An evening dedicated to poetry written by Russian poets who were persecuted during the Soviet era. It will include poems by poets who were imprisoned, forced into exile or executed, who perished in prison or prison-camp or who were silenced or denounced by the Soviet regime.
This event is responding to the installation in our pavilion on Bloomsbury Square, 101st km – Further Everywhere (18th October-10 November). The 101st km, a concept well known in Russia, refers to the distance that poets and others were forced to maintain from major cities, often after returning from the labour camps – a kind of internal exile and attempt by the authorities to suppress them.
The poems will include several of those which feature in the installation. These include those by Osip Mandelstam, Marina Tsvetaeva, Vladislav Khodasevich, Nikolay Zabolotsky and Daniil Kharms. Poems by less well-known poets such as Yuri Daniel and Yuri Dombrovsky will also be read.
The poems will be read in English translation, and then in Russian by three outstanding readers of Russian verse: Elena Dobson, Alla Gelich and Tatiana Schofield.
The text of both the original poems and the translations will be provided with the programme for the Evening.
The Evening will be introduced by David Brummell, a long-standing member of Pushkin Club anda former trustee of Pushkin House.
David Brummell, a graduate of Queens' College Cambridge, is a government lawyer with particular expertise in public law and constitutional law. In 2005 he was awarded the CB. He has for many years had a deep interest in all aspects of Russian culture, in particular Russian poetry. He is a long-standing member of the Pushkin Club, a former trustee of Pushkin House (2004-2013) and has recently been appointed Vice Chairman of The Great Britain-Russia Society.
Elena Dobson was born in Moscow. She graduated from Moscow Lomonosov State University in philosophy and, after completing a PhD in Economic Sociology, moved to the UK, where she taught Sociology, Politics, Soviet History and Media Studies at British universities for a number of years. Elena left academia to study for a degree in Communications, Advertising and Marketing and for 10 years worked in Public Relations. She has been passionate about poetry since school and has performed regularly at concerts and events in Russia and the UK.
Born in Moscow, Tatiana Schofield is now a technology transfer manager working at the interface between science, industry and entrepreneurs. She has always been searching for ways to express her passion for art and love of Russian literature. She recently graduated from a drama class at Pinewood Studios and will be introducing her favourite poetry to share her passion for the Russian language, its poetical rhythms and musical richness.
Alla Gelich is a long-standing member of the Pushkin Club, and has given public recitals of Russian poetry on numerous occasions – in Great Britain, Russia, Belgium, Holland and Germany.
This event is part of the Poetry on the Move Season, supported by The Case Foundation.
