Participants 2026

Illustrator and teacher. Born in Tashkent, she lives and works in Berlin. She works in book, magazine, and advertising illustration.

Friederike Meltendorf studied translation at the Humboldt University of Berlin and at the Moscow State Linguistic University in Moscow, and has been working as a literary

Mikhail Bokov is a former journalist for Batenka.ru and Kommersant. He was born in the closed city of Arzamas-16 (Sarov), studied theology, and lives in Berlin.

Natalia Krupenina is a linguist by education and an editor and analyst by profession. She lives in Riga (and writes with great love

Zhenya Berezhnaya is a Ukrainian writer, a finalist for the Dar 2026 shortlist, a PEN scholarship recipient in Germany, and a co-organizer of the Litbrunch Berlin project.

Anastasia Patlai is a director of documentary productions at the Teatr.doc, the Meyerhold Center, the Sakharov Center and the Museum of Architecture in Moscow, as well as

Alexey Voinov is a writer and contributor to Mamleev's magical realism anthology. A translator, "the Russian voice of Duras and Guibert," he has published nearly fifty translations of Bessette.

Anna Desnitskaya is an artist, illustrator, and collage artist. A graduate of the Moscow State University of Printing Arts, Desnitskaya has illustrated numerous children's books, including "Two

Katharina Grossmann-Hensel is a Berlin-based artist and children's book illustrator. Her works have been published in 17 languages ​​and have received recognition for their outstanding achievements.

My name is Yuri Troitsky. I am a lawyer by profession, specializing in corporate tax law. I was born in Kursk and moved to Kursk after graduating from university.

Mikhail Fenichev is a St. Petersburg poet, lyricist and performer in the groups 2H Company, Yes Yes Yes, IIIH Company, and winner of the Stepnoy Prize.

Varvara Babitskaya is a translator, literary critic, and editor. She edited literary and cultural sections and published on the OpenSpace.ru portal, and later on Colta.ru.

Arseniy Rovinsky was born in 1968 in Kharkiv. He studied at the Moscow State Pedagogical Institute. He has lived in Copenhagen since 1991.

Valery Ledenev, born in 1985 in Moscow, is a poet and art historian. He graduated from the Moscow City Psychological and Pedagogical University in 2007.

Tatyana Felgenhauer is a journalist and radio host. She works for Mediazona and The Breakfast Show. She is a former employee of Ekho Moskvy.

Grigory Petukhov was born in 1974 in Sverdlovsk. He graduated from the Literary Institute in Moscow and worked as a television journalist. He has published in the magazines Oktyabr and Znamya.

Lera Auerbach is a poet and writer whose work combines literature and music into a single artistic whole. Her poetry and prose have been awarded

Alexander Ivanov, historian and economist, author of the blog History of Economics, numerous articles, and several books. His work focuses on

Petr Turekhin, St. Petersburg. Lives between Berlin and São Paulo. Graduated from the Smolny Institute of Liberal Arts and Sciences with a degree in Literature. Author of the novels "Emergence," "Male"

Kirill Shcherbitsky was born in 1964 in Moscow and graduated from Moscow State University. He has lived in Freiburg since 1994. He is one of the organizers and

Luciano Mecacci, an Italian historian and psychologist, professor at the University of Florence, is a leading specialist in the history of Soviet psychology. In the 1970s, he worked in

Stanislav Belsky was born in 1976 in Dnipropetrovsk. He works as a programmer. He is the author of the novel "Polyhedron" (Kyiv, 2025) and 18 collections of poetry, including

Writer, dissident, financier, and former investment banker. Son of renowned writer and playwright Edward Radzinsky. In 1982, while a student at the Philological Faculty

Born in Ivanovo, he spent his childhood in Algeria, studied in Moscow, worked in London, and lived in St. Petersburg. He is a winner of the Golden Microphone and

Andrei Vyacheslavovich Kuraev (born February 15, 1963 in Moscow) is a religious and public figure, theologian, philosopher, publicist and blogger. Before

Liza Heresh was born in 2002 in Moscow. She graduated from the Faculty of Philology at the Higher School of Economics and is a postgraduate student at Harvard University. From 2023 to 2025, she served as editor.

Anna Glazova was born in Dubna in 1973, studied and taught in Germany and the USA, and defended her dissertation on the poetry of Osip

Denis Kargaev, producer, cycling enthusiast, and host of the podcast "Step Forward." Previously, he ran his own PR agency, handled 300 major promotional campaigns, and taught at

Ekaterina Figurnova is a philologist, a teacher of Russian for bilinguals, and co-author of the "Crossroads" manual. Ekaterina works with bilingual teenagers aged 10–18.

Mark Belorusets was born in 1943 in the evacuation in the Urals. He lived in Kyiv, worked as a construction engineer for over 30 years, was close to

Andrey Shary (b. 1965) is a Prague-based journalist, writer, and media manager. He has worked for Radio Liberty since 1992. He is the author and co-author of 17 documentary books.

Historian and journalist Yaroslav Shimov (b. 1973) grew up in Belarus, received his higher education in Moscow, and has lived in the Czech Republic since 1999. Stories and

Ivan Tolstoy (Prague) is a philologist, historian of Russian emigration and the Cold War. Editor and host of cultural programs on Radio Liberty (with

Yuri Borisovich Veksler (born November 25, 1946) is a theater figure, musician, journalist and director, Berlin correspondent for the Russian Service of Radio Liberty. Author

Theatre and film actress

Born in 1979 in Lower Austria, she studied Slavic studies in Vienna, Rostov-on-Don, and Odessa. After several years of professional activity in

Born in 1944. One of the most famous and multiple award-winning translators from the Russian language, including works

Polina Borodina is a playwright, screenwriter, and teacher. Her plays have been repeatedly named "Plays of the Year" and have been shortlisted for all renowned Russian-language theaters.

Irina Galkova, historian and art historian, graduated from the Russian State University for the Humanities (1999), PhD in history (Institute of World History, Russian Academy of Sciences, 2014). From 2014 to 2022, she was the head of the museum collection at the International

Elena Zhemkova, Executive Director of Memorial Zukunft eV One of the founders in 1987 of the human rights and historical-educational organization "Memorial", which was awarded in

Evi Chaika, human rights activist, LGBTIQ and anti-war activist, founder of the human rights organization “European Queer Alliance PostOst Community – EQUAL PostOst“, which helps

Masha Trotsky is a PhD (VUB), artist, and illustrator. Her creative practice focuses on the intersection of technology, visual communication, and social issues.

Theater and film actor.

Irina Shcherbakova, historian and Germanist. Until February 2022, she was the head of youth educational programs at the Memorial Society and the head of the historical competition for high school students, "Man in

Margot Gritt is a writer, the leader of a literary workshop (together with writer Nadja Hedwig), and a co-organizer of the Litbrunch Berlin project, a community of female writers in exile.

Natasha Podlyzhnyak is the founder of the “I have something to say” school of texts, a teacher of the online courses FICTION and “Modern Novel”, and the host of an offline book club in

Ira Bombina is the curator and moderator of the Book Club at Tochka, a Berlin library with books in six languages. She is also a dancing psychologist and hostess.

Tatyana Lazareva is a former Russian TV presenter, actress, KVN participant, and iconic figure in entertainment television of the 1990s and 2000s.

Linor Goralik (born 1975, Dnipro) is a poet, writer, and artist. She is the author of books of poetry, prose, and essays for children and adults, including

Victor Melamed is an artist, illustrator, writer, translator, and musician. As an illustrator, he has worked with magazines such as The New Yorker, Rolling Stone, and others.

Yulia Nikolaevna Mesaric is a teacher with 35 years of experience, 25 of which she has been working in Slovenia, where she founded and heads the Russian

Maria Agni is an actress and theatre creator from Berlin. She works at the intersection of art, education, and social processes.

Nuria Fatykhova is an expert on gender equality and civil society and coordinator of the Democracy and Gender program at the Dialog Büro für

Ksenia Buksha, author of prose and poetry. Born in St. Petersburg, she lived in Herceg Novi for three and a half years after the war began.

Vika Tyazhelnikova is the founder and director of the London-based network of educational centers LinguaPlay and the publishing house LinguaMedia. A recognized expert in the field of children's bilingualism,

Franziska Thun-Hohenstein, Slavic philologist, Senior Fellow at the Center for Literary and Cultural Research, Berlin, author of works on Andrei Platonov, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Boris

Alena Machoninová, a Czech Russian specialist, novelist, and translator, specializes in contemporary Russian prose, camp literature, and unofficial poetry.

Documentary filmmaker and creative producer at the Berlin-based NARRA studio. A journalist by training, after graduating from the journalism department at Moscow State University, he worked for various Moscow-based

Nikolay Aleksandrov, philologist, candidate of philological sciences, journalist, television and radio host. He worked at Echo of Moscow radio from 1990 until the radio station's closure in

Writer, playwright, publicist. Born in 1958 in Moscow. Published since the mid-1980s. Author of about fifty books. Journalism, prose and

Sasha Skochilenko is a 36-year-old artist and musician. She is an openly queer woman and former political prisoner originally from St. Petersburg.

A writer and literary researcher, he is working on his dissertation at the University of Potsdam, studying the phenomenon of cringe in contemporary culture.

Anthropologist and documentary filmmaker Mikhail Bashkirov has dedicated many years to professionally studying Siberia. In 2019, after learning about Alexander Gabyshev, he and

Armen Aramyan is a philosopher, anthropologist, and founder of the journal DOXA, which began as a student media outlet at the Higher School of Economics and later became

Ella Rossman is a historian, sociologist, researcher of gender and women's history in the USSR and Russia, and an employee of the Institute of History and Culture of Eastern Europe.

Nikolai V. Kononov is a writer. He worked as a journalist and editor. He made his literary debut with the story "Islands and Dreams" (2009). He has written two

Born in Klin in 1986. Studied at the Tver Medical College, completed his master's degree at the Russian State University for the Humanities, and completed his postgraduate studies at the Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Poetry and prose

Daria Serenko is a Russian activist, writer, artist, and poet, co-founder of the Feminist Anti-War Resistance. In addition to "Girls and Institutions," she has published the books "Silent Picket" and "The Quiet Picket."

Olga Petrovna Bramley, co-author of the course “My Native Russian Language”, author of the latest concept in teaching bilinguals, which consists of thematic and

Diana Bukaeva is a teacher of Russian as a foreign language and methodologist with over 14 years of experience, and the author of a series of children's textbooks.

Lola Samatova is a PhD candidate in pedagogy and director of the LIDIRUS publishing house, which publishes textbooks for bilinguals in Bulgaria. She is the author of textbooks and teaching aids on

Maria Goncharenko is the author of the "SUPER Russian" series of textbooks for unbalanced bilinguals and co-author of the "Crossroads" textbook. She has lived in

Ulyana Retzlaff, a teacher of Russian language and literature, as well as German as a second and foreign language, teaches Russian in Düsseldorf

Nastya Rogatko is a Belarusian who was born in Russia and spent her childhood in Ukraine. She was the editor-in-chief of a media outlet and managed communications in