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Alina Sorokina looks at the life and works of the under-performed Russian composer (1861-1906), whose works make up the programme for our concert on 9th March.

The artistic life of Anton Stepanovich Arensky was in most aspects prosperous and successful. He was born to a wealthy family in Nizhny Novgorod, and after his parents discovered his latent musical talent the family moved to Saint Petersburg, where he studied counterpoint, harmony, composition and instrumentation with Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory. However, the outwardly prosperous life of Anton Arensky was always darkened with two demons which haunted him permanently: debauchery and wine.

How the USSR adapted the traditional Russian symbol of the bathhouse

This collection of posters mostly date back to the Soviet era. The origins of the posters stretch from Russia to Mongolia and Ukraine, and were predominantly created to encourage the general public to use the banya. Noticeably, many of the posters focus on practicality and hygiene rather than socialising in the banya — from highlighting the dangers of dirt to illustrating ideal layouts for well functioning banyas, the images depict hard working civilians who visit the banya as part of a healthy lifestyle. It is clear from the nature of these images that the running of banyas had become an interest of the state.

Madeleine Cuckson explores the steamy history of the Russian bathhouse

In 1113, a monk named Andrew wrote in The Primary Chronicle of his travels around the areas that would become Russia. Andrew observed that banya goers “make of the act not a mere washing but a veritable torment”. It is clear from early on that international interpretations of the banya have often been misinformed. From marital rituals, to the legacies of peasants and Tsarinas alike who have given birth there, the banya is an enduring, uniting pillar of Russian identity…

Peter Lowe draws from the experiences of two writers, Maxim Gorky (who visited the Gulags) and Pavel Florensky (who was imprisoned at Solovki), in his review of Zakhar Prilepin’s 2014 novel The Monastery.

Within the history of the Soviet era and its prison camps, the monastery site of Solovki occupies a particularly conflicted place. Set in the north of the country, on one of the Solovetsky Islands in the White Sea, it had been a place of pilgrimage for Russian Orthodox penitents for six centuries before the Bolsheviks began, in 1923, to see that its remoteness might prove useful for other purposes…

Josephine von Zitzewitz presents three poet-translator pairs, and their thoughts, experiences and challenges. With contributions from Katherine E. Young and Dmitrii Manin.

Translating a living poet is a special experience. And establishing a working relationship with a living author has never been easier. The internet not only makes geography irrelevant, but has also become the most important publication venue for new poetry in Russian, not least through poets’ personal social media feeds. If you’re a translator with a working relationship with a Russian-language poet, Pushkin House’s Russian Poetry in Translation Residency is now open for applications until 7th October!

Exclusively for Pushkin House, academic Josephine von Zitzewitz (UiT The Arctic University of Norway) interviews Irina Flige, director of the Memorial Research & Information Centre, St Petersburg. They speak about the legacy of political repression, and efforts to document it - and opposition to its documentation. Their conversation touches on why Memorial focuses on the material evidence of repression, and mentions topics such as the Sandormokh burial site, the case of Yurii Dimitriev, and newer projects.

James Pearce considers how the memory of Russia’s plague of 1771 may give some insight into how this year’s pandemic will be treated by historians

As someone who researches history in the present day, I often ponder how modern Russia will be taught to my children and grandchildren. Especially now – I cannot pass a single tweet, newspaper article or a conversation without 'extraordinary times' thrown in somewhere. Indeed they are, but Russia has had extraordinary times and epidemics before. I decided to flick through my vast collection of Russian history books recently in search of those epidemics, and something that particularly stood out as food for thought would be the Moscow plague riots of 1771…

Hugo Cantrell examines how a 17th-century English philosopher can shine a light on 21st-century Russia’s greatest filmmaker.

In the years since Zvyagintsev’s seminal film Leviafan (Leviathan, 2014) was released, its relevance has hardly diminished. Both a stunning art film and a polemic on endemic corruption and social malaise in the Russian borderlands, Leviafan represents the best of Russian cinema since the turn of the millennium. More to the point, it is the best examination by a Russian director of the structures of hierarchy and patronage that make up Kremlin politics…