Some of them will be focused on books from the shortlist of the Pushkin House Book Prize 2024. These books include insights into the experience of doctors and nurses in Stalin’s Gulag; the people, culture, and history in the North Caucasus Republics. https://www.pushkinhouse.org/projects/book-prize. 

Pushkin House, the oldest independent Russian culture center in the UK, founded back in 1954, is launching a series of discussions aiming to make sense of Russia’s present and past. Pushkin House is going through a transformational period dictated by the simultaneous nexus of internal and external factors. With support from the Zimin Foundation and participation of the Enlightener Award (Prosvetitel Prize in Russian), the discursive programme outlines conceptual interdependence and commitment to platforming cross-cultural conversations through talks, panel discussions, book presentations, conferences, and symposia. The discussion is going to involve leading historians, philosophers, social and political scientists. 

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Program for May

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Soviet Africa: From Great Hope to Great Disillusionment through Mozambican Cinema with Maite Conde  (May 10)

Persecution of LGBTQ+ People as an Authoritarian Practice: Russia and Kenya (May 13)

Informality in Arts: Towards an Impossible Encyclopaedia (May 15)

High Caucasus: A Mountain Quest in Russia’s Haunted Hinterland (May 21)

The Avant-Gardists: Artists in Revolt. Sjeng Scheijen in Conversation with Pushkin House Director, Elena Sudakova (May 23)

The Gulag Doctors: Life, Death, and Medicine in Stalin's Labour Camps (May 29)

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