As 2013 is coming to an end, we have lots of exciting events to look forward to, both internationally and closer to home in Cambridge.
Here at CamRuSS, we shall start the year by celebrating the Old Russian New Year on 19th January, which will be a great way to continue the festivities!
For Russian speakers, a performance by Tatiana and Sergey Nikitin on 9th February is highly recommended. They will be singing in Russian to the guitar, and it promises to be a very interesting experience.
On 18th March there will be an opportunity to listen to Professor Simon Franklin, who has studied Russian history and culture extensively.
In the Summer, there will of course be an annual ‘White Nights’ Party which will be a fantastic cultural celebration, with music, food and laughter.
Internationally, 2014 will be the UK-Russia Year of Culture, where both countries will showcase the best of each other’s art, sport, science and education. This is a big step in linking the UK and Russia, not to mention a great opportunity to appreciate and remember these countries’ rich cultural heritage. The year will work as a cultural exchange, with events in Russia celebrating English culture and vice versa.
England will host a variety of Russian – themed events including an exhibition of the works of Malevich at the Tate Modern in July, which will be the first major display of his work in the last twenty five years.
London Kensington Palace will see a performance of the six hundred year old Sretensky Monastery Choir during February, bringing with it a unique celebration of the Russian spirit.
A more family-orientated event will be the Russian Maslenitsa Festival in Trafalgar Square on 2nd March which will be a traditional Russian celebration of spring, with dancing, music and pancakes.
However, probably one of the most anticipated events will be a display of Russian space artefacts at London’s Science Museum which will open in the autumn of 2014. The exhibition will be dedicated to Russia’s space exploration. The objects on display will be real, cosmonaut-flown spacecraft, pioneering rocket engines, space suits and other life support systems. There will also be examples of the personal memorabilia belonging to some of the biggest names in spaceflight. Some of those objects have never left Russia before.
On that note, 2014 will mark a new step in the international space quest. In August NASA’s New Horizons space craft, which aims to reach Pluto by 2015, will cross the orbit of Neptune. Additionally, September will see the first unmanned test flight of Orion, the space ship that eventually will host crewed missions to the moon, asteroids and Mars. Finally, for the first time in two decades, Russia will be sending the first woman, Yelena Serova, into space.
2014 will also prove to be an exciting year in Cambridge, with new additions to the traditional variety of events. The most famous of these will be the start of the third stage of the 101st Tour de France on the 7th July in Cambridge, from which the cyclists will make their way down to the finish in London. It will be a fantastic way to celebrate the city’s enthusiasm for cycling, with students and workers alike opting to travel by bike.
Another very different sporting event will be the 160th Anniversary of the Cambridge versus Oxford Boat Race on April 6th. This annual rowing contest between the two universities stems from a competition between two friends in Henley on Thomas in 1829. Since then, it has grown to become one of the largest free sporting events in London, with spectators having the opportunity to watch the race on the River Thames between Putney and Mortlake.
This is of course in addition to the annual events, such as Cambridge Open Studies on the weekend on April 26th and 27th, where Artists in Cambridge will open their doors to the public. This is a great opportunity to meet the artists in person, as well as being able to discover some unique art, literary works and films.
Have a wonderful year!
Eugenia Grigoryeva, CamRuSS’ trainee correspondent
