Follow the link below to watch the recording of this event.
https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/MrABgSkBQaNz-gwNneABqmK-ClChsfrfYHx1GZN_1-GLv9vprVL4ajZW_foh-iOU.qMBKe6Hde8ecxheM

EVERYTHING YOU WANTED TO KNOW BUT NEVER HAD THE TIME TO FIND OUT, WITH THE ACCLAIMED AUTHOR OF THE VORY AND WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT PUTIN.

Russia’s history is rich and dense, fascinating and contested, frequently questioned and as often re-invented. A country with no natural borders, no single ethnicity, no true central identity. At the crossroads of Europe and Asia, it is everyone’s ‘other’. And yet it is one of the most powerful nations on earth, with a vibrant history of war and peace, poets and revolutionaries.

Please join us as Mark Galeotti, author of A Short History of Russia, offers up a whistle-stop tour of Russia’s evolution from Rurik’s arrival on the shores of Lake Ladoga in 862 (maybe) to Vladimir Putin’s latest reinvention of the country.

As someone who has been captivated by this country and its story his whole life, and who started visiting it when he was at school and studying it when it was still the Soviet Union, Mark Galeotti was equal parts delighted and intimidated when asked to write A Short History of Russia. How to compress such a country into two hundred short pages?

In the first of two talks for Pushkin House, Mark presents a rapid, entertainingly and, he warns, shockingly superficial canter through the evolution of one of the world’s most misunderstood nations, from its mythical foundations, through the times of princes, tsars and commissars, to the emergence of Vladimir Putin.

Dr Mark Galeotti is a mix of writer, scholar, teacher and consultant. He runs the consultancy Mayak Intelligence, is an Honorary Professor at UCL School of Slavonic & East European Studies, and is also a senior associate fellow at both the Royal United Services Institute and the Institute of International Relations Prague. He read history at Robinson College, Cambridge, and took his doctorate in politics at the LSE. Mark has been Head of History at Keele University, Professor of Global Affairs at New York University, a visiting professor at Rutgers-Newark (Newark), Charles University (Prague) and MGIMO (Moscow), and a senior research fellow at the Foreign & Commonwealth Office. A prolific author, his The Vory: Russia’s super mafia (Yale, 2018) was a runner-up for the 2019 Pushkin House Book Prize, and he has since written the widely-praised We Need To Talk About Putin (Ebury, 2019) and A Short History of Russia (HarperCollins USA 2020/Ebury, 2021).

Join author Alex Christofi, author of Dostoevsky in Love, in conversation with Sophy Roberts, author of The Lost Pianos of Siberia as they discuss Russia's angsty, addicted master of psychology and philosophy.

WINTER SLAW

Serves 4

1/2 medium red cabbage
1 red onion
1 red apple
1 red pepper
2 handfuls of fermented cabbage (optional)
2 tbsp of dried sour cherries or cranberries
1 medium bunch of dill, chopped
2 tbsp of sunflower seeds, toasted
1 lemon, juiced and zested
1 tbsp of red wine vinegar
2 tbsp of fermented cabbage brine (optional)
2 pinches of Maldon salt
1 pinch of sugar
1 garlic clove, minced (optional)
1 small chilli, finely chopped (optional)

This salad requires a whole lot of fine chopping, so if you have a mandolin your task will be a lot faster and easier, albeit more dangerous to the well-being of your fingers (I speak from experience here as I type this recipe with both thumbs out of action!).

Thinly slice the cabbage, onion, apple and pepper into a large mixing bowl. Add two generous handfuls of fermented kraut and mix well together. Finely chop the cherries and the dill, and add to the bowl together with sunflower seeds.

To make the dressing mix together the zest and juice of one lemon, with red wine vinegar, fermented cabbage brine, salt and sugar. If you are using the homemade red cabbage kraut from my Salt & Time recipe, then your salad will automatically get the kick of chilli and garlic from it. If using any other kraut, then add the minced garlic and finely chopped chilli.

Pour the dressing over the salad and massage well for a few minutes to let all the flavours mingle. Keep in the fridge for a few hours before serving to get the maximum flavour! Serve in a large bowl with an extra topping of fresh dill, sour cherries and sunflower seeds.

SBITEN’

Makes a 2l jar

150ml of honey
150ml of blackcurrant or plum jam
1 tbsp of cloves
2 cinnamon sticks
1 tsp of ground ginger
1/4 tsp of ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp of chilli flakes
2l of wine, black tea or water

Combine all the ingredients in a pot. Bring to boil on a medium heat, stirring occasionally. Don’t let the liquid boil vigorously but take off heat as soon as bubbles start to appear. Let sbiten cool down to room temperature while infusing further.

Strain through a cheesecloth or a fine sieve, and consume straight away or transfer into a glass bottle and keep refrigerated. A hot cup of Sbiten can’t be beaten on a cold winter evening.

RUSSIAN DUKKAH

Serves 4-8

2 tsp of fennel seeds
2 tsp of coriander seeds
1/2 tsp of caraway seeds
2 tsp of black pepper corns
2 tsp of sunflower seeds
1 tsp of Maldon salt
100g of good quality unsalted butter
warm rye bread and fresh dill to serve

Dukkah is an Egyptian spice and nut mix widely used in Middle Eastern cuisine, and an absolute must in my pantry. Here I use a blend of seeds common in Eastern European cuisines to Russify one of my favourite condiments.

To make the dukkah toast all the seeds in batches on a pre-heated pan and roughly crush them in a pestle and mortar or using an electric coffee grinder. Make sure the blend remains very textural and does not turn into a powder. Mix all elements together.

To serve, toast the bread and cut in quarters. Smother each with a very generous amount of butter - remember it is the star of the show and not just a base ingredient. Top with a generous pinch of the dukkah and add a few springs of fresh dill.

This presentation celebrates the people and the processes behind the launch of Penguin’s Russian Classics in the mid-twentieth century, fifty years after Constance Garnett’s monopoly. By combining publishing innovation with translations written in good, modern English (by translators such as Gilbert Gardiner, David Magarshack, Elisaveta Fen, Rosemary Edmonds), Penguin brought classic Russian literature into the twentieth-century to suit a self-improving, inquisitive, post-war British reader. Dr Cathy McAteer will draw on her doctoral research of the Penguin archive to reveal some of the publishing and translation practices behind Penguin’s makeover of Russian Classics. She will explore the ways in which Penguin, the series editor E.V. Rieu, and his commissioned translators catered to this target readership, how they generated a new Anglophone appreciation for great Russian authors, and subsequently paved the way for Soviet literature in translation.

In the autumn of 1830, Alexander Pushkin had just got engaged to Natalia Goncharova and was staying at his family estate in Boldino. An epidemic of cholera broke out, and Pushkin was forced to spend the autumn and winter in isolation. During this period of separation, known as the Boldino Autumn, he wrote prodigiously, translated foreign works, and started many of the poems that would go on to bring him fame as the greatest Russian poet, and the father of Russian literature. In this online event from 9th June 2020, David Brummell introduces several of these works, which are read in English by Lucy Daniels, Antony Wood and David himself, and in Russian by Alla Gelich.