When I studied 20th century Russian literature some years ago the name of the Russian art historian Igor Golomstock (1929 -2017 ) came up from time to time, but I confess my recollection of him was rather hazy. So I was pleased when his autobiographical work, A Ransomed Dissident, translated by Sara Jolly and Boris […]
Author: Jennifer Antill
The Ghost in the Carriage
I have been trying to tidy up the manuscript of my work in progress, Fortune’s Price, a novel which can be read alone, but which follows on from Small Acts of Kindness, a tale of the first Russian revolution that was published in November last year. Towards the end of the first part of the […]
Two people in one
Alexander Mikhailovich Murav’ev (1802-1853) Lithograph. (1822) Piotr Feodorovich Sokolov (1791- 1848) There can be problems when a writer tries to combine an engaging plot with historical truth. This can be particularly true when it comes to depicting characters who are ‘real’ people. Historical novels vary widely in their historical accuracy, ranging from books that are […]
Kossoff and Soutine at the Seaside.
T There are a couple of months still left for art enthusiasts to get down to Hastings Contemporary to spend quality time with two 20th Century artists of note, one originally from Belarus, the other from Ukraine. The current exhibition, ‘Soutine/Kossoff’, juxtaposes the work of Chaim Soutine (1893-1943) with that of Leo Kossoff (1926 – […]
Sphinxes on the Neva
Standing on University Embankment on the right bank of the Great Neva river, among some of the oldest buildings of Saint Petersburg, tourists, particularly those passing on the river in boats, are often surprised to encounter two large Egyptian sphinxes. Napoleon’s Egyptian campaign at the turn of the Nineteenth century stimulated an interest in all […]
Child abduction by Russia in wartime is nothing new
Russian abduction of children in a time of war is nothing new! One of the more disturbing features of the current war in Ukraine has been Russia’s abduction of Ukrainian children, ostensibly in order to give them ‘better lives’ in Russia. In some cases the children have been sent to so called ‘Summer Camps’ from […]
Razputitsa
Etymologically the Russian word Razputitsa deconstructs as ‘separation parting or tearing of a road or route’. It is conventionally used to describe periods of the year when the roads turn into an impassable sea of mud, whether on account of rain turning the summer dust into a quagmire in the autumn, or as a result […]
‘I dreamed I dwelt in marble halls’*
Recently, ‘Peterskaya Uslada’ (Petersburg Delight) posted pictures on Twitter of the extraordinary marble hall that can be found in the Palace that was owned from 1830 onward by the Kushelev-Bezborodko family (see image above). Although the interior was remodelled in the middle of the 19th century by the son of the first owner, Count Nikolay […]
Russia in North America
At least one scene in my novel, Small Acts of Kindness, a tale of the first Russian revolution, takes place in the offices of the Russian American Company. One of the principle characters, the radical Kondraty Ryleev, was office manager at the company in the months before the Decembrist uprising in 1825. The large building, […]
Dusk approaches…
We are now moving deeper into December, and it is dark a little after 4 p.m. It was a little earlier, just after 3 p.m. in St Petersburg on December 14th 1825(Old Style) when Nicholas Pavlovich, newly created Emperor of Russia, ordered guns to be fired to scatter 3000 rebel troops. The soldiers had stood […]