@sarahjyoung.bsky.social
Russophone culture & history, prison/gulag writing, and C19 literature. Also cats. And needlework. Author/translator of Writing Resistance: Revolutionary Memoirs of Shlissel’burg Prison, 1884-1906 https://uclpress.co.uk/products/173021
I never understood the Soviet obsession with Galsworthy. And I did come across it in the 90s and even early 2000s, Galsworthy being mentioned in the same breath as Dickens. And people being utterly shocked to hear that nobody in Britain reads him any more.
An incredible cover has landed for an incredible book - Philippa Hetherington's "Circulating Subjects: Sex Work and Migration in Russia, 1885–1935."
More on how to pre-order a copy of her "riveting" and "radical" @cornellupress.bsky.social book here: www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501...
Dear everyone,
As per the post from the Bodleian librarian below, AI bots and scrapers are putting just about every website under great pressure, British History Online included.
A lot of excellent tech staff are working hard to keep everything working, but outages and siruptions are inevitable.
Oh boy! What a headline...
Ask yourself:
"What am I being asked to believe?"
"Who am I being told to blame?"
Take a few seconds to imagine what the Daily Mail (And Telegraph, GB News and Express) WANT you to think is going on.
Let's see what's ACTUALLY happening...🧵
1/21
The Smolensk archive, one of the most famous collections for the study of Stalinism and Soviet provincial government, and which supported pioneering research from the 1950s can now be found online
Looking forward to seeing Ukraine Unbroken @arcolatheatre.bsky.social this weekend
On International Women's Day let's remember the women of Barcelona 1936 who began an incipient sexual revolution against reaction but also against the attitudes of own male comrades who for all their utopian rhetoric were often as sexist as ever when home as is often the case around the world.
You can read more about her at www.infinite-women.com/women/ada-lo...
The House of Lords Digital & Communications Committee just published their report on AI, copyright & the creative industries, and their conclusions could not be clearer.
🧵 1/5
Remember my niece being thoroughly shocked when she discovered Robin Hood wasn’t actually a fox.
Superb work.
‘Here we have a book that probably to Flaubert, when he looked at it, would have seemed insane, incoherent, formally appalling, unstable, lunatic.’
James Wood on Dostoevsky’s 𝘕𝘰𝘵𝘦𝘴 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘜𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘨𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥, on our Close Readings subscription podcast. Listen to an extract:
podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/w...
🚨 It looks like the UK government is gearing up to upend copyright law in favour of AI companies, legalising the theft of their work.
This is despite creatives' huge protests, and despite previous proposals being roundly rejected by the public.
Please spread the word.
🧵 1/4
In memory of Pete, we have launched the Pete Duncan Memorial Fund, which will support PhD students at the School. Donations can be made via peter-duncan-2026.muchloved.com
As is only right and proper, Welsh Cakes are #RecipeOfTheDay, with thanks to Heulwen Williams who let me play with her granny’s recipe. Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Hapus!🏴 www.nigella.com/recipes/wels...
They're closing down the best bit of the university (for no reason other than the higher ups apparently thinking this model of collaboration and interdisciplinarity isn't STEMmy enough)
www.ucl.ac.uk/institute-of...
Putin whitewashes the horrors of Stalinist forced labor camps by closing the Gulag History Museum in Moscow & replacing w/ one focused solely on Nazi crimes against the Soviets (which yes, there were), but memorializing one & effacing the other is an utter travesty.
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/20/w...
If you want concentration camps in the UK, people being grabbed off the streets, or murdered on them, five year olds being separated from their parents and locked up #VoteReform
The floor plan for the planned ICE concentration camp in Social Circle, Georgia:
Yet again we in Higher Ed get everything bad from being private institutions, and everything bad from being seen as part of the public sector. We can be sued and sued again for actions which we didn't cause, which hit *us*. And yet ppl think we are backed by govt. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
"First established in 2001, the Gulag History Museum told visitors the story of the Soviet Union’s vast network of forced labor camps, as well as their legacy in modern Russia, with artifacts gathered from all over the country.
Its closure came as Russian authorities have worked to
@oliahercules.bsky.social will cook borsch tomorrow on #SaturdayKitchen 10am live on #BBCOne then at #BBCIplayer. She asks us please to spread the word, especially among 300k strong displaced Ukrainians in the UK+hopes this will be a good boost of morale. #standwithukraine
@nigella.bsky.social
The *only* place it should appear!
My biggest Russian-English translation bugbear: the continued use of “trifles” to translate «пустяки» and «мелочи». Is “trifles” used *anywhere* these days other than in translations of 19th century Russian literature and critical works that cite such translations?
The acolytes of this firm came to leaflet at QMUL as well. They were fairly open about why they had chosen UCL as the first case: moneyed parents, many with law background. Implied dismissiveness of my students.
I feel genuinely sorry for students, but these firms are not in it for the greater good
This is emblematic of the consumer culture that fees have engendered.
What the hell did the students expect? It was a ONCE IN A CENTURY PANDEMIC. There were LAWS against congregating in public. Staff worked themselves to the bone to get online delivery working.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
The suits against universities for changing teaching during the pandemic is such a passive slap in the face to those who taught it. We did our bloody best! I worked hours and hours beyond my contract. I redid an entire curriculum to be online
It wasn’t pleasant to me either!!!
It is with great sadness that we announce the death of our dear colleague and friend, Dr Peter Duncan. Professor Simon Dixon pays tribute to him here: www.ucl.ac.uk/arts-humanit...
Happy Cold War Valentine's Day!
Why can’t I lose weight? asks the woman who lives in a house with two chocolate stashes, gave her partner marc de champagne truffles for Valentine’s Day, and is making this for pud this evening www.theguardian.com/food/2026/fe...