Pablo Neruda and the Soviet Union

Talk on Pablo Neruda’s relationship with the Soviet Union.

In this absorbing presentation, Adam Feinstein – writer, poet, translator, film critic and the acclaimed biographer of Chile’s Nobel Prize-winning poet, Pablo Neruda (his much-praised book, Pablo Neruda: A Passion for Life, was called ‘a masterpiece’ by Harold Pinter) – will trace Neruda’s fascinating relationship with the Soviet Union, from his very first visit in 1949 to celebrate Pushkin’s 150^th anniversary to his final trips there for medical treatment in the early 1970s.

Building on his interviews with Neruda’s friends and colleagues in Russia, including Yevgeny Yevtushenko, Feinstein will bring the poet’s life and work vividly to life with readings from Neruda’s own remarkable account in his memoirs of his many visits to the USSR and delightful anecdotes relating to his friendships with, among others, Ilya Ehrenburg, Konstantin Simonov and Semion Kirsanov. Feinstein will also show rare video-clips of Neruda’s visits to Russia and recite some of Neruda’s moving poems dedicated to the country and its writers, as well as Yevtushenko’s touching lyrical tribute to Neruda.