Pushkin House is hosting a conversation between two leading political scientists, Professor Ekaterina Schulmann and Professor Mark Galeotti, who will exchange their views on how the Russian political regime has evolved over the last fifteen months and how various social groups are contributing and reacting to it. Which sections of the Russian political machine are most effective? Where is the strain of war felt the most, and which parts of the regime are most likely to give way? Who are the beneficiaries of the war within the power system, and in society at large? Do popular attitudes matter anymore and to which tendencies should we be paying attention?

Join Professor Tricia Starks, the author of Cigarettes and Soviets: Smoking in the USSR, shortlisted for the Pushkin House Book Prize 2023, for a lecture breaking down the assumed links in the West between tobacco use and ubiquitous advertising, nefarious product manipulation, and hi-tech industrial design. By showing how Soviet smoking habits continued without sophisticated or sustained use of any of these techniques, Starks challenges current assumptions about how best to pursue cessation and fight an addiction that still ensnares nearly one in four adults worldwide to a product that results in the death of half its users.

Join Natasha Lance Rogoff, producer of Ulitsa Sezam and the author of Muppets in Moscow: The Unexpected Crazy True Story of Making Sesame Street in Russia, shortlisted for the Pushkin House Book Prize 2023, for an online conversation with filmmaker Zlata Onufrieva. They will talk about the way television is being made, the short-lived history of liberalisation in Russia as witnessed both from outside and inside, and the transformations that society was facing in the first years of the Russian Federation.

Join us to hear Ryan Jones discuss whaling, environmental history and Soviet science with Katja Bruisch. Ryan’s latest book, Red Leviathan: the Secret History of Soviet Whaling, has been shortlisted for the Pushkin House Book Prize 2023 and explores the history of Soviet whaling, which almost eradicated several species while at the same time paradoxically helping scientists to understand their complex biology.

Join Dr Olga Petri in conversation with Olga Doletskaya about her new book, Places of Tenderness and Heat: The Queer Milieu of Fin-de-Siecle St. Petersburg, shortlisted for the Pushkin House Book Prize 2023. Petri reconstructs the urban milieu that enabled queer men to meet, socialise and navigate a city full of risk and opportunity. She uncovers a world of illicit homosexual relationships and friendships that has, until now, remained obscure. 

Join us on Friday, 26 May for a conversation between Owen Matthews and Dr Natasha Kuhrt about Overreach: The Inside Story of Putin’s War Against Ukraine, shortlisted for the Pushkin House Book Prize 2023. Overreach tells the story of the first six months of the February 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, covering the historic origins of the conflict and its gradual descent into a full-scale war. Through meticulous research and a wide network of sources, the author reveals the intricate details of the personal relationships between the leadership of both states, reflects on obscure diplomatic developments, and narrates crucial steps of the military campaigns.

Pushkin House is hosting a conversation between two prominent scholars Dr Ian Garner and Dr Jade McGlynn who have both published new books about propaganda, paternalism and rally 'round the flag effect caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Join us for the announcement of the winner of the 2022 Pushkin House Book Prize in the company of the shortlisted authors and judges. Worth £10,000 to the winner, the prize recognises the very best non-fiction writing on Russia. This year the dinner will be held at the London Library.

The Russian war in Ukraine is the greatest European political crisis in decades. The military gamble of the Russian authorities is destroying the lives and livelihoods of people in Ukraine and Russia, and is affecting the global economy. Politicians all over the world are looking for appropriate measures to counter the Russian imperialist aggression and to support the Ukrainian people in their fight for national sovereignty. Is there any hope that the war will end any time soon? What should the citizens of the global West be focusing on? Are there any optimistic scenarios?

Join us for an evening with leading Russian anti-war public intellectual Ekaterina Schulmann. A member of the jury and the spokesperson for the 10th Pushkin House Book Prize, she is one of Russia’s foremost political scientists. The conversation will be moderated by Grigor Atanesian, a journalist with BBC News Russian. In-person and online event.

Thirty years have passed since the collapse of the Soviet Union, but the waves that originated in the process still shake the world that we live in today. The collective traumas, wounded egos, misdistribution of resources, contested identities and struggles for reform have resulted in conflicts and even wars. One of the worst is taking place right now in Ukraine.

Join Professor Vladislav M. Zubok, author of Collapse: The Fall of the Soviet Union, shortlisted for the Pushkin House Book Prize 2022, for a masterly analysis of the implosion of the Soviet Union and its effect on the world 30 years later. Zubok will be in conversation with Professor Gulnaz Sharafutdinova, who is currently researching the reaction of Russian society to the invasion of Ukraine.

The remarkable subject of Deyan Sudjic’s shortlisted book, Stalin’s Architect: Power and Survival in Moscow, is architect Boris Iofan. He became the Soviet Union’s most celebrated architect under Stalin and developed grand designs like the House on the Embankment and the unrealised but iconic Palace of Soviets. But when architecture and politics come hand in hand, what did Iofan have to sacrifice to stay alive in the midst of Stalin’s purges?

Join us for a conversation with Elizabeth Wilson, author of Playing with Fire: The Story of Maria Yudina, Pianist in Stalin’s Russia, shortlisted for the Pushkin House Book Prize 2022, to explore Yudina’s extraordinary life and musical career under the tumultuous and bleak Soviet regime.

In his book Klimat: Russia in the Age of Climate Change, shortlisted for the Pushkin House Book Prize 2022, Professor Thane Gustafson presents the first full-length study of Russia as a prime source, a beneficiary and a victim of the climate crisis. Join Gustafson for a Zoom conversation about the environment, Russia’s future, and where these two issues collide. He will discuss these themes with Professor Mary E. Edwards, an expert on Northern ecosystems and permafrost landscapes.

Join Dr Jan Matti Dollbaum and Dr Ben Noble to hear them discuss Navalny: Putin’s Nemesis, Russia’s Future? (Hurst and Oxford University Press, 2021). It has been translated into eight languages so far, was selected by The Financial Times as one of the best books on politics in 2021, and has been nominated for the Pushkin House Book Prize. Dollbaum and Noble will discuss their understanding of Russian oppositional politics, its development in the wake of the Russia’s war on Ukraine, as well as the political prospects of Navalny and his allies. The conversation will be moderated by Yulia Taranova, a doctoral researcher at King’s College London.

In the presentation of their book On the Edge: Life Along the Russia-China Border, which has been shortlisted for the Pushkin House Book Prize 2022, authors Franck Billé and Caroline Humphrey will take us on a journey through the little-explored borderlands between Russia and China. They will reveal extraordinary contrasts between Russia’s slumbering forest villages and China’s dynamic urban sprawl; the frequent tension and occasional war between two of the world’s political giants; the revival of indigenous cultures in some places and the adoption of foreign symbols in others; and the buds of cross-border connection despite the ruling regimes’ discouragement.

Pushkin House invites you to a discussion about the fraught state of relations between Russia and the West over the past thirty years, and about the man who has fanned the flames of the crisis. Authors Mary Elise Sarotte and Timothy Frye, both shortlisted for our Book Prize 2022, will explore the state of the modern Russian political system; challenge the conventional wisdom about the ruler who stands at its helm; and assess the fraught stand-off unfolding between east and west. What could the future hold for Russia? Could we see an end to this geopolitical and humanitarian nadir?

Join us for the winner announcement of the 2021 Pushkin House Book Prize in the company of the shortlisted authors and judges. Worth £10,000 to the winner, the prize recognises the very best non-fiction writing on Russia. This year the dinner will be held at the Institute of Contemporary Arts.

As part of Pushkin House Book Prize 2021, we are delighted to welcome Jonathan Schneer to speak about his shortlisted book The Lockhart Plot, a deeply researched work, and a true historical thriller, a romance and a spy story. Jonathan will be in conversation with award-winning author and journalist, Jonathan Steele. This is a hybrid in-person and virtual event.

As part of Pushkin House Book Prize 2021, we are delighted to welcome Archie Brown to speak about his shortlisted book The Human Factor. Archie will be in conversation with Sam Greene, professor in Russian politics and director of the Russia Institute at King’s College London. The discussion will be in front of a live audience at Pushkin House, as well as to those who wish to join online.

Shortlisted for the 2021 Pushkin House Book Prize, Andrei Zorin’s succint biography of Leo Tolstoy pieces together the great writer’s life, offering an account of his deepest feelings and motives, and an interpretation of his major works, including the celebrated novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina. Andrei will be in conversation with writer and broadcaster Viv Groskop, author of The Anna Karenina Fix.

As part of Pushkin House Book Prize 2021, we are delighted to welcome Catherine Belton to speak about her shortlisted book Putin’s People. Catherine will be in conversation with Ben Noble, Associate Professor in Russian Politics at UCL in the School of Slavonic and East European Studies. The discussion will be in front of a live audience at Pushkin House, with an on-demand option available to those who are unable to join in person.

Join us for this 2021 Pushkin House Book Prize book talk when we will delve into the aesthetics of power with two of this year’s shortlisted authors. Evgeny Dobrenko, author of Late Stalinism, and Katherine Zubovich, author of Moscow Monumental, will be in discussion with Michał Murawski, an anthropologist of architecture who has a special interest in the impact that communist-era built environments continue to exert on the capitalist cities of the 21st century.

Join us for an evening with Joan Neuberger whose book ‘This Thing of Darkness’ has been shortlisted for the Pushkin House Book Prize 2020. Joan will be in conversation with Serhii Plokhy, chair of the 2020 Prize judges and twice winner of the Pushkin House Book Prize in 2015 and 2019.

Join us for an evening with Bathsheba Demuth whose book ‘Floating Coast’ has been shortlisted for the Pushkin House Book Prize 2020. Bathsheba will be in conversation with Richard Wright, one of the 2020 Prize judges.

Join us for an evening with Brian Boeck whose book ‘Stalin’s Scribe’ has been shortlisted for the Pushkin House Book Prize 2020. Brian will be in conversation with Celestine Bohlen, one of the 2020 Prize judges.

Join us for an evening with Kate Brown whose book ‘Manual for Survival’ has been shortlisted for the Pushkin House Book Prize 2020. Drawing on a decade of archival research and on-the-ground interviews, Kate unveils the full breadth of the devastation and the whitewash that followed the Chernobyl disaster. Kate will be in conversation with Serhii Plokhy, chair of the 2020 Prize judges and twice winner of the Pushkin House Book Prize in 2015 and 2019.

Приглашаем посетить беседу с Сергеем Медведевым! Его книга “Парк Крымского периода” (The Return of the Russian Leviathan) одна из шести, номинированных на получение книжного приза Пушкинского Дома 2020 года. Ведущая вечера: декан факультета истории, кандидат исторических наук Юля Сафронова, одна из судей, кто будет решать, кто получит этот приз.

Join us for an evening with Sergei Medvedev, whose book ‘The Return of the Russian Leviathan’ has been shortlisted for the Pushkin House Book Prize 2020. Sergei will be in conversation in English with Richard Wright, one of the 2020 Prize judges.