Vasily Grossman After Life and Fate with Robert Chandler

Add to your list(s) Download to your calendar using vCal

• Robert Chandler
• Wednesday 24 September 2025, 18:30-20:30
• Trinity Hall, Main Lecture Theatre, Trinity Lane, Cambridge CB2 1TJ.

If you have a question about this talk, please contact Ksenia Afonina.

You are warmly invited to a special event marking the 120th anniversary of the birth of Vasily Semyonovich Grossman (1905–1964). Join us for a talk by Robert Chandler, renowned translator and editor of Grossman’s works, as he explores the powerful writings from the final years of Grossman’s life. This talk will shed light on the themes, historical context, and literary significance of Grossman’s later works, including those completed under censorship and in internal exile.

When: Wednesday, 24 September, 18:30-20:00 (BST)

Where: Trinity Hall, Main Lecture Theatre, Trinity Lane, Cambridge CB2 1TJ

Language: English

Format: In-person & Online via Zoom

In-person tickets: £9 – Standard, £6 – CamRuSS members and concessions

Zoom tickets: £5 – Standard, free – CamRuSS members & students.

Access to the video recording is included with all ticket purchases

Video recording only: £5

This event will be followed by a drinks reception.

Please book your tickets via AllEvents, https://shorturl.at/R51M2

More details on our website, https://shorturl.at/FDq0T

Robert Chandler first began learning Russian at the age of 15. At 20, he spent a year in Voronezh as a British Council Exchange scholar—the city where Andrey Platonov was born and where Osip Mandelstam was exiled. It was there that he first read these two writers, who have remained central to his work and life. Among the many authors he has translated are Sappho, Apollinaire, Alexander Pushkin, Teffi, Andrey Platonov, Vasily Grossman, the Uzbek novelist Hamid Ismailov, and the underappreciated poet Lev Ozerov, a Russophone Jew from Ukraine. Chandler has also edited and co-translated three anthologies for Penguin Classics: of Russian poetry, Russian short stories, and further Russian poetry. In addition to his translation work, he runs workshops in London, teaches at an annual summer school, and has mentored younger translators. Before committing to translation full-time, he worked for eight years as a teacher of the Alexander Technique—a discipline focused on voice, breath, and movement.

Image: Robert Chandler (https://madhat-press.com/pages/robert-chandler.png)

This talk is part of the The Cambridge Russian-Speaking Society series.

This talk is included in these lists:

• Trinity Hall, Main Lecture Theatre, Trinity Lane, Cambridge CB2 1TJ
• The Cambridge Russian-Speaking Society

Note that ex-directory lists are not shown.