The Russian army is rightly preoccupying people at present. When preparing for the first live talk I have given for quite a long time, I was trying to find a better image to illustrate Peter the Great’s ‘play regiments’. I came across this bright 17th century woodcut, the illustration from a book. I think the figure […]
Did Alexander the First of Russia really die at Taganrog in 1825? This week there has been new evidence suggesting that Richard the Third may not after all have murdered his nephews, Edward and Richard, in order to cement his position as King of England. This is not the first time that people have attempted […]
The Moscow Foundling Home in the early 19th Century. Fyodor Alekseyev (c.1755 -1824) Many good stories include among their characters a foundling or an orphan. Including a foundling in the mix gives the storyteller the chance to raise plenty of interesting questions about the past. In my book, The Legacy, for which I am […]
I often marvel at how many buildings in the past were constructed without the help of machinery, and the same applies to moving large rocks across the countryside. We recently watched a programme about how the great bluestones that form part of the stone circles at Stonehenge actually came from a quarry in Wales some […]
Over Christmas I read the novel The Monastery by Zakhar Prilepin, translated from the Russian by Nicholas Kotar. The book was written in 2014 and published in English last year. It is a long read, and at 750 pages, probably overlong. It is also rather a harrowing story since the book deals with a particularly […]
Nicholas 1 confronts rioters during the Cholera Epidemic of 1830-31 As seems appropriate in these times of pandemic, I am currently researching the cholera epidemic that hit Russia in 1830 to 1831. The reason for my interest is that my new work in progress, The Legacy, is set in these years, and therefore the impact […]
A few weeks ago I read Laurus by Eugene Vodolazkin. Originally published in Russia in 2012, the book was translated into English in 2015 and has been reprinted three times since then. Vodolazkin is a scholar who specialises in mediaeval Russian history and folklore and his background is reflected in the book. It tells […]
I have been reading The Europeans by Orlando Figes The book traces the story of the relationship between the writer, Ivan Turgenev, and the Spanish opera singer Pauline Viardot. Turgenov wrote that she was the only love of his life, and their relationship fluctuated between the very close to the quite distant over the […]
Sadly due the the present circumstances what was to have been one of my busiest ever years speaking to different groups about Russia, has turned into one of my emptiest for a long time. All has not been a total disaster however. I have used the extra time afforded by lock down to try my […]
Faberge Egg (1913) commemorating 300 yearsof Romanov rule I am developing a more general talk on Russia for groups who want to enjoy an introduction to the country through its history. I shall look at six images of Russia, either objects or places, which will act as a ‘hook’ through which I shall discuss key […]