An Evening with Oleg Radzinsky: All Things Considered

The Read Russia programme, in conjunction with Chance For Life Foundation, will be hosting an evening with Oleg Radzinsky and BBC columnist Alexander Kan. The event will be held in Russian.

Moderator: Alexander Kan, staff writer for the BBC on arts and culture, jury member for the Bolshaya Kniga/Big Book prize.

Oleg Radzinsky, son of Russian writer, historian and playwright Edvard Radzinsky, is a former investment banker turned writer. He graduated from Moscow State University with a degree in Russian Literature and Language. In 1982, he was arrested by the KGB and subsequently convicted on charges of anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda. He was released in 1987 and shortly after emigrated to the United States.

Upon having obtained a graduate degree from Columbia University in International Finance and after many years working on Wall Street, Radzinsky returned to Moscow to serve as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Russian’s largest Internet company, Rambler Media Group, in 2002. He remained in this post until 2006. He currently resides with his family in London.

Radzinsky is the author of the novels Surinam andAgafonkin and Timeand two short story collections, Visitingand Ivan’s Freedom.Agafonkin and Timewas long-listed for the Russian Booker Prize, short listed for the Arkady and Boris Strugatsky Prize, and won the New Horizons Award.

In October 2018 the publisher Corpus, a division of AST Publishing House, released Radzinsky’s autobiography, Accidental Lives, as well as a new edition of Surinam. Agafonkin and Timehas been translated into English but has not yet been published. A French translation ofSurinam is in the works.

All the raised money will be transferred to charitable foundation Life Line in Russia. You can also donate here.