EVENTS & NEWS
NOVEMBER 2023
A small group of OPA members viewed a selection of Russian art in the Ashmolean museum’s print room and listened to a talk by Dr Caroline Palmer. The museum has one of the best Russian collections in Britain but these can only be viewed by appointment. The collection includes works by Valentin Serov, Natalia Goncharova and Leonid Pasternak.
JULY 2023
Karen Hewitt hosted the OPA annual garden party. For more photos go to our Oxford Gallery page.
photo: Serhii Savynskiy
MARCH 2023
Nina Kruglikova, an Oxford academic and experienced tour guide of Russian connections in Oxford, took
OPA members on tours of Oxford on two consecutive weeks. Nina’s fascinating tour including information about visits to Oxford by Peter the Great, Alexander 1 and Khrushchev, which famous Russians received honorary degrees from Oxford and about Prince Felix Yusupov who studied at University college and was later involved
in the murder of Rasputin. A full report of Nina’s tour can be read in the May 2023 newsletter.
Photo: Nina (on far right) and members of the OPA standing in front of
a huge Siberian vase presented to Merton college by Alexander 1
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FEBRUARY 2023
The Oxford Perm Association AGM was held on 23rd February in the town hall.
After association news, reports from committee members and election of officers the members listened to
a fascinating talk by Dr Alex Pravda entitled ‘The Russian Domestic Dimension of the War in Ukraine’
which was followed by questions and answers.
NOVEMBER 2022
Rosamund Bartlett, gave a fascinating talk at Rewley House entitled:
'A New Look at Russia’s Silver Age: The Arrival of Modernism in 1890s Moscow and St. Petersburg'.
There will be a report of this talk in the January 2023 newsletter.
JULY 2022
Karen Hewitt hosted the annual garden party.
More than 40 people attended including members of the OPA
as well as Russians and Ukrainians living in Oxford.
More photos in our galley here
MARCH 2022
There was a large turnout at the AGM which was held in the town hall on 15th March.
This year there was no visiting speaker but instead a chance to discuss
the current situation in Russia and how best to respond to it.
FEBRUARY 2022
Mary Dejevsky, former Moscow correspondent, writer and broadcaster on foreign affairs
and member of the Valdai discussion group gave an informative and fascinating talk on zoom
about Russia today. A summary of the talk is in the June newsletter.
NOVEMBER 2021
A new virtual exhibition ‘City and Water in photographs from the last century’ can be viewed here.
https://www.permarchive.ru/water/en
Oxford, Perm and Louisville all contributed to this virtual exhibition on the subject of water and water resources and the rivers and canals that flow through, and bring life, to our cities.
OCTOBER 2021
Karen Hewitt gave a talk on zoom called ‘What do Russians think today about the Soviet Union which came to an end thirty years ago?’ Karen based her talk on answers to a questionnaire that she sent out to people all over Russia with different jobs and experiences. The talk reflected a variety of views from those old enough to remember the USSR and a set of conflicitng stereotypes from the younger generations. There was time afterwards for questions and discussion.
photo: Young people going to a demonstration in Perm in the last year of the Soviet Union.
SEPTEMBER 2021
http://www.permarchive.ru/doblest/en/index.html
The exhibition "Perm Krai, the Land of Labor Valor" provides information about the work of industrial plants in the Perm region during the Great Patriotic War. Pages covering the history of individual plants contain brief information about the enterprise and photographs reflecting its activities during that period. The exhibition contains photographs from state and municipal archives and museums, as well as from museums of individual plants in the Perm region. Information about the work of plants has been supplemented by personal stories that contain information about people, their work and the struggles they faced in difficult and heroic war times.
The exhibition focuses on those industrial centers of the Perm region, whose citizens took the initiative to award their city at the federal level with the title "City of Labor Valor" for their heroic work during the Great Patriotic War and their great contribution to the Victory. The city of Perm was one of these and was given this title in 2020.
JULY 2021
Karen Hewitt hosted the annual Perm Association party in her garden.
Heather and Martin Haslett set up a second hand Russian book stall, the profits of which
they donated to the Perm Association.
More photos from the party in our photo gallery here.
photo: Nina Kruglikova
MAY 2021
Watch young dancers from Perm perform as part of the Oxford ‘Spring Awakening’ Global Dance project
performed by dancers from Oxford’s twin cities.
APRIL 2021
Vadim Skovorodin, editor of Business Class newspaper, received an official letter of thanks
from the Mayor of Perm for his work on twinning especially with Oxford.
FEBRUARY 2021
The AGM took place on zoom on 24th February.
After official business a talk was given by Mark Davies, an Oxford local historian who is on the committee of the Lewis Carroll society. The talk 'Lewis Carroll in Volgaland’ was about Carroll’s trip to Russia in the mid nineteenth century.
MAY 2020
Please take a look at Contribution to Victory, an exhibition prepared in time for Victory Day in Russia. The virtual exhibition is dedicated to the 75th anniversary of victory in World War 2, focusing on the twin cities of Perm, Louisville and Oxford.
MARCH 2020
The AGM was held in the Oxford Town Hall on 5th March. There was official business including reports and elections of officers, refreshments and socialising and a talk by Daria Baubakova, director of the Moscow branch of Nochlezka, a charity for the homeless.
FEBRUARY 2020
On 19th February Vadim Skovorodin, Editor of Business Class, an important print-and-website newspaper in Perm, gave a talk about journalism in Perm, civil society and local politics, and the consequences for Perm of the constitutional upheavals in the Russian Government.
FEBRUARY 2020
Russian documentary film maker Sergei Kachkin, originally from Perm, introduced and showed his film 'Perm-36: Reflexion' (2016). The film, about the former Gulag prison, includes interviews with former prisoners and reflects on both Soviet and modern Russian attitudes. The screening took place at St Antony’s College.
JANUARY 2020
Richard Sills, a former Newsletter editor for the Association, gave a talk at St. Anthony’s College on Anthony Jenkinson, the English sixteenth century explorer of Russia. The talk was illustrated with detailed images of Jenkinson’s map. You can read more in the May 2020 newsletter
DECEMBER 2019
Members of the Perm Association made Christmas decorations which were sent to Perm. Six Christmas trees at the Children’s Palace in Perm displayed decorations sent from the twin towns including Oxford. School children wrote letters to children in Perm’s twin towns which they put in boxes by the Christmas trees. The ones for Oxford will be sent to Cumnor school. More photos in the Perm gallery.
OCTOBER 2019
On 6th October Mary Dejevsky, Foreign Correspondent for The Independent and political commentator on Russia, gave a talk to the Oxford Perm Association entitled 'What is going on in Russia today?'. The talk was held in Rewley House.
JULY 2019
The Perm Association held its annual garden party.
JUNE 2018
An OIL Twinning Promotion was held at Oxford town hall. Representatives attended from all the link groups including Susan Gregory, the Perm representative, who discussed Perm with visitors to her stall.
photo: Susan Gregory
MAY 2019
Vodka party
A Vodka-tasting Party was held in May at the North Oxford Community Centre. A group of Russian visitors to Oxford brought their local vodkas. You can read May Wylie's description of the fun evening here in the May 2019 newsletter.
MARCH 2019
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AGM
The AGM was held on 7th March at Oxford Town Hall. After official business and refreshments Sir David Madden, a former British diplomat, gave an entertaining talk on 'A diplomat in Moscow in the 1970s - observing the Soviet Union'.
NOVEMBER 2018
Party for visiting teachers from Perm
Six teachers from Perm State University visited Oxford for three weeks. See more photos of their visit here.
photo: Andrei Khokhryakov
NOVEMBER 2018
Remembrance Sunday in Oxford
Andrei Khokhryakov (centre), a teacher from Perm University, preparing to lay a wreath on behalf of Perm at the war memorial in St. Giles.
photo: Martin Stott
SEPTEMBER 2018
Interview in Perm
On his visit to Perm, Marcus Ferrar was interviewed by Vadim Skovorodin, editor of the local “Business Class” newspaper. Read the interview here which was published in English on a Perm web site.
photo: Evelina Ferrar
SEPTEMBER 2018
Visit to Perm
Eight OPA members spent two weeks in Perm as guests of Perm State University. This was the 29th annual visit from Oxford. Activities included a canoeing trip down the Silva River.
For more pictures see our Gallery
photo: Marcus Ferrar
AUGUST 2018
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Footballers from Perm
Oxford International Links and the Oxford Perm Association arranged for a boys' football team from Perm to come to Oxford for a two week football camp.
photo: Diana Bell
JULY 2018
Garden Party
The Oxford Perm Associaton's annual garden party
photo: Thomas Nicolaou
JULY 2018
Chekhov's Gardens talk by Rosamund Bartlett with contributions from Anna Benn
The talk focused on the gardens Chekhov planted at Melikhovo and in Yalta discussing them in the context of his writing about the natural world. It also discussed the Anton Chekhov’s Garden project, launched in July with a show garden at the RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show (left) designed by Anna Benn and Hannah Gardner.
photo: Rosamund Bartlett
JUNE 2018
'Russian Higher Education Today’
Members of the Oxford Perm Assocociation listened to a talk by Boris Proskurnin, Dean of the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures of Perm State National Research University.
JUNE 2018
An OIL Twinning Promotion was held at Oxford town hall. Representatives attended from all the link groups including Susan Gregory, the Perm representative, who discussed Perm with visitors to her stall.
photo: Susan Gregory
MAY 2018
The signing of the memorandum of understanding between the Vice Chancellor of Oxford university and the rector of Perm university.
photo: Thomas Nicolaou