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Registered with the Charity Commission for England and Wales. Charity No. 1105296 THE GREAT BRITAIN – RUSSIA SOCIETYPatron: His Royal Highness Prince Michael of Kent, GCVO
Honorary President: Dr. Anthony Bryan Hayward (Group Chief Executive of BP plc)
Honorary Vice Presidents:
The Most Reverend & Rt.Hon. The Lord Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams, FBA
Professor Geoffrey Alan Hosking, FBA, FR.Hist.S.
Sir Roderic Lyne, KBE, CMG
The Rt. Hon. Sir Malcolm Rifkind, KCMG, QC, MP
The Rt. Hon. Lord Robertson of Port Ellen, GCMG,
The Rt. Hon. Baroness Williams of Crosby
THE GREAT BRITAIN – RUSSIA SOCIETYWinter – Spring SessionJanuary – April 2010Eight exciting events, encompassing experts from the worlds of literature and music, the Royal Navy, the Red Army’s Military Battles, SSEES, International Security Studies, HM Diplomatic Service, Ballet and International Journalism.Eight exceptional experts – eight exhilarating events!All talks will take place in
PUSHKIN HOUSE, 5a BOOMSBURY SQUARE, LONDON WC1A 2TAThe entrance to Pushkin House is on Bloomsbury Way,
virtually opposite the Swedenborg bookshop.
Nearest tube stations are Holborn & Tottenham Court Road.Complimentary Wine Receptions from 6.30 p.m. to 7.00Our talks in Pushkin House usually begin at 7.00 p.m. followed by questions. Meetings end at around 8.30 p.m. Pre-booked seats are held only until 7.00 p.m. unless you phone Pushkin House on 020 7269 9770 before 6.50 p.m.
advising us of the anticipated time of your delayed arrival. MRS OLGA SELIVANOVA LEADS CONVERSATIONS IN RUSSIAN BEFORE MOST TALKS
Thursday, 11 February 2010 at Pushkin House, Bloomsbury Way, London WC1A 2TA, 6.30 for 7 pm.
‘A TALE OF TWO CITIES –THE GERMAN ONSLAUGHT ON MOSCOW AND LENINGRAD 1941-1942’DR MICHAEL JONESOn 22 June 1941 Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa – the invasion of the Soviet Union – and a mass of German troops, planes and tanks surged east. Both Moscow – the Soviet capital – and Leningrad – the birthplace of the Bolshevik Revolution – were key targets for Hitler’s forces. By September 1941 Leningrad was surrounded; a month later the Germans launched an all-out assault on Moscow. Here the fortunes of the two cities dramatically diverged. Leningrad was subjected to a brutal siege, losing hundreds of thousands of its inhabitants to starvation in the winter of 1941-2, amidst scenes of appalling suffering; the German attack on Moscow was beaten off in savage fighting in temperatures dropping below minus 30 degrees celsius, and the Russian capital was saved. Michael Jones looks at the very different fates of Moscow and Leningrad in the first year of the German invasion, drawing on eye-witness accounts of soldiers from both sides of this terrible conflict and the civilians caught in its midst. He tells of the Nazi cruel-race doctrine, which callously disregarded the plight of both cities’ inhabitants, the cynicism of Stalin – who was prepared to safeguard Moscow at Leningrad’s expense – and the extraordinary courage of ordinary Russian soldiers and civilians, a courage that ultimately triumphed over the might of the Nazi invader. Michael Jones gained a PhD in military history at Bristol University and subsequently taught at the University of South West England, the University of Glasgow and Winchester College. He now works freelance as a writer, presenter and battlefield tour guide – and for the last few years has led tours of World War II’s Eastern Front. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, a member of the British Commission for Military History and author of Stalingrad: How the Red Army Triumphed, Leningrad: State of Siege, and most recently The Retreat: Hitler’s First Defeat – on the German retreat from Moscow in the winter of 1941-2. He was historical adviser for Russia Today’s documentary on Stalingrad and is a consultant on the RIA Novosti history project We hope to offer for sale Michael Jones’s books on Leningrad and Moscow after the talk.OUR DEBT TO RUSSIA’S HUGE SACRIFICES IN DEFEATING NAZISM.
A SUPERB LECTURE!
Monday, 22 February 2010 at Pushkin House, Bloomsbury Way, London WC1A 2TA, at 6.30 for 7 pm.‘RUSSIAN PHILOSOPHY
OF THE 19th & EARLY 20th CENTURIES’Dr ROBIN AIZLEWOODThis talk will seek to tell the story of Russian Philosophy of the 19th and early 20th centuries, focusing on some of the distinctive features in this tradition – and the persona of the philosopher – as well as on some of the distinctive themes, such as the person, time and utopia. Dr Robin Aizlewood is the Director of the UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies (SSEES), one of the world’s leading specialist institutions and the largest national centre in the UK for the study of Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe and Russia. SSEES is a multidisciplinary centre with expertise across the social sciences and humanities, with more than 60 academic staff. As Director of SSEES, Dr Aizlewood is the Director of the HEFCE/ESRC/AHRC – funded inter-university centre for East European Language-Based Area Studies (CEELBAS), which UCL leads with the Universities of Oxford and Birmingham and a network of 7 other UK universities,.He is also Managing Director of the UCL-led Erasmus Mundus funded consortium for the International Master’s in Economy, State and Society. Over a number of years he has played a leading role in the modern languages world, especially in the promotion of Slavonic and East European languages. His research interests cover philosophy and literature, principally of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and he has published widely, both books and articles, in these fields. FASCINATING AND
NOT TO BE MISSED!
Monday, 8 March 2010 at Pushkin House, Bloomsbury Way, London WC1A 2TA, at 6.30 for 7 pm.‘RUSSIA, IRAN AND THE MIDDLE EAST’PROFESSOR ROLAND DANNREUTHERRussia, like the former Soviet Union, is an important and influential actor in the Middle East and this is currently seen in the critical role that Russia plays in the international negotiations over Iran’s nuclear programme. This talk will seek to provide the broader context of Russia’s engagement with Iran and the Middle East, the role that Russia’s 15 million Muslims play in forming policy and the economic and geopolitical factors which contribute to determining the priorities for Russia in the region. A key question addressed is the extent to which Russia is now playing a spoiling role similar to that of the Soviet Union, or whether Russian policy can potentially support Western ambitions towards Iran and the region more generally. Roland Dannreuther is Professor of Politics and International Relations at the University of Westminster. He is currently completing a project for the Economic and Social Research Council on Islam in Russia, the details of which can be found in www.pol.ed.ac.uk/islam. Forthcoming publications related to the project include Russia and Islam: Religion, State and Radicalism (edited with Luke March, Routledge 2010), Islamic ‘Radicalization in Russia: An Assessment’ in International Affairs (January 2010) and ‘Russia and the Middle East: Towards a New Cold War in Europe’ in Asia Studies (March 2010). Roland Dannreuther is the author of International Security: the Contemporary Agenda (Cambridge: Polity, 2007) and The Soviet Union and the PLO (Basingstoke: Macmillan 1999). IN AN AREA OF VITAL CONCERN FOR GLOBAL STABILITY AND PEACE, WILL THE GREAT POWERS COOPERATE OR COMPETE?ABSOLUTLELY UNMISSABLE!
Thursday, 25 March 2010 at Pushkin House, Bloomsbury Way, London WC1A 2TA, at 6.30 for 7 pm.‘RUSSIA: A 19TH-CENTURY POWER IN A 21ST-CENTURY WORLD?’SIR ANTHONY RUSSELL BRENTON, KCMGIt was Condoleeza Rice who described Russia as ‘a nineteenth-century power in a twenty-first-century world’. Her point was that, in her view, Russia continues, anachronistically, to pursue her own narrowly defined national interest in a world where diplomacy is increasingly about multilateral cooperation and the development of international law. The immediate context of her remarks was the 2008 Georgia war, but a number of other examples might be cited: the cutting off of gas supplies to Ukraine and, in the UK case, the murder of Litvinenko and the enforced closing down of most British Council offices in Russia. At the multilateral level, Russia is the only major country which is not a member of the WTO, she is the subject of by far the largest number of cases brought for breach of the European Convention on Human Rights, and she has played a strikingly minor role – given her pivotal position on the issue – on global climate change. To what extent is Rice’s charge accurate? To what extent is Russia’s behaviour explained by her recent history? What are the prospects for change? In HM Diplomatic Service since 1975, with overseas postings in Cairo, Brussels, Washington and Moscow, as well as being a Director of the FCO from 1998-2001, Sir Tony Brenton has substantial experience of Russia. He served in the British Embassy in Moscow from 1994 to 1998, through Russia’s first-ever democratic Presidential election, the privatization of the economy, the economic collapse, and Russia’s first engagement with the global economic institutions. He returned as British Ambassador from 2004 to 2008, and thus had to deal with the numerous problems of those years, including Litvinenko, the British Council, the energy conflicts and the war with Georgia. He is supremely well-qualified to offer an insider’s assessment of the truth or otherwise of Rice’s dictum, and how things might develop in the future. A HIGHLIGHT OF THE SESSION.WE ANTICIPATE A HUGE DEMAND FOR SEATS.BOOK EARLY TO AVOID DISAPPOINTMENT!
Wednesday, 7 April 2010 at Pushkin House, Bloomsbury Way, London WC1A 2TA at 6.15 for 6.45 pm.Please note the earlier starting time.‘THE GREAT RUSSIAN BALLERINAS’MRS NATASHA DISSANAYAKE A ninety-minute lavishly illustrated talk (IN RUSSIAN)In the Chair: Mr Leonid FinkelsteinThe history of Russian ballet gave us many legendary names of ballerinas, male dancers and choreographers. Some of them are inseparable in our memory from their particular roles. Others are seen as symbols of a certain line, trend or style in choreography. It is hard to decide how many of them can be described in one short talk. The inimitably graceful Anna Pavlova, who toured many times all over the world; fragile and tragic Olga Spessivtseva, the true queen of the ball; Marina Semyonova and the inspired genius of Galina Ulanova; Alla Shelest, whose innermost talent suffered persecution from an omnipotent rival; and Maya Plisetskaya, daring as a flame, as a challenge… There were many more of them who were called stars and muses, legends and goddesses – and each of them lived through her own unique woman’s life, subservient to her implacable profession. Natasha Dissanayake, born in Moscow, graduated from the Moscow Pedagogical Institute, taught Russian Language and Literature in Moscow schools and, for seven years, worked as an editor at the Progress Publishing House. She came to England in 1972 and taught Russian in schools and colleges, and from the 1980s worked as an interpreter and a Blue Badge Guide. An avid ballet-goer since a very young age, she has been writing and giving talks about ballet for the last twenty- five years. A RARE TREAT, & IN RUSSIAN!AN AURAL & AESTHETIC DELIGHT!
Thursday, 22 April 2010 at Pushkin House, Bloomsbury Way, London WC1A 2TA, at 6.30 for 7 pm.‘PUTIN’S OIL WARS’MR MARTIN SIXSMITHThe war between Russia’s two most powerful men turned to violence in October 2003. Vladimir Putin despatched a detachment of machine-gun-carrying troops to intercept Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s plane on the runway of a Siberian airfield, and within hours the richest man in Russia was hauled back to Moscow with handcuffs on his wrists. Putin had flexed his political might, but Khodorkovsky held the key to Russia’s economy with control over vast swathes of its vital oil resources. Putin wanted his oil back; Khodorkovsky wanted to be president. In the months leading up to the October confrontation, Mikhail Khodorkovsky had parleyed his Yukos Oil Company into the most powerful in Russia. Then he invited the Americans to share the oil and launched a brazen campaign to usurp Putin’s political power. In a dramatic showdown in the Kremlin the two men traded insults, angrily accusing each other of corruption. Martin Sixsmith tells the story of Russia’s oil wars and their effects on Russia and the world. By renationalizing his country’s oil reserves, Vladimir Putin enraged investors and the West. But he knew that oil was the key to Russia’s future and rocketing prices proved he was right: Russia’s economy went from basket case to cash cow; Moscow could punch its weight on the international stage, blackmail other states with oil and gas blockades, and resume its seat at the world’s top table. But the price was high. The Yukos confrontation was deftly managed by the hardliners in the Kremlin, who used it to cement their victory over the forces of liberalism. And because of it, they seized control of Russia’s future. Their devotion to the supremacy of the State curtailed individual rights; freedom and democracy were undermined, opposition crushed. Martin Sixsmith was educated at Oxford, Harvard, Leningrad and the Sorbonne. Between 1980 and 1997 he was the BBC’s correspondent in Brussels, Warsaw, Moscow (twice) and Washington. From 1997 to 2002 he worked for the government of Tony Blair and is now an author and journalist. In 2011 he will be presenting the BBC’s fifty-part series on the history of Russia. A FABULOUS FINALE TO THE SESSION!
Tickets are not issued for meetings, but names will be put on the attendance lists on a first paid, first served basis. Members are encouraged to book places for their guests or visitors. Cancellations for credit are accepted only if received before 5.00 p.m. on the previous afternoon (‘phone Ute Chatterjee on 0788 4464 461 or email her at membership@gbrussia.org) so that those on the waiting list can be offered places. If you need confirmation of your reservations please send a stamped addressed envelope. All tickets are £5 per person per seat for everyone (except for students belonging to a corporate membership). BOOK EARLY, AND BOOK OFTEN!Remember, if all seats are wanted your reservation is assured only if you have pre-paid.
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