How can we gain new insights into Soviet history through the story of one building? What are the legacies of ordinary people caught up in historical events, where personal experiences of sacrifice, survival and hope intersect with politics and ideology? This discussion brings together Dr Maurice J. Casey and Simon Parkin, two authors whose recent books consider these questions from different – though interlinked – vantage points: one a Leningrad seed bank and the other a luxury hotel in Moscow.
Maurice Casey is a historian based at Queen’s University Belfast and the author of Hotel Lux: An Intimate History of Communism’s Forgotten Radicals. His book is the first English-language history of Moscow’s Hotel Lux, the nexus of international communism, and traces the lives of the radical activists who lived there and the trajectory of their dreams from hope to tragedy. Simon Parkin, contributing writer at The New Yorker, is the author of The Forbidden Garden of Leningrad: A True Story of Science and Sacrifice in a City under Siege: a new history of the scientists working at the world’s first Seed Bank in Leningrad during the Nazi siege, and an examination of the politicisation of science under Stalin.
As well as re-examining familiar eras of history through new eyes, Maurice and Simon will discuss their process of researching Russian and Soviet histories in the current geopolitical context, accessing archives, and rediscovering long-lost documents and sources.
The conversation will be moderated by writer and journalist Julia Wheeler.
Dr Maurice J. Casey is a Research Fellow at Queen's University Belfast. His research interests include radical politics in the interwar period, sexuality in early twentieth century Ireland, and the history of international communism. He has curated two exhibitions: Out in the World: Ireland’s LGBTQ+ Diaspora and Revolutionary Routes: Ireland and the Black Atlantic, which opened at 'EPIC' The Irish Emigration Museum in Dublin in 2021 and 2022 respectively. He also contributes as a researcher and interviewee for historical podcasts, radio and TV. Hotel Lux is his first book and was published by Footnote in August 2024.
Simon Parkin is an award-winning writer and journalist. He is a contributing writer for the New Yorker and a fellow of the Royal Historical Society. Over the past decade Parkin has contributed to The New York Times, Harper's, The Guardian, New Statesman, BBC and a variety of other publications. He is a finalist in the Foreign Press Association Media Awards and recipient of two awards from the Society of Professional Journalists. His previous books include A Game of Birds and Wolves and The Island of Extraordinary Captives, which was a New Yorker Book of the Year and won the Wingate Literary Prize. The Forbidden Garden of Leningrad was published by Hodder & Stoughton in November 2024.
Julia Wheeler is a journalist and author who worked for the BBC for more than 15 years, including as the BBC’s Gulf Correspondent. She chairs discussions across the UK and internationally, including at the British Library and Royal Geographical Society and the Cheltenham (Literature and Science) and Hay Festivals, and she is a Stratford Literary Festival trustee. Julia wrote the award-winning book Telling Tales: An Oral History of Dubai, capturing stories of court intrigue, pearl diving and gold smuggling, plus the early days of education and banking. She read Economic and Social History before postgraduate study in Broadcast Journalism at City University, London.
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