Olga Slavnikova and ‘Iramifications’ by Maria Galina, all newly published in English, have also been influenced by this notable undercurrent of Russian writing. Our authors will present their new books in light of this genre, which has its roots in the 19th and 20th century literary greats, Gogol, Bulgakov, Zamyatin and Platonov, while Lev Danilkin, literary critic and ‘Afisha’ columnist will explore why Russian literature has a tendency to look at reality through a prism of the unreal. In addition to events with established authors, SLOVO will introduce Russia’s newest literary voices. Olga Slavnikova, herself an award-winning writer, is the coordinator of Russia’s prestigious Debut prize for young writers and will present six Debut prize winners at this year’s festival, including three of Russian literature’s rising stars, Polina Klyukina from Perm, Alisa Ganieva from Dagestan and Alexander Gritsenko from Astrakhan. Key to this festival is the belief that literature can act as an instrument of social and political change and can help to bring two cultures together. For this reason SLOVO will coincide with the London Book Fair, where ties between the Russian and British publishing industry have already been strengthened by naming Russia Guest of Honour and Market Focus of the London Book Fair 2011. SLOVO will continue in this spirit with unique collaborative events between Russian and British poets, as well as providing numerous opportunities for cross-cultural discussions. Indeed, as the slogan ‘WORDS IN ACTION’ may suggest, SLOVO is not just about the written word. Film also plays an important part in this year’s festival. SLOVO will hold the first ever screening of Russian underground video poetry in the UK and the London premiere of Aliona Van der Horst’s hauntingly beautiful film on poet Boris Ryzhy. SLOVO’s broad spectrum of events will be held across several venues, Waterstones Piccadilly, Waterstones Hampstead, The Calvert 22 Gallery and the Apollo cinema. Come and join us for this un-missable chance to witness literature in transition!

Tolstoy's spirit returns to ancient lands: James Meek finds the power that Count Leo Tolstoy still holds over Russia's soul beating strongly in the heart of the novelist's great great grandson - the new director of his old estate, Yasnaya Polyana

Video poetry is a new phenomena in the contemporary Russian arts scene. In today’s world, media has no limits - information is mixed together with a myriad of fast, dynamic images, and punchy sounds. Video poetry has incorporated these elements that are all around us and used them to create a new art form which has become extremely popular in Russia during the last couple of years. Leading experimental poets and film directors, including Kirill Serebrennikov and Valeria Gai Germanika, amongst others, have come together to create films based on poems read by the poets themselves. The performances are also strongly influenced by European artists of the 70s and 80s, such as Gianni Toti, Richard Kostelanetz, Arnaldo Antunes and Caterina Davinio, whose experimental work was considered arthouse and cutting edge thirty years ago, but seems to strike a chord with the world we live in today. In our culture of multi-media, the merging of poetry, music and film feels only natural. ACADEMIA ROSSICA will be premiering three programmes of video poetry at SLOVO literature festival. The three programmes will offer a unique opportunity to see the works of fifteen of the most important names in Russian video poetry, including Andrei Rodionov, Inna Kabysh and Alina Butokhnovskaya. Programme 1 & 3 will be screened at the Apollo Cinema, Piccadilly at 18.30 on 20 & 22 April. To book tickets, call 0871 220 6000 or go to www.apollocinemas.com Programme 2 includes readings from cutting edge contemporary Russian and British poets and takes place at Calvert 22 art gallery at 18.30. Attendance is by invitation only. These events are part of the SLOVO festival and organised in collaboration with Tom Chivers and Penned in the Margins. These programmes are curated by Andrei Rodionov, one of the leading contemporary Russian poets and Ekaterina Troepolskaya, who also curates the Piataya Noga video poetry festival.

The Debut Prize was instituted in 2000 by State Duma Deputy Andrei Skoch, creator of the humanitarian foundation Pokolenie (Generation). Skoch originally conceived of Pokolenie as a medical charity to help provincial Russian clinics, sick children and pensioners. The Debut, Pokolenie’s only cultural project to date, has become a prize of national renown. The Debut has a strict age limit: entrants may not be over the age of 25. Members of the Russian literary establishment were skeptical at first. They doubted that writers so young would have something to say to readers. Young writers might try their hand at poetry, they argued, but they didn’t have enough life experience to write a story or a novel. However, the Debut has shown that a person’s life experience at any age is complete in and of itself. What a person knows about the world at 20 has been forgotten by the time he is 30. What he could have written at 20 he will no longer write at 30. He will write something else. Strangely enough, most writers live without their first book: it remains in their minds, in drafts. The Debut inspires young Russian writers to complete that first book. The Debut prompts them to commit to literature their unique experience, what might be described as the shock of their first encounter with grown-up life. Not just their new existential status, but daily events. Suddenly a person is faced with bank applications, having to pay rent and buy insurance; no one will fill out the forms for him, no one will answer for him. And he suddenly feels horribly alone in the world. This sort of loneliness, like any other, has a huge creative potential. The Debut brings in the first literary harvest of the writing generation — and it does so every year. 2010 marks the first year of Debut’s international program. Funded by Pokolenie, the program aims to present the works of Debut finalists and winners to the foreign reader. Collections of these works will be translated and their authors will be sent to international book fairs and festivals. This year’s collection appears in English and Chinese. Future collections will be brought out in French, German, Italian, Spanish, Japanese, and so on. Since the number of Debut finalists and winners is only increasing, as is their level and mastery, publication of their works in English will continue.

Vladimir Grigoriev is Deputy Head of the Russian Federal Agency for the Press and Mass Communications and he is a tireless campaigner and champion of Russian literature and culture at all the world's major book fairs: he has famously said, ‘Russian literature should know no boundaries.'

3rd RUSSIAN FILM FESTIVAL 30 October – 8 November 2009 Apollo Piccadilly, London T: 0871 220 6000 Academia Rossica is proud to present 10 UK premieres of award-winning Russian films produced in. All films with English subtitles. Programme director: Andrey Plakhov, President of FIPRESCI. The festival opens on 30 October with a new adaptation of Anna Karenina by one of Russia’s most defiant film directors, Sergei Soloviev. The film took 14 years to make and it is part of Soloviev’s trilogy ASSA (1987) – ASSA-2 (2009) – Anna Karenina (2009). Full programme of the Festival:

On 19 – 25 April ACADEMIA ROSSICA will bring you SLOVO, the Russian Literature Festival that knows no boundaries. Packed with a kaleidoscope of genre-defying events, SLOVO will offer a unique insight into Russian literary culture, presenting not only the foremost contemporary Russian writers and highly opinionated public figures, such as Dmitry Bykov, Sergei Lukyanenko, Olga Slavnikova, Maria Galina and Vladimir Sharov, but also cutting edge young writers and poets from right across Russia’s eleven time zones.

SLOVO Russian Literature Festival 19 - 25 April 2010 London and other UK cities Russian Literature Week is back for the third time, held in the same week as the London Book Fair. The aim is to highlight Russian writers and publishers, both in London and on an international scale. This year's SLOVO will also showcase the new generation of writers, exciting new poets and the fascinating culture scene of today's Russia.

3rd RUSSIAN FILM FESTIVAL 30 October – 8 November 2009 Apollo Piccadilly, London T: 0871 220 6000 Academia Rossica is proud to present 10 UK premieres of award-winning Russian films produced in. All films with English subtitles. Programme director: Andrey Plakhov, President of FIPRESCI. The festival opens on 30 October with a new adaptation of Anna Karenina by one of Russia’s most defiant film directors, Sergei Soloviev. The film took 14 years to make and it is part of Soloviev’s trilogy ASSA (1987) – ASSA-2 (2009) – Anna Karenina (2009). Full programme of the Festival:

Mario has published numerous poetry books and pamphlets, including: Shrapnel and Sheets, Bosco, Heavy Water, Half Life, Fearnought (poems for Southwell Workhouse), along with translations of Catullus, Sappho and Montale. Lepidoptera is a hybrid book of long poetry and short prose, while his illustrated collection The Stamina of Sheep (the unique result of an innovative public and educational arts project for Havering, the Thames and Essex) captured the Essex Book Award for Best Fiction Publication (2000-2002). Flowers of Sulphur was published in 2007. Mario is currently working on two further collections, Monte Cassino and i tulips.

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.

The Alive Book Publishers exclusively distribute books written by Evdokia Marchenko, a member of the Writers' Association. Since 1998, 320 books by Evdokia Marchenko have been published. The total circulation of the books is 5.5 million copies. The books are fascinating and unique in both content and style. During the publishing house’s existence they have taken part in 20 International Book Fairs in Moscow, Saint-Petersburg, Frankfurt and many other cities in Russia and abroad.

Mikhail Shishkin was born in 1961 and grew up in Moscow. He studied at the Moscow State Pedagogical Institute where he trained as a teacher. Following his graduation in 1982, Shishkin worked as a journalist at ‘Rovesnik’ and then, between 1985 and 1995, as a teacher of English and German. In 1995 he moved to Switzerland and he lives in Zurich to this day. Buoyed by Shishkin’s sophisticated language and phrases of unique melody, predictable comparisons have been made to that other writer of extraordinary linguistic versatility, Vladimir Nabokov. Though he understands himself as within a tradition of Russian writers in exile, for Shishkin, the question ‘to return or not to return to Russia’ simply does not exist. He asserts that ‘for a better understanding of the self one should live everywhere’.

Mikhail Shishkin was born in 1961 and grew up in Moscow. He studied at the Moscow State Pedagogical Institute where he trained as a teacher. Following his graduation in 1982, Shishkin worked as a journalist at ‘Rovesnik’ and then, between 1985 and 1995, as a teacher of English and German. In 1995 he moved to Switzerland and he lives in Zurich to this day. Buoyed by Shishkin’s sophisticated language and phrases of unique melody, predictable comparisons have been made to that other writer of extraordinary linguistic versatility, Vladimir Nabokov. Though he understands himself as within a tradition of Russian writers in exile, for Shishkin, the question ‘to return or not to return to Russia’ simply does not exist. He asserts that ‘for a better understanding of the self one should live everywhere’.

25 February, 20.00
Charlie Wright's, Old Street
£7
A trio widely regarded as the best in Russian improvised jazz. Each musician - from trumpeter Vyacheslav Gaivoronsky to bassist Vladimir Volkov to pianist Andrei Kondakov - is a virtuoso in his own right, a master of improvisation and brilliant composer.

by Vladimir Megre
Translated by John Woodsworth
The Ringing Cedars, 2008, pp. 227
"Anastasia", the first book of the Ringing Cedars Series, tells the story of entrepreneur Vladimir Megre's trade trip to the Siberian taiga in 1995, where he witnessed incredible spiritual phenomena connected with sacred 'ringing cedar' trees.

by Various
Translated by Peter Oram
Arc Publications, 2008, pp.132
An anthology of poems by the major literary figures in Russia, writing to, about, or in memory of other poets, following a tradition which started in the early years of the twentieth century and continued through the subsequent decades, more or less until the millennium.

by Viktor Shklovsky
Translated by Shushan Avagyan
Dalkey Archive Press; 2007; pp. 428
One of the greatest literary minds of the twentieth century, Viktor Shklovsky writes the critical equivalent of what Ross Chambers calls "loiterature"—writing that roams, playfully digresses, moving freely between the literary work and the world.

by Tolstoy
Translated by Andrew Bromfield
HarperCollins; 2007; pp.885
War and Peace centers broadly on Napoleon’s invasion of Russia in 1812 and follows three of the best-known characters in literature: Pierre Bezukhov, the illegitimate son of a count who is fighting for his inheritance and yearning for spiritual fulfillment; Prince Andrei Bolkonsky, who leaves behind his family to fight in the war against Napoleon; and Natasha Rostov, the beautiful young daughter of a nobleman, who intrigues both men.

Dir. Best of Times
One of the most complex and mysterious Russian filmmakers working today. Svetlana's unique cinematic style and aesthetics have been highly acclaimed at various international film festivals - Lokarno, Montreal, Rotterdam, Venice, Cannes.

27&28 September
Apollo West End
This year, the Russian Film Festival is collaborating with London’s unique venture, Open Rehearsal, to take the British public behind the scenes of contemporary Russian filmmaking. The weekend will see highly-renowned Russian filmmakers and film critics take to the stage to give UK audiences a unique insight into Russian cinema.

Lev Rubinstein is one of the most important and original Russian poets. His unique poetic and performance styles germinate from his work as a librarian when he started recording his poems on the backs of catalog cards. His work was circulated through samizdat and underground readings in the unofficial art scene of the sixties and seventies, and found wide publication only in the late 1980s. Lev Rubinstein is also a regular columnist for the independent online newspapers "Grani".

Vladimir Grigoriev is Councillor to Head of the Russian Federal Agency for the Press and Mass Communications and he is a tireless campaigner and champion of Russian literature and culture at all the world's major book fairs: he has famously said, ‘Russian literature should know no boundaries.' Born in 1958, Vladimir Grigoriev worked as an editor for the Novosti news agency from 1982 to 1990, after which he founded and headed the publishing house Vagrius. Vladimir Grigoriev has worked unflaggingly to promote and support the publication of Russian books and the protection of authorial rights during the difficult, transitional period from the old publishing protocol inherited from the former Soviet Union to the establishment of a new, market-oriented, internationally recognized modus operandi. He has been honoured with prizes in recognition of his work for services to Russian publishing and the dissemination of literature and culture not only in the Russian Federation (2001), but also in Poland (2005) and in France (2006). Grigoriev is also one of the founders of the prestigious book prize ‘Bolshaia kniga' (‘Big Book') - the second largest cash award, after the Nobel Prize. His unique insights into the increasingly buoyant and expanding market for Russian books makes him an extremely interesting and valuable speaker.

Russian Summer in London
In this issue we trace the life and career of Russian-Polish émigré artist and Art Deco icon Tamara de Lempica, and we explore the mystery of “Russianness” in 19th century Russian painting.

Russian Nights
‘Russian Nights’ Festival is the largest, most ambitious and most varied festival of Russian culture ever to be staged in London. It brings a remarkable range of music and theatre, painting and poetry, photography and architecture to the capital.

Russian Nights
‘Russian Nights’ Festival is the largest, most ambitious and most varied festival of Russian culture ever to be staged in London. It brings a remarkable range of music and theatre, painting and poetry, photography and architecture to the capital.

Russian Summer in London
In this issue we trace the life and career of Russian-Polish émigré artist and Art Deco icon Tamara de Lempica, and we explore the mystery of “Russianness” in 19th century Russian painting.

Laureate of the prestigious Andrei Bely Prize (1 rouble and a bottle of vodka), Rubinstein is an accomplished poet with a sharp eye for unusual detail. His innovative use of “found poetry” and “poems on catalogue cards” were refreshing and unique in the surge of “new literature” after the fall of Communism. He is also a keen essayist; his recent book of collected essays, “Spirits of Time”, has earned well-deserved praise from critics and readers alike.

Vladimir Grigoriev is Councillor to Head of the Russian Federal Agency for the Press and Mass Communications and he is a tireless campaigner and champion of Russian literature and culture at all the world's major book fairs: he has famously said, ‘Russian literature should know no boundaries.' Born in 1958, Vladimir Grigoriev worked as an editor for the Novosti news agency from 1982 to 1990, after which he founded and headed the publishing house Vagrius.

Maria Galina is a poet, novelist, translator, and critic. She was born in Tver, but spent her childhood in Odessa. She has a degree in marine biology. Her first publication was in Yunost (Youth) in 1991. In 2000-2001, she was a regular columnist for Literatunaya Gazeta (Literary Newspaper). She is currently a chief editor of Drugaya Storona (The Other Side), a non-commercial literature project, and a columnist for the magazine Znamya (Banner).