The Birch

• On Tuesday, December 4th at noon in 1219 International Affairs Building Anna Kirey of the Human Rights Watch deliver a talk titled LGBT Activism and State Regulation of Sexuality in Central Asia.
• In the Lindsay Rogers Room (707 International Affairs Building) on Wednesday, December 5th from 5pm-8pm, a panel of seven speakers will discuss the recent elections in Georgia, Ukraine, Belarus, and Lithuania. The event will be broken into two parts: at 5pm speakers will analyze the elections; at 6:30 election monitors from the two countries will deliver eye-witness reports of their experiences. More information.
• Polish-Hungarian pianist Piotr Anderszewski will be performing at 8 pm on Thursday, December 6th at Carnegie Hall. Click here for more information about the musician and ticket information. 
• This Friday, December 7th from 4pm-6:30 pm the Jordan Center for the Advanced Study of Russia will be hosting 20 Cossacks on Horseback: 1812 and Civic Spectacle, hosted by Nancy Condee. More information about the event and Nancy Condee.

• Today at 6pm in room 1219 of the International Affairs Building, John-Paul Himka will discuss four different works on the Ukranian famine to uncover the “memory discourse” surrounding the tragic event in a talk titled Encumbered Memory: The Ukrainian Famine of 1932 -33.
• On Tuesday, November 20th at 6:15 pm in room 1219 of the International Afairs Building join professor Anna Veronika Wendland for a talk titled Atomogrady: Nuclear Cities between Utopia and Disaster in Russia, Ukraine, and Lithuania 1965-2011 in which she will discuss the utopian dreams and the sometimes disastrous realties of the cities that sprang up around nuclear reactors in the Soviet Union.
• As part of the RACC Literary Series, on Tuesday, November 20th at 6:30 pm author Emil Draitser will do a talk about his new novel From Here to Wherever: An Odessa novel, a tragicomic account of the mass Jewish migration of the Jews from the Soviet Union during the ’70s,at Russian Bookstore No. 21 (located on 174 Fifth Ave in Manhattan).
• Playing this Friday through Sunday is the musical Isaac Babel and the Gangster King, a “Fiddler On the Roof meets The Godfather” performance based on a fictional group of five friends in 1936 who write and stage an opera about Babel’s fictional gangster Benya Krik. Click here for more information about show-times and tickets.

• American diplomat John Kornblum will deliver a talk titled Bringing Peace to the Caucasus today from 4-6pm in the Columbia Faculty House. Kornblum has served as assistant secretary of state for European affairs, U.S. ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, and deputy U.S. ambassador to NATO, among other positions. Though the event is free and open to the public, registration is required.
• From Thursday, November 15th through Saturday November 17th the Tribeca Film Center will be screening 18 Polish films for New Generation of Polish Filmmakers. Admission is free with online registration.
• Also from Thursday, November 15th through Saturday, November 17th a panel of European authors (including plenty of Slavs) will be reading as part of the 9th annual New Literature from Europe Festival. Check out the event website for information about the various readings.
• As part of their Art Documentary Series, this Friday, November 16th from 5:40-8:40 pm Hunter College will be screening about the artists who became “court painters” from Peterine Russia through the time of the USSR. The documentary will examine the lives of Nikoly Andreev, Isaak Brodsky, Alfred Eberling, and Dmitri Nalbandian. Following the screening, there will be a discussion with Dr. Emil Draitser and Dr. Regina Khidekel. Those interested in attending should RSVP to RussCulture@aol.com no later than November 14th.

…Do you like opera? Do you like four hour epics by all-star Russian casts that haven’t been performed at the Metropolitan Opera in over ten years? Then you should check out Modest Mussorgsky’s Khovanshchina, because it is starting this today…

…Oh, you prefer the visual to the musical? Then you might be interested in listening to Sound of Silence: Art During Dictatorship, an exhibit at the EFA (with beer from the Brooklyn Brewery!) featuring nine young artists from Belarus in solidarity with public protests against the December 2010 elections. The opening reception is today from 6-8 PM, but it runs until March 10th. Feast your eyes…

…What’s that? You’re more into film? By “film,” do you mean Hipsters, a “candy-colored musical” set in Moscow in 1955 as youths flirt with protest by trying to introduce the American jazz scene to Russia, currently playing at Cinema Village? Because, if so, do we have a silver screen for you…

…Or, you could go to the Film Society of Lincoln Center on February 28th to see Man of Iron, in which case you could find out more on the website of the Polish Cultural Institute…

…If you prefer stage to screen, you could head to the Central Public Library in Brooklyn on March 3rd for a reading of Ask Joseph, a new play by Steps Theatre. It draws inspiration from the plays of Anton Chekhov and the prose of Joseph Brodsky. If you’re intrigued (and, really, why wouldn’t you be), there’s no need to ask Joseph for more information—just do some reading of your own right here…

…And, finally, the Harriman Institute right here at Columbia is bringing us a talk on The Institute of the History of Ukraine: History and Activity by Dr. Oskana Yurkova on February 28th; a lecture on Berezovsky vs. Abramovich: English Justice Meets Russian Business given by Victoria Koroteyeva and moderated by Katharina Pistor on February 29th, and a conference on March 2nd and March 3rd on Labor Migration in the Post-Soviet World. Information on all three events is available on the Harriman Institute’s website…

…On November 14th (that’s this afternoon!), join the Harriman Institute for a panel discussion on “Putin’s Russia and the Upcoming Elections.” Timothy Frye, Director of the Harriman Institute, will be moderating a panel composed of journalists, academics, and think tankers alike. The event will take place from 12 PM to 2 PM in Garden Room 2 of Faculty House, 64 Morningside Drive…

…For those of you who may be Brooklyn bound this evening, the documentary “The Story of Fenist,” an award-winning documentary about a puppeteer (a phrase I never thought I’d have the opportunity to write) is playing at BAM (30 Lafayette Avenue) from 4:30 PM to 5:30 PM. Head on over to their website for more information… 

…On November 15th and 16th, Torn, a movie about a Polish priest moving to Israel after discovering his Jewish roots premiers in New York at the Other Israel Film Festival…

…Do you like crime scenes? How about Europe? Crime Scene: Europe, the 8th Annual New Literature from Europe Festival runs from November 15th to November 20th. This genuinely looks incredibly cool (which is not to say that the rest of you don’t, other events!)…

…The Classic Stage Company’s production of Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard starts November 16th! Chekhov is the inspiration for many things, including all of the ellipses in this blog post, and you can go ahead and get your tickets here…

…A documentary on Egor Letov is playing at the Brooklyn Public Library (10 Grand Army Plaza) on November 17th from 7PM to 9PM. It’s free(!), and you can find out more about it here…

…And now, for a good cause: a Benefit Concert for Children’s Cancer Center in Georgia at Merkin Concert Hall at Kaufman Center (129 W. 67th Street) at 7 PM on November 19th… 

-Don’t miss the second half of New York’s annual Russian Film Week, running through Novemeber 4th and hosted by Village East Cinema in on 181 Second Avenue , NY. Check out the schedule of events here. Prices vary by event.

-Tonight at 7:30 pm the JCC in Manhattan will screen the Polish film Little Rose, winner of the Golden Lion at the Polish Film Festival, followed by a Q&A with director Jan Kidawa-Blonski. Tickets are $11 for nonmembers, $9 for members.

-This Wednesday from 8:00pm to 10:00pm in the Lerner West Ramp Lounge Columbia students are invited to unwind from Midterms at the Russian music night, cohosted by the Columbia Russian International Association. We promise not to play this song on repeat.

-On Thursday, November 3rd from 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm, the Harriman Institute will be hosting a talk with author Esther Gitman and documentary producer Jadranka Juresko-Kero discussing Esther’s latest book in which she examines how Jews survived in “The Independent State of Croatia.” The event is free and open to the public.

-The Ukrainian Institute of America will be hosting the premier screening of Genocide Revealed, a documentary examining the famine-genocide in Soviet Ukraine from 1932-1933. The event will take place at 7:00 pm on Friday, November 4th. Tickets $15 for adults, $10 for students and seniors.