The lecture dedicated to, paradoxically, the least known face of the contemporary Russia. The face which demands to look at it from the distance, to take it with a pinch of salt, the face which can also raise a bitter reflection.

Valery Panyushkin
Russia you don’t know
4th of December, 2014, International Cultural Centre in Cracow

Valery Panyushkin (born in 1969 in Leningrad) – a graduate of The Russian University of Theatre Arts in Moscow, director, screenwriter. He is one of the most famous Russian journalists. He’s highly respected for the literary value of his documentaries. He was a reporter of the newspaper “Kommersant” and worked in several radio stations. In 2004 he was awarded the most important Russian journalism prize – "Golden Pen Prize”. In Poland he’s known as the author of books: “Mikhail Khodorovsky: A Prisoner of Silence” (2016), “Gazprom: The New Russian Weapon” (2008), “Twelve Who Don't Agree. The battle for freedom in Putin’s Russia” (2011) and “Rublovka” (2013).

It was another meeting of the cycle of lectures “Polish-Russian dialogue in the International Cultural Centre” concerning the broadly defined knowledge about the contemporary Russia; in particular, concerning cultural, historical and the national heritage issues and the Polish-Russian relations. Th idea of the Russian meetings corresponds to the cycle of debates about the culture of the European countries held in the Ravens House. The idea was initiated by The Centre for Polish-Russian Dialogue and Understanding. The Centre cooperates on this project with the International Cultural Centre.