If you are holding an event related to Russia or her neighbours which you would like us to list on this page please email brief details and an image to info@scotlandrussiaforum.org.  The SRF reserves the right to accept, reject or edit material sent in.

 

1. CEES SEMINARS:  The Seminar due to take place on NOVEMBER 27th 2019  was cancelled because of strike action. It will be rescheduled for a later date, hopefully in early 2020. Please note that these seminars are usually held at 4pm  on Wednesdays in the  Adam Smith Building, R. 915, University of Glasgow.  As much advance notice as possible will be given to SRF members.  Please watch this space! 
All most welcome to attend. 
(Travel by subway to Hillhead Station, exit at Byres Road and go up Great George Street turning off at Bute Gardens. The Adam Smith Building is at the end of Bute Gardens and it faces the University Library. Lift is available.) 

2. STARLING 2020! The first new"STARLING" for 2020 will be held on February 4th at 5pm in  the CEES SEMINAR ROOM, 8 LILYBANK GARDENS,  University of Glasgow. All welcome. Light refreshments will be served. The topic for February is a "romantic" one -  looking at various translations of the "balcony speech" from "Romeo and Juliet", Act 2, Scene 2!  
Dates and topics for the other "Starling" sessions will be published in the January/February SRF "Bulletin" and updated monthly here.  

3. It has been decided to hold a series of SRF "Talks" in the Spring/Summer of 2020. This series will be inaugurated by SRF members Dr. Margarita Vaysman and Professor Peter France. Please look out for the date and topic - the venue will be an Edinburgh one. The next Talk in this new series will be given in March/April by Dr. Shamil' Khairov of the University of Glasgow. In a "Meet the Author" session Dr Khairov will present his new book...Please do come along and support these SRF Talks and bring a friend...
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4 Plans were announced in the SRF November "Bulletin" for a possible SRF trip to Russia...This is an initiative of the SRF Treasurer Peter Harvey. Please contact us at info@scotlandrussiaforum.org 
to express interest or to ask for further information. Peter will be providing more details of costs in the near future. 

5. We welcome the new Russian Consul, Mr Andrei Yakovlev , who took up his post in Edinburgh at the end of 2019. On behalf of SRF we wish him a happy and fruitful time in Edinburgh. 

6. Dr. Andrea Gullotta and Dr.James Rann of the Russian Section, SMLC, University of Glasgow, together with the All-Russia State Library and the Institute for Literary Translation ran  a most successful  Conference in early December 2019 entitled "Translation as an Act  of Cultural Dialogue" (In Honour of the 220th Anniversary of Alexander Puskhin).  Follow-up information from this  Conference will be available in due course.    

7. Many SRF members will recall Stuart Campbell who died on 27th January 2018. "His" Choir will be performing Memorial Vespers on 30 January at 7pm in the Glasgow University Memorial Chapel. More details can be found in our Music Section. After the concert a new short film about Stuart's life will be shown. All most welcome to attend. 

8. Finally, it was a great pleasure to meet Anna Ishkova, a Russian journalist based in Edinburgh! See too our Music Section for details of a Russian Concert to be held in Edinburgh on January 31st - highly recommended by Anna!      

 

AWARDS AND DISTINCTIONS   2019

JUNE 2019  LIEUTENANT COMMANDER DAIRMID GUNN, OBE,  was awarded the Pushkin Medal.
Members will doubtless wish to congratulate long-standing SRF member, Lieutenant Commander Dairmid Gunn, OBE, on this well-deserved  honour. Author of a book on the convoys to Russia during the Second World War, interpreter in the 1950s and posted as assistant naval attache to Moscow in the 1960s, Lieutenant Commander Gunn has served the cause of the promotion of cultural relations between Russia and the UK in a tireless and in an excellent manner. In the 1980s, for example, he was the chairman of the Scottish Branch of the GB-USSR Association and a member of its Council.  This has been a splendid start to the summer and warmest wishes and congratulations are passed on to  Dairmid!     

July 2019 MIROSLAVA BRONNIKOVA has recently been elected as the first ever Russian to be on the Board of Directors of the Edinburgh Fringe! Her appointment will be ratified at the AGM to be held on August 21st. Miroslava reveals that her "...love affair with Edinburgh started in 1999 when  I first came to visit the city with my family for a couple of days in late August".   In 2000 Miroslava spent 3 months studying at St George's School for Girls in Edinburgh and she returned to the city in 2013 to complete a Cambridge CELTA Course. With her husband Ivan she founded a theatre and dance company in Moscow and they are especially proud of their production based on Bulgakov's " Master and Margarita" For information on the two shows Miroslava has at this years Fringe please see https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/all-star-cabaret-the-free-fringe-gala  
 Miroslava's  e-mail address is miroslava.bronnikova@gmail.com and she will be very happy to hear from SRF members! 



Below please find a few future events which should be of interest to members. More details will be given in due course.
1. 2020 is a special anniversary year of the  Scottish poet Edwin Morgan. Morgan translated many Russian poets into Scots and if any SRF member has any personal memories of Morgan and his work we would be delighted to hear from you at info@scotlandrussiaforum.org. There will be a major Edwin Morgan Conference held in Glasgow in April 2020. Watch this space for more details. 
2. In the spring of 2021 the Annual British Congress of Slavists comes to Scotland! There should be many talks and sessions that will be of interest to SRF members. More details to follow in due course.
3. "Starling"  is a new Translation Forum which was set up at Glasgow University last autumn on a trial basis. Its aim is to look at various translation topics with Slavonic and other languages, including Hungarian and Finnish. It has had a very successful first "flight" and will be starting up again in September 2019. "Starling" was "founded" by Christine Bird and she will be sending a message of welcome out to all SRF members  in the autumn. 

Finally, I am sure that all SRF members would like to join in expressing heartfelt thanks to Jenny Carr for all the excellent work she did with SRF over so many years and we all wish her well for her future projects.

A quick reminder here too that Summerhall Arts Centre, Edinburgh  no longer houses the SRF Office. The SRF Office there is now closed. The new postal address in c/o CEES, (Centre for East European Studies) 8 Lilybank Gardens, University of Glasgow , Glasgow G12 8QQ. We do not have an actual office space at CEES but we hope that this affiliation will be an important and a fruitful one for the SRF. We are very grateful to Professor Richard Berry for allowing SRF to be linked to CEES in this way.  To contact us please use the postal address above or email us at info@scotlandrussiaforum.org. Emails are checked on an almost daily basis so we will reply to you as soon as possible.
Thank you.