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Wednesday 22 August
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Moscow Diary - Book Launch
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Moscow Diary by Marjorie Farquharson. Matador, 2018.
A diary posthumously published on behalf of the author, an extraordinary westerner who set up Amnesty International’s first Information Office in Moscow in 1991. Amnesty colleagues Ian Martin and Nicola Duckworth, and Quaker Peter Jarman will talk about Marjorie and Amnesty’s work in Russia. 6-8pm Amnesty Bookshop, 12 Roseneath St, Marchmont, Edinburgh EH9 1JH Booking essential - tel. 0131 560 1486 or email info@scotlandrussiaforum.org. No charge but donations to Amnesty International welcome. Copies of Moscow Diary will be on sale (and will be available in the Amnesty Bookshop after the event too). THIS EVENT IS NOW FULLY BOOKED. Please let us know of cancellations since we have a waiting list. Organised by the Scotland-Russia Forum and the Edinburgh Amnesty Bookshop |
Moscow Diary is the diary kept by Marjorie Farquharson during the period in which she established Amnesty International’s Information Office in Moscow, a unique venture during a fascinating period of change. In 1991, Marjorie was the first westerner working on human rights with a permanent base. It was particularly important because for years the USSR had considered Amnesty an anti-Soviet organisation - “a nest of spies” so to speak.
Marjorie’s role together with her penetrating perceptions and her entertaining style of writing make this a very interesting account which combines insights into the politics of human rights and into the unusually wide range of people Marjorie encountered. Most westerners in Moscow lived a life apart with access to foreign currency shops and good-quality food. Marjorie chose instead to live as an ordinary Muscovite, in one room with a small kitchen, even when, in 1992, the inflation rate in Russia soared to more than 2000%.
Marjorie Farquharson worked in the field of human rights and the USSR and post-Soviet States for over 30 years. She was Amnesty International’s first representative in the Soviet bloc, worked as the Director of the EU TACIS project, worked in 44 of Russia’s federal regions as a Council of Europe Officer, and helped establish a regional ombudsman institution there. She was a freelance researcher, writer and translator since 2001 and worked in all 5 Central Asian States. She died in Edinburgh in 2016.
Ian Martin was Secretary General of Amnesty International at that time and visited Marjorie in Moscow. Nicola Duckworth worked for Amnesty International at its International Secretariat in London since 1983 in various capacities, including as researcher on the Soviet Union before moving to specialize on the countries of the South Caucasus. She was AI’s Director of the Europe and Central Asia Department and later Senior Director of Research.
Peter Jarman served as a Quaker representative in Russia based in Moscow 1991-1994. Before then as the Europe Secretary of Quaker Peace and Service he visited the Soviet Union about 30 times and was engaged with conflict resolution and human rights issues that brought him into contact with Marjorie.
Marjorie’s role together with her penetrating perceptions and her entertaining style of writing make this a very interesting account which combines insights into the politics of human rights and into the unusually wide range of people Marjorie encountered. Most westerners in Moscow lived a life apart with access to foreign currency shops and good-quality food. Marjorie chose instead to live as an ordinary Muscovite, in one room with a small kitchen, even when, in 1992, the inflation rate in Russia soared to more than 2000%.
Marjorie Farquharson worked in the field of human rights and the USSR and post-Soviet States for over 30 years. She was Amnesty International’s first representative in the Soviet bloc, worked as the Director of the EU TACIS project, worked in 44 of Russia’s federal regions as a Council of Europe Officer, and helped establish a regional ombudsman institution there. She was a freelance researcher, writer and translator since 2001 and worked in all 5 Central Asian States. She died in Edinburgh in 2016.
Ian Martin was Secretary General of Amnesty International at that time and visited Marjorie in Moscow. Nicola Duckworth worked for Amnesty International at its International Secretariat in London since 1983 in various capacities, including as researcher on the Soviet Union before moving to specialize on the countries of the South Caucasus. She was AI’s Director of the Europe and Central Asia Department and later Senior Director of Research.
Peter Jarman served as a Quaker representative in Russia based in Moscow 1991-1994. Before then as the Europe Secretary of Quaker Peace and Service he visited the Soviet Union about 30 times and was engaged with conflict resolution and human rights issues that brought him into contact with Marjorie.
Friday 21 September |
Masha Karp : Orwell and Russia
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4.30pm
venue tbc (probably 50 George Square, University of Edinburgh More information to follow on https://www.ed.ac.uk/literatures-languages-cultures/english-literature/events Organised by Edinburgh University, School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures / English Literature |
The author of the first Russian biography of George Orwell will discuss why it is useful to look at Orwell through a Russian lens. Orwell never visited Russia, but he devoted most of his adult life to thinking about the country. The talk will address Orwell's perception of socialism and the Soviet Union, his sources of information about the Soviet regime, how Nineteen Eighty-Four was received in the USSR, and why Orwell is so popular in modern Russia, where his dystopia was once again a bestseller in 2017.
Masha Karp is a Committee Member of the Orwell Society and the Editor of its Journal, as well as a translator of English and German poetry and prose, including Virginia Woolf, George Orwell, Dylan Thomas, W.H. Auden, Elizabeth Jennings, Alice Munro, Andreas Griffius and Nicolaus Lenau. She is also a journalist with a special interest in relations between Russia and the West. Her articles have been published by The Independent, Standpoint, The Spectator, Open Democracy, and Common Review. Masha was Russian Features editor (1997-2009) and producer (1991-1997) with the BBC Russian Service, as well as a producer and presenter on Radio 4 and BBC World Service radio programmes. She is a member of the St Petersburg Writers' Union and the Literary Translators Guild in Russia.
Masha Karp is a Committee Member of the Orwell Society and the Editor of its Journal, as well as a translator of English and German poetry and prose, including Virginia Woolf, George Orwell, Dylan Thomas, W.H. Auden, Elizabeth Jennings, Alice Munro, Andreas Griffius and Nicolaus Lenau. She is also a journalist with a special interest in relations between Russia and the West. Her articles have been published by The Independent, Standpoint, The Spectator, Open Democracy, and Common Review. Masha was Russian Features editor (1997-2009) and producer (1991-1997) with the BBC Russian Service, as well as a producer and presenter on Radio 4 and BBC World Service radio programmes. She is a member of the St Petersburg Writers' Union and the Literary Translators Guild in Russia.