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Professor Kelly`s studies of national identity in Russia seek to challenge stereotypes about enduring traditions of political oppression and social decay as the culture`s main characteristics. Focusing on everyday life rather than high politics, they work towards an understanding of change within Russian culture, and of the part played by factors such as generation and locality in producing often very diverse forms of self-expression and self-understanding. A central topic is the role of social memory, whether as a force of solidarity or as an engine of argument. Kelly`s work draws directly on collaborations with Russian scholars and informants and has been widely noted in media and online discussions within the country, as well as informing media discussion of Russia and social policy work in the UK and elsewhere in the West.
Professor Figes's research on private lives in Soviet Russia has played a significant role in transforming public understanding of Soviet history in the UK and internationally. Two of his books are at the heart of this case study: The Whisperers (2008) and Just Send Me Word (2012) with combined international, multilingual sales of over 170,000. Between them, they have impacts both in cultural life — introducing a new understanding of life in Soviet Russia and new resources for education and research — and, as publishing successes, in economic terms. His research also provided the basis for retrieving archive materials belonging to the Russian NGO, Memorial, from a raid by Russian authorities.
Francis Spufford's book Red Plenty has been acclaimed as an ironic reflection on contemporary problems, despite being apparently devoted to the deadest of issues: central planning in the former USSR. The book has helped stimulate debate about alternative economic strategies, with the title becoming shorthand for non-market forms of organisation, and has contributed to rising interest in Soviet history. But besides achieving these topical resonances, it has been saluted for its innovative fusion of fiction and non-fiction, and its contribution to an ongoing erosion of literary boundaries. It has been released in eight languages and in the USA, with in excess of 25,000 copies sold to date; it has been shortlisted for several major book prizes. Spufford has engaged in extensive public discussion of the work, both at live events and in the broadcast media, and this has sparked voluminous on-line commentary from the wider public.
University of Glasgow research has contributed to the founding and development of two unique research networks, the Glasgow Refugee, Asylum and Migration Network (GRAMNet) and Translating Russian and East European Cultures (TREEC), creating new, innovative forums for dialogue and influence on refugee, asylum and migration policy across Scotland and beyond. By cultivating relationships with policy-makers, practitioners and other stakeholders, Glasgow researchers have enhanced service delivery for marginalised groups such as LGBT asylum seekers, and informed policy debates at local, regional and national level. GRAMNet and TREEC have also fed directly into a series of public engagement events and activities around the translation, performance and memorialisation of different cultures in Scotland.
Dr Finnin's research has raised and enriched the profile of Ukraine as a multi-ethnic and multi-confessional cultural space bound together by projects of inter- and intra-national solidarity. His scholarly work has inspired and informed a high-profile public engagement programme, which has centred on an annual film festival launched in 2008, an annual evening of literary readings begun in 2010, and two exhibitions in 2009 and 2010. In Ukraine these outputs have in turn garnered extensive media attention, contributing to the preservation of a beleaguered cultural tradition and to the reconciliation of national communities (Ukrainian, Russian, Crimean Tatar) all with traumatic pasts.
Staging Russian plays in British theatres presents specific difficulties, ranging from the remoteness of cultural and historical points of reference down to the complexity of Russian names. Dr Curtis's interpretative, biographical and editorial studies of Russian drama have assisted companies such as the RSC, the National Theatre, the Belgrade Theatre (Coventry) and Complicité to overcome these barriers to staging Russian plays. She has achieved this through running educational workshops for the companies, talks, translations, event planning, help to props and other departments, and the writing of theatre programmes, bringing cultural and educational enrichment to professionals and public.
Previously unexplored aspects of the life and works of Russia's first Nobel Prize winner for literature, Ivan Bunin (1870-1953), were used in supporting new translations of the author's books, Dark Avenues and The Village. Glasgow researcher Andrei Rogatchevski supplied the key supplements to what were the first new translations of Bunin's work in three decades. These volumes, published by Alma Classics, have sold a combined total of 3,433 copies in the UK and overseas, exceeding the publisher's sales target and garnering positive critical acclaim.
Donald Rayfield's biography of Chekhov, Anton Chekhov: A life has transformed Russia's understanding of its cultural icon, as attested by the fact that the Russian government has bought 200 copies of it to disseminate among higher education institutions. The biography has achieved this: 1. by challenging myths about the great humanity of the playwright and stimulating public debate around this — both in Russia and further afield — in light of the facts it unearthed about Chekhov's tumultuous private life, which had been excised from Soviet editions of his works and correspondence; and 2. by inspiring filmmakers, theatre directors and actors to create new works that disseminate new interpretations of Chekhov's personality and of the relationship between his writings and his life.
Publications analysing political mobilisation during the English revolution, widely disseminated through sales of the book God's Fury, England's Fire, reviews, and in public engagement activities, have shaped public understandings of how popular support for radical politics can be mobilised. The book's central arguments have made a significant contribution to contemporary political and social debates and have shaped the work of programme makers and other creative artists. The widespread use of the book in teaching in higher education and at A Level in the UK and internationally means that it has played a central role in shaping student understandings of this key period of English history.
The impact is based on research challenging conventional approaches to state-media relations in multicultural societies, with particular reference to Russia. The body of research has (a) informed the work of policy makers and NGOs by providing them with a more nuanced view of media-state relations in Russia, and of their implications for international affairs, including the rise of new cold war tensions; (b) made these groups aware of the importance of inter-ethnic and interfaith tensions to Russian media practices, and of parallels with media practices elsewhere; (c) contributed to the enhancement of public comprehension of the complexities of the Russian media environment.