*** Seva Novgorodtcev***

30 years at the BBC Russian service

Saturday, 24th February 2007, 6pm, Reddaway Room, Fitzwillam College, Storey's Way, Cambridge

A cult figure and an expert on almost everything, including rock music, who started working on BBC at the times when many of us were struggling to catch the words of truth on the radio through the horrible racket, created by special Soviet noise-making machines…

Trained as a navigator in the Soviet merchant fleet, Seva Novgorodtsev then became a professional musician playing in various jazz and rock bands touring all over the Soviet Union. He has been a household name to millions of Russians over the past 30 years, forhis two hugely successful weekly radio programmes. Read about Seva: >>> (in Russian) http://www.seva.ru/ (Seva's official website)

Photos

*** MOSCOW UNDER THREAT ***
by Miss Clementine Cecil,
a talk about a disastrous situation with Moscow's architecture.

WHEN: Monday, 20th November, 7:30pm

WHERE: Trust Room, Fitzwilliam College, Storey's Way, Cambridge

Moscow's current building boom is threatening its fascinating and wonderful architectural heritage - over 1,000 buildings have been demolished over the last 5 years alone, some 300 of them listed. In May 2004, former Times correspondent Clementine Cecil co-founded MAPS (the Moscow Architecture Preservation Society:
http:www.maps-moscow.com
to counterbalance the mass demolitions in Moscow that have transformed the city since the fall of Communism. She devotes her time to campaigning and bringing western conservation values to Russia at a critical time for the country's heritage. Moscow's current building boom is threatening its fascinating and wonderful architectural heritage – over 1,000 buildings have been demolished over the last 5 years alone, some 300 of them listed. MAPS is presently campaigning to save the house of the Constructivist architect Konstantin Melnikov. Clementine will illustrate her talk with slides.

Ghost Walk in Cambridge June 2006

photos >>>

There was a great team of people whose enthusiasm, imagination, courage, bubbly personalities and hard work has made the Ghost Walk happen, namely Nancy Gregory, Katia Popova, Mark Vellacott, Vladimir Trifonov, Evgeniy Kuklychev, Sergey Myakon'kikh, Alberto Labarga, Barbara Laughlin, Daria Grafodatskaya and the evasive Mikhail Gerasimov (who was actually spotted a number of times by the very observant avant-garde of the group!)

Here are just a few comments from the participants:
"Curious, amusing, entertaining."
"It was wonderful - please pass on thanks to Nancy!"
"I thoroughly enjoyed the tour. It was a lovely evening. Notwithstanding I didn't understand much I understood more than I thought I would!"

DVD of the walk is available for hire from Tanya Yurasova, yurasova(at)physics.org

VALAAM Ensemble (Russian liturgical chant & folk songs)

Sunday 14th May, 8:00 pm Jesus College Chapel, Jesus Lane, Cambridge, UK

Another opportunity to hear this unique 5-strong male choir who sung beautifully both Russian Orthodox chants and traditional folk songs.

There were over 150 people in the Chapel The evening was most beautiful, elevating and unforgettable.

Photos >>>

Review >>>

"The KGB, Russia and Cambridge"

25th April 2006, Tuesday, 7:30pm
A talk by Professor Chris Andrew, a renowned expert in modern Russian history.

Scott Polar Research Institute, Lensfield Rd, Cambridge

"JOURNEYS TO A GRAVEYARD: Russian travellers' impressions of the West"

3rd April 2006, Monday, 7:30pm

Professor DEREK OFFORD: "JOURNEYS TO A GRAVEYARD: Russian travellers' impressions of the West"

What did Russian travellers see in the West (in the 18th-19th centuries)? What did they think of it? The talk focused on the theme of Russia and the West in Russian thought. How was the Russian sense of identity being formed, during the period when Russia was becoming a major European power?

Venue: The Lecture Theatre, Scott Polar Research Institute, Lensfield Rd, Cambridge

Maslenitsa party 2006

Everybody seems to have enjoyed every bit of the Maslenitsa party. Here is just one of the responses: "Kokoshniki and chuchelo of Russians, blonde hair and gypsy dress of Ukrainians, pictures of Slavic gods of Belarusians... Everything just added up to an overall image of Slavic culture!" Let me use this opportunity to say a big "thank you" to all the people involved who made it so special and elevating!
There are a few photos here: Maslenitsa2006

"New Mysteries from Old Rus'" ("Novye zagadki Drevnei Rusi")

20th February 2006, Monday, 7:30pm

Venue: The Lecture Theatre, Scott Polar Research Institute, Lensfiled Rd, Cambridge.

Simon Franklin's lecture last night was a great success, with 95 people in the audience. We all left in excitement, puzzling over the mystery of three wooden plates, and some felt so involved that started making their own suggestions on how to unveil the truth! A review will be on our website shortly.

Tuesday, 7th February 2006
at the Blythe Room, Clare Colony, Cambridge

"What's happened to the good old Soviet censor,
or - Two children's literatures in the USSR and two in post-Soviet Russia"
(presented jointly with the Slavonic Department, University of Cambridge)

The Russian poet, translator and children's writer, Marina Boroditskaya, spoke in Russian about the history of children's literature in Russia, in Soviet and post-perestroika times. Marina described the contrast between a dry and dull 'official' Soviet children's literature, studied at school, and the 'unofficial' literature read to children by their parents at home. She also talked about the post-perestroika development of two very different children's literatures, commercial and non-commercial, and the preference of Russian publishers for poorly written and poorly illustrated stories likely to achieve wider circulation and greater commercial success.

Marina explained why she refused an offer to translate part of a "Harry Potter" book, describing the low pay and highly pressured working conditions for translators in Russia, where publishers now focus on speed and quantity, rather than quality.

Marina also spoke about her translations of classical poetry, including Chaucer, and related several extremely amusing anecdotes about her experiences as a translator and as a writer of verse and children's books.

She also described her work with "Radio Russia", hosting the programme "Literary Pharmacy". Marina's lively and highly entertaining talk was interspersed with superb recitations of Russian verses for children and her own very impressive poetry.

The talk was followed as usual by a wine reception.

Marina donated a number of children's books to the Russian school in Cambridge, including some of her own chilkdrens stories. She also presented copies of a recent "ANTHOLOGY OF CONTEMPORARY RUSSIAN WOMEN POETS" for sale and spoke a little about this "Anthology".

21st and 22nd January 2006

"A weekend with Pasternak"

The Cambridge Russian-Speaking Society hosted a 2-day event in collaboration with the United Kingdom Shostakovich Society.

Weekend with Pasternak was a great success, with both Fitzwilliam Auditorium on Saturday and Scott Polar Lecture Theatre on Sunday being full to the brim.

"Music in the Life of Pasternak: Shostakovich, Skryabin and Yudina." Pre-concert talk by Evgeny Pasternak (in Russian, with English translation) Music by Skryabin and Shostakovich.
"Pasternak and Music", a talk by Professor Angela Livingstone.

Guest of honour at both evenings was Evgeniy Pasternak, son of the great Russian poet and novelist, Boris Pasternak. Evgeniy Pasternak opened the evening with a talk (ably translated from Russian by Tonya) in which he discussed his father's early career in music and his relations with Shostakovich and Skriabin.

"My Father" A talk by Evgeny Pasternak (in Russian)

On Sunday evening Evgeniy Pasternak spoke at greater length (in Russian), about his father's life and work and about his childhood memories of his father. The audience listened to superb recordings of Boris Pasternak reading his poetry and to intensely moving and emotional recitations of his father's work by Evgeniy Borisovich, with translations by Professor Angela Livingstone.

Photos of the visit >>>

Dr. Hubertus Jahn: The Russian Revolution of 1905
Monday December 12, 2005

Dr Jahn, a member of Cambridge University History Department, Fellow of Clare College and head of CamCREES, gave a talk at the Scott Polar Research Institute to celebrate the Centenary of the failed Russian "revolution" of 1905.

Dr Jahn's talk not only provided a wealth of detail about the political background of the uprising, the events of Bloody Sunday and the subsequent wave of strikes, but offered fascinating insights into the economic, social and cultural context of a revolution "that didn't quite turn".

The talk was followed by a lively and extremely interesting discussion, ranging from problems such as the definition of "revolution" and how the events of 1905 relate to 1917, to the broader cultural context of the Russian artists and composers of the avant-garde.

"RUSSIAN CHESS: PEOPLE AND POLITICS"

19th November 2005, Saturday,Walter Graves Room, Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge.

Talk by Mark Vellacott, with a contribution from Unai Garbisu (Spain), followed by a simultaneous tournament and reception.

Mark Vellacott gave a most entertaining account of Russian chess (in his life and in general) and even taught us how to play a perfect chess game (which didn't help later on)...
The more adventurous of us took part in a simultaneous tournament against a distinguished Spanish player, Unai Garbisu; this was quite an experience.
The pace of the game and the energy of the Master, who was zooming backwards and forwards, were amazing. You could only hear the decisive rapid snaps when he was moving the pieces; it was most enjoyable, despite the inevitable outcome!

A MUSHROOM WALK in the Hinchingbrook Park

Saturday, 15th October 2005, in Hinchingbrooke County Park, Huntingdon

"It was lovely to see so many of you for the mushroom walk last Saturday! On a glittering sunny afternoon, 77 adults (plus a fair number of children and dogs) all gathered in a beautiful autumnal forest, for an obsessive mushroom hunt! All sorts of ethnic origins were represented: English, Russian, Ukrainian, Lithuanian, Czech, Spanish, German, French, and Cameroonian... We found plenty of very pretty toadstools, and even a few edible mushrooms, which were properly identified by our wonderful fungus experts, John Holden and Helene Davies. I know for sure that some people put them in their soup (mushrooms that is). What's most important though, is that we all had a whale of a time, walking, barbecuing, eating, drinking and singing... to the extent that it had never come to rope-skipping and ball games!" Tanya Yurasova

Photos of the Social Part after the AGM and the Mushroom Walk >>>

Photos of the Mushroom Walk by Suzy Ashraf >>>

CAMRUSS SOCIAL GATHERING & AGM, 1st OCTOBER 2005

Cambridge Russian Speaking Society held its first gathering of the year at Fitzwilliam College on Saturday 1 October. The evening opened in the Gordon Cameron lecture theatre, with reports by Marina Burrell and Tanya Yurasova, who gave lively and colourful accounts of their recent trips to St. Petersburg and Moscow (Marina and her students) and the Crimea (Tanya and family), copiously illustrated with beautiful slides of the cities and towns of Russia and Ukraine. The talks were followed by a brief AGM, outlining the past year's activities, future plans, election of this year's committee and support group and the general division of responsibilities for the running of the society. The meeting was very well attended, with the lecture hall full to overflowing with both old faces and new. We then moved to the Common Room for drinks, delicious Russian food and some lively dancing - a very pleasant end to the evening and a wonderful start to our new year!

AGM minutes 2005 >>>

Photos of the Social Part after the AGM and the Mushroom Walk >>>

17th May 2005, Tue, 7:30pm

Dr Piers Vitebsky : "Living with reindeer and spirits in Siberia"
Lecture Theatre in Scott Polar Research Institute, Lensfield Rd, Cambridge.

On 17 May 2005, Dr. Piers Vitebsky presented a fascinating talk about his research on Siberian reindeer herders at the Scott Polar Research Institute in the University of Cambridge, where he is Head of Anthropology and Northern Studies. To a packed lecture hall, Piers described his many visits over the past 20 years to the Eveny people in the Verkhoyansk mountain range of north-eastern Siberia, one of the coldest regions on earth. With great sensitivity Piers explained the close but partly ambivalent relationship of the Eveny nomads to the harsh environment in which they have to survive and their intimate relationship with the reindeer, on whom their survival depends.
Piers described to a capitivated audience the deliberate destruction of the nomadic culture the Eveny by the Soviet regime, who forced the nomads to settle in villages and suppressed their shamanic religion, even killing their Shamans. We were all deeply moved by the courage and resilience of these people and the tragedy of their "integration" into Soviet collective society.
For those who missed the talk and would like to know more, Piers has recently published an account of the Eveny in a much-acclaimed book "Reindeer People".

Book by Dr Piers Vitebsky REINDEER PEOPLE: LIVING WITH ANIMALS AND SPIRITS IN SIBERIA published by HarperCollins, 7th March 2005 £20 (US edition Boston: Houghton Mifflin, November 2005)

Monday, 18th April 2005, 7:30pm
An Evening with Dmitrii Prigov
Scott Polar Institute, Lensfield Rd, Cambridge

D. Prigov will talk, read his poetry and answer questions, BOTH in Russian & English.

Poet, artist, sculptor, and performer, Dmitrii Prigov was a key member of the Russian artistic underground. He participated in the formation of Moscow Conceptualism along with Ilya Kabakov, Lev Rubinstein and others. After years of underground avant-garde activity, Prigov's contribution to Russian literature was eventually acknowledged with the 1993 Pushkin prize. He is widely published in Russia, and has performed his poems all over the world. Prigov is a very impressive, unusual and creative 'performer' of his poetry. His poetry nights in Europe and America have always been a great success among the Russian communities, and tremendously popular.

Entrance: £2 (members & concessions), £3 (others).
Free wine, juice and nibbles afterwards.

Saturday, 23rd April 2005
A Bluebell Walk and Barbecue
Time to be announced - please watch this space!

WHERE: Hayley Wood - entrance is about halfway between Longstowe and Great Gransden on the B1046. Wellies will be necessary.
There's lots of parking available on the roadside verges (you cannot drive up to the wood edge).
It is Cambridgeshire's best boulder clay woodland with lots of historical and floristic interest!
Guided tour by Peter Pilbream, (1.5 -2 hours), followed by a picnic and socialising.
Please bring anything you like, i.e. - food for picnic - drinks - a guitar or, indeed, any other musical instrument - a football, or any other type of ball ...

RUSSIAN POETRY NIGHT

Monday, 21st March , 7:30pm.
Trust Room, Fitzwilliam College, Storey's Way, Cambridge.

Come and get engrossed in beautiful Russian poetry of the Silver Age, Blok, Mandelshtam, Akhmatova, Tsvetaeva, Pasternak... Let us read our favourite poems together, talk, and share our feelings and thoughts.
IN THE PROGRAMME:
- Marina Burrell sang best-loved poems to the guitar,
- Kitty Stidworthy and Richard Cook will read their translations,
- Barbara Laughlin presented translations by modern Australian poets,
- and, of course, the originals resounded too!

CAMRUSS SOCIAL GATHERING & AGM, OCTOBER 2005

Cambridge Russian Speaking Society held its first gathering of the year at Fitzwilliam College on Saturday 1 October. The evening opened in the Gordon Cameron lecture theatre, with reports by Marina Burrell and Tanya Yurasova, who gave lively and colourful accounts of their recent trips to St. Petersburg and Moscow (Marina and her students) and the Crimea (Tanya and family), copiously illustrated with beautiful slides of the cities and towns of Russia and Ukraine. The talks were followed by a brief AGM, outlining the past year's activities, future plans, election of this year's committee and support group and the general division of responsibilities for the running of the society. The meeting was very well attended, with the lecture hall full to overflowing with both old faces and new. We then moved to the Common Room for drinks, delicious Russian food and some lively dancing - a very pleasant end to the evening and a wonderful start to our new year!

AGM minutes 2005 >

31st January 2005, 7:30pm Private life in Stalin's Russia: family stories and archives.

Talk by Orlando Figes, in English

Gordon Cameron Lecture Theatre, Fitzwilliam College, Storrey's Way, Cambridge

Orlando Figes is a Professor of History at Birkbeck College, London. One of the most popular historians of Russia, the author of A People's Tragedy and Natasha's Dance, gives an exclusive preview of his next book. Many books describe the externals of the Terror - the accusations, trials, enslavements and killings. But what interior accommodations did people have to make in order to live in a moral vacuum? What was it like living in a state of permanent fear? What kind of ethic did you adopt, knowing your children or spouse might be informing on you? How could you be sure you were not one of the guilty? Review >>>

23rd November 2004, Tuesday.
"Soviet Music-hall". Talk by Gerard McBurhey, illustrated by old photos, music recordings and clips from old films.
Venue: Cameron Gordon Lecture Theatre, Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge

4th - 16th October 2004. Exhibition of local artists from the former USSR

Michaelhouse Cafe, Trinity Street (opposite Gonville and Caius College).
Opening hours: 9:30am - 5pm, Monday to Saturday

This year our society was delighted to organise an exhibition of local Russian artists from the Cambridge area, which was held from October 4-16 at The Michaelhouse on Trinity Street. The exhibition included diverse works by seven artists, some professional and some amateur: Svetlana Baibekova, Rinat Baibekov, Marina Burrell, Tamara Kulikova, Natasha Perry, Phillip Toesev and Vitalia Zelenevskaia.

This superb exhibition was accompanied by a reception and talk on October 7.
Katia Kapushesky, an art historian based in Cambridge, spoke on "Modern Iconostasis: The story behind Gaugin's and Matisse's painitngs in the Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg". Katia showed a series of slides of the Shchukin collection of Gaugin and Matisse paintings, focussing in particular on the Gaugin paintings originally displayed in Shchukin's home. Katia demonstrated in her talk how the close juxtaposition of these paintings on the walls of Shchukin's dining room and their thematic arrangement, based on overtly religious subjects, recall the disposition of icons in the traditional Russian Orthodox iconstasis.

14th September 2004

Annual General Meeting

"Faberge, Imperial Russia and Watski's antique collection"
Talk by Kieran McCarthy (in English),

followed by refreshments and the AGM.

Review (by Barbara Laughlin)

14th June 2004

Talk by Vladimir Bukovsky

Review (by Barbara Laughlin)

18th May 2004

"Horses for Courses": talk on Russian translation by Professor Andrew Jameson of Lancaster University

Review (by Barbara Laughlin)

Tuesday, 20th April, 7:00 pm.

Raisa Nedashkovskaya - Russian poetry night

Popular Ukrainian actress, particularly known for her role of Maria Magazannik in "The Comissar", presented Russian poetry of 19th-20th century, with evocative video clips.

Tuesday, 9th March,2004

HISTORY OF THE NORTH PASSAGE. A talk by Bob Headland (in English).
Tuesday, 9th March 2004, 19:30 Scott Polar Research Institute, Lensfield Rd, Cambridge

Many of the islands were discovered comparatively recently, indeed Severnaya Zemlya was the last major area of land to be found on Earth; not seen until as late as 1913 and not mapped until 1932.
The development of the Northeast Passage into a magistral Northern Sea Route will be discussed and the deployment of large numbers of polar stations, both military and civil, described.
Exploration of the Russian Arctic was not only terrestrial, a large amount of oceanographic research was also undertaken, especially on the shallow and extensive continental shelf. The activities of hunters and trappers, whalers and sealers, often preceded those of explorers. The part these industries had in Arctic history will be demonstrated.
The speaker first travelled through the region in the Soviet Union days. Subsequently he has made several later journeys during which he has witnessed vast changes in all aspects of the high Arctic of Russia.

14 February 2004 19:30Trust Room, Fitzwilliam College, Huntingdon Rd, Cambridge

'REVOLUTIONARIES AND EVANGELICALS IN CONCERT: Alexander Herzen, Vasilii Kel'siev, and the British & Foreigh Bible Society in London'.
A talk by Stephen Batalden (in English and some parts in Russian).
The talk will be in English, followed by refreshments

"In 1860, the British and Foreign Bible Society turned to a Russian nihilist, the revolutionary emigre Vasilii Ivanovich Kel'siev (1835-1872), then in the London emigre circle of Alexander Herzen and Nikolai Ogarev, for assistance in editing a new edition of the modern Russian Psalter. The presentation addresses how this concert of interest developed between British evangelicals and Russian revolutionary emigres in the years following the Crimean War. The talk also reviews the subsequent career of Kel'siev, including his appeal to Old Believers, castrators (skoptsy), and other religious dissenters."

Monday, 15th December
'1901: RUSSIAN ART NOUVEAU TAKES GLASGOW BY STORM. Fedor Shekhtel' pavillions at the International Exhibition.'
A talk by Catherine Cooke with many beautiful slides (in English). Fitzwilliam College, Gordon Cameron Theatre, Cambridge

Shekhtel's fairytale "Russian village" in Kelvin Grove Park, built by 200 Russian carpenters, drew millions of visitors and won him a diploma as the show's best architect.
The Russian "Modern" style passed like a bright comet in the history of the arts. It arose at the end of the 19th century, and by the early 1910s it was already in decline.
After the October Revolution, the Modern was dismissed once and for all as a remnant of bourgeois culture...
    

"Impressions of an outsider" by John Ashby

ALISSA FIRSOVA
Piano music by Russian and Western European composers.
A delightful concert of piano music, by an excellent young pianist, originally from Moscow, now living in St.Albans.

8th November 2003, 12 noon, Hinchingbrooke Park, Huntingdon
WALK in THE WOODS
Photos of the last Walk in the Woods

EXHIBITION:
SOVIET REVOLUTIONARY POSTERS 1918-1929
10 November 2003, 5-8 pm
Anglia Polytechnic University, Cambridge

23rd September 2003, 19:30

"More Domes and Dachas in Russian Landscape" talk and slide-show by Richard Armstrong. Tuesday, 23rd September 7:30 Library, Wolfson Court, Clarkson Rd, Cambridge

We had a very pleasurable evening looking at Richard's amazing slides of his multiple journeys to Russia. Rostov and Borisoglebsk, Suzdal', Novgorod, Pskov and Izborsk, Uglich, Vladimir... Daring, giddy landscapes, translucent clouds, wavy fields of juicy cabbage, warmly breathing carved stones, honey-coloured onion domes. It was also fascinating to see some very old pictures dating as far back as 1959...

Wednesday, 2nd July "KINGS OF THE KREMLIN"
SOL SHULMAN, writer and journalist,
gave an illustarted talk in Russian entitled "KINGS OF THE KREMLIN"- Russia and its leaders from Ivan the Terrible to the present days; "a tale of corruptive instincts, the ebb and flow of national fortunes, dark deeds in the crucible of power and a sinister pursuit of patronage and influence.

14th June. Some of us took part in the Russian Day at Hills Rd Sixth Form College (on both sides of the barricade!) The day ended in imaginative and often exhilarating performances from the students.

Sunday, 29th June. There was a colourful Russian stall at the Food Festival on Market Square, beautifully decorated and overflowing with food, books and souvenirs, owing to Liz and Richard Cook, Sally and Natasha Green, Luda and Misha Loukine, Lena Richer, Lida Chizh, Marina Burrell, Dina Shagiakhmetova, and Rebecca Shoob. Many people stopped to try sizzling pirozhki and elevating kvas, revitalising vinegret and tenderest syrniki so smetanoy. But it wasn't just about food, it was also about communications, simply having a chat, expressing a genuine interest in other cultures, learning more about each other...

Tuesday, 13th May 2003 Trust Room, Fitzwilliam College, Huntingdon Rd Cambridge
Talk by Irina Kirillova 'Interpreting for Russian writers and churchmen 1965-1991' The talk in Russian.

Monday, 28th April 2003 Time: 19:30. The Gordon Cameron Lecture Theatre, Wilson Court, Fitzwilliam College, Huntingdon Rd, Cambridge
Talk on Skryabin by Edmund Harris entitled: ---- 'ðÒÅÄ×ÁÒÉÔÅÌØÎÁÑ ÂÅÓÅÄÁ Ï ÚÁËÌÀÞÉÔÅÌØÎÏÊ íÉÓÔÅÒÉÉ" ---- '/'A preliminary talk about the final Mystery'.

17th March 2003, 19:30 "Karl Faberge: Goldsmith to the Tsars"; Trust Room at Fitzwilliam college. Presented by Stephen Dale.
The talk was illustrated by slides and focused on the art produced in both the St. Petersburg and Moscow workshops, including enameling techniques, creativitiy of workmasters, history of the Imperial Easter eggs, and more. Stephen Dale is the Director of Marks Antiques in London, a business that specializes in antique silver. He is an expert in the 19th-century Rusian silver and enamel, and works by Karl Faberge.

Interesting links:

http://www.faberge-exhibition.com/

http://users.vnet.net/schulman/Faberge/eggs.html

http://www.museum.ru/W723

24th Feb (Mon) 7:30 pm - lecture by Prof. Angela Livingstone on Pasternak and Platonov "Dreams, Seasons and Great Admirations" [SUBTITLE 'Early Poems by Pasternak and How to Translate Them']
Professor Angela Livingstone talked about her translations of 9 poems by Pasternak. The translations were published in "Modern Poetry in Translation"

7th Feb (Fri) 7:30 pm - Russian-Scottish dancing event; Fitzwilliam College.

"There must have been nearly 60 people taking part, and although many of them weren't connected with RuSS, the mixture seems to have worked very well, and everyone had a great time trying to keep up with the instructions for both countries' dances! The atmosphere was brilliant - no one had time to think about whether they could do it or not, we all just got carried away and did it somehow! Pat who taught the Russian dances managed brilliantly - you'd need a big personality and presence to deal with such a big group. And Donald, the Scottish teacher, obviously knew exactly what he was doing too and led us through the Cumberland Reel and Dashing White Sergeant as well as other less well know dances with names like Butterscotch and Toffee! Those of us who attended decided it would definitely be worth trying another sort of dance - maybe Salsa? - in combination with the Russian next time - or maybe just more Scottish again, as it worked very well." Alison Wilson

27/01/2003 A lecture "The Birth and Early Years of a Capital City: St Peterburg, 1703-1830s" by Professor Anthony Cross

Prof. Cross followed the history of the city's architecture from its very first steps to the beginning of the 19th century, presenting many slides of old watercolours and engravings, sometimes showing non-existing buildings, construction works still going on in the background, and even very first oil traffic lights.

18/01/2003 Traditional "Old New Year Party"
St.Laurence's RC Primary School, Arbury Rd, Cambridge

16/12/2002 History of SAMIZDAT

The Library, Wolfson Court, Clarkson Rd Cambridge
Martin Dewhurst (from the University of Glasgow) gave a talk on the history of SAMIZDAT (from Pasternak to Solzhenitsyn).

08/11/2002 - "The Quiz Night and Russian Rock Night" at Robinson College organised by Cambridge University Russian Society.

27/10/2002 MUSHROOM WALK
Despite the ravaging storm more than 20 people from Cambridge, Huntingdon, Fenstanton, Hemel-Hampstead, Norfolk took part in our Mushroom Walk in Hinchnigbrook Park. We had a lovely time picking up mushrooms and gathering berries, and a picnic afterwards.