Faust. Eine Tragödie. 1808. 309 Seiten, Hagen 310 D1, a photo by H.-P.Haack, Wikimedia Commons
My biggest urge to write fiction came from my desire to communicate my ideas including thoughts on science. When I was a kid I was inspired by science fiction books by Jules Verne and Arthur Conan Doyle.… Read the rest
Anna Karenina – UK film poster (© 2012 Focus Features)
Last autumn I attended an open casting for background (extra) appearances in the upcoming film Anna Karenina and was picked for one of the roles.
Why did I apply in the first place?… Read the rest
Struggling to take your hobby to a professional level? Work takes all your time and leaves nothing for your hobby of passion? Whining that life is too hard on you? Pizza is too fattening? And the boss is too intimidating? Well, we all have little obstacles trying to stop us from reaching our dreams.… Read the rest
Pussy Riot, photo by Игорь Мухин at ru.wikipedia [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
A theme of imprisonment is very popular in Russian literature.
It probably started with Pushkin, Lermontov and other poets of Russian Golden Age who often criticised Tzar, the autocratic Russian State and the lack of freedoms for serfs and other poor people. … Read the rest
Red Primer for Children and Diplomats by Victor Vashi, 1967
Imagine a boy growing up in a totalitarian state where sexism, chauvinism, homophobia and general disrespect to human life and personal freedom were a norm. Imagine this boy growing up as a coward and a liar because he feared to tell others, even with his own parents and siblings, the only thing about himself he knew for sure: he was a girl on the inside.… Read the rest
How many modern Russian books have you read or contemporary Russian authors you heard of? Outside Russia its literature is primarily associated with Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Chekhov, Bulgakov, Pasternak and Solzhenitsyn. Their books are often in top 100 must-read lists. Yet, it’s strange that the riches of Post-Soviet literature don’t spread much to the West as if being stopped by an invisible barrier.… Read the rest