Elena Sudakova
(Picture: Daniel Hambury/Stella Pictures Ltd)On the corner of Bloomsbury Way stands a genteel yet fairly anonymous London townhouse, overlooking the leafy splendour of Bloomsbury Square. In keeping with the cultural geography of this little enclave of the West End and its association with the progressive Bloomsbury Group, however, this unassuming house has its own radical past. This is Pushkin House, “an independent cultural centre established in London in 1954 during the Cold War by a group of scholars with Russian roots”, the firebrand roots of which its recently appointed executive director Elena Sudakova is dedicated to reigniting.
Pushkin House – named, of course, for the Russian poet and social reformer Alexander Pushkin, who was exiled for his writings – was created in a spirit of intellectual and cultural curiosity in the interest of exchanging ideas. “The founding principle was freedom of speech, so people could debate, they could express themselves freely. And I think that’s one of the most important principles, which we maintain to this day,” says Sudakova, who took over the directorship in June 2021.
