Russian Accent | Blog of Nadia Sikorsky

Every year, since 1998, Pro Natura, Switzerland’s oldest environmental organisation, draws public attention to an animal whose existence is under threat. The Animal of the Year 2026 is… the hedgehog. On this occasion, I would like to tell you about a Russian Hedgehog, who, I hope, will make his way to Switzerland. His “father” is the great animator Yuri Norstein, who celebrates his 85th birthday today. Many happy returns!

In 2025, UNESCO recognised the universal value of the legacy of the celebrated Swiss traveller Ella Maillart (1903–1997) and inscribed her archives on its Memory of the World Register. An exhibition at Photo Elysée in Lausanne marks the occasion, with a noticeable “Russian accent”.

When I recently came across John McTiernan’s The Hunt for Red October, I noticed a detail that meant absolutely nothing when the film was released. But today...

The Nouveau Musée National de Monaco invites us on The Magical Adventure, a journey into the extraordinary world of Victor Brauner, a Romanian and French artist of Jewish origin and one of the most distinctive figures in Surrealism who passed away sixty years ago. For the first time, a unique private collection assembled in the Principality is being unveiled to the public.

A few days ago, the Lausanne-based publisher Éditions Noir sur Blanc brought out Guzel Yakhina’s novel about the celebrated Soviet film director Sergei Eisenstein. French readers will be able to read it in Maud Mabillard’s translation and, importantly, in full, including the ninth chapter omitted from the Russian edition.

A new book by the Geneva-based Slavist Jean-Philippe Jaccard and his Russian colleague Andrei Ustinov, now living in San Francisco, has been published by the European University at St Petersburg: Vzir Zaumi. Daniil Harms and the Literary Avant-Garde of the 1920s. In the authors' own words, the volume offers a kind of X-ray of Leningrad's "left-wing " circles and their evolution during the period between Harms's poetic debut and the creation of OBERIU, as well as the dynamics that shaped those circles. The publication provided a welcome opportunity to meet once again with my old friend Jean-Philippe Jaccard, who for many years headed the Russian Department at the University of Geneva.

If you are still enjoying your summer holiday, or only preparing for it, let me recommend an excellent holiday read: Nick Harkaway’s Karla’s Choice, a compelling spy novel that skillfully takes us back to a not-so-distant past.

That is the question at the heart of Swiss writer Micha Lewinsky's debut novel, Ben, or the Art of Escape, recently published in French by Phébus.

Sean McNamara’s 2024 film Reagan, starring Dennis Quaid in the title role, is now available on Netflix in many countries. When I came across it, my first thought was: why?

Two years ago, I was the first journalist in Switzerland to tell the story of the Russian pianist Pavel Kushnir. Today, on the second anniversary of his death, I would like to return to it and add a few things that deserve to be remembered.

If you happen to be on the French Riviera this summer or in the early autumn, make time for the exhibition at the Musée Matisse in Nice, which is temporarily hosting part of the collection of the Musée Yves Saint Laurent Paris. The two great Frenchmen never met, yet here they are engaged in a fascinating dialogue.

That is how the name of the artist María Sol Escobar (1930-2016) is generally understood today. The first European retrospective of her work is now on view at Switzerland’s largest fine arts museum. The exhibition has been organised in collaboration with Denmark’s Louisiana Museum of Modern Art and the Buffalo AKG Art Museum in the United States.

Who hasn't dreamed of having an account in a Swiss bank? Yet not even all those fortunate enough to have one know how this small Alpine country became one of the world's leading financial centres. For the curious, the Swiss National Museum in Zurich is currently hosting an exhibition well worth a visit.

Very soon, on 16 July, the famous Swiss mountain resort of Gstaad will welcome the opening of the Menuhin Festival. I hope you have already booked tickets for all the concerts that interest you. If not, read on and act quickly. In fact, read on anyway.

At the Fondation Pierre Gianadda in Martigny, an excellent exhibition organised by the Musée Rodin in Paris is now on view under the patronage of the President of the Swiss Confederation, Guy Parmelin. Do not miss it.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Così fan tutte, in Kirill Serebrennikov’s 2018 production, will return to the stage of the Zurich Opera House for just four performances. I strongly encourage those who missed it the first time not to let this new opportunity slip away - on 3, 7, 9 or 12 July.

This is the title of an exhibition on view at Kunstmuseum Basel until 2 August. Let me say from the outset: it is not about the emergence of homosexuality as such, but about the moment when a phenomenon that had existed for millennia acquired a new vocabulary, and with it new ways of describing human experience.

Some thoughts after watching "L’abandon" (Forsaken), Vincent Garenq’s film about the last eleven days in the life of Samuel Paty, the history and geography teacher murdered in France on 16 October 2020.

On 14 June in Basel, the renowned Geneva watchmaker François-Paul Journe presented a diploma to the latest recipient of the MAZE/Art Awards F.P. Journe. The honour went to the Indian architect and designer Bijoy Jain.

On 17 June, people in the Italian capital will be reading Dostoevsky’s «White Nights». That is the premise of La tempesta silenziosa (The Silent Storm), an initiative conceived by the writer Alessandro Baricco and organised by Rome’s Department of Culture as part of the city’s Day of Remembrance programme.

The Lausanne publisher Éditions Noir sur Blanc has published Florence Hertz’s French translation of Giles Milton’s book.

A Russian accent in an Art Brut collection? I certainly did not expect to encounter one at the exhibition Écrits d’Art Brut at the Fondation Jan Michalski. It all began with a sheet of paper dated December 1938, covered with Russian, French and English words, which which evoked a vague sense of someone's tragedy, encoded in chaotic lines and symbols.

Visitors to Kunsthaus Zürich can now see all 205 masterpieces from the collection of the Emil Georg Bührle Foundation, whose provenance has been examined since 2002. Since this spring, Switzerland’s largest art museum has also launched a five-year research project, funded by the City of Zurich, to re-examine the provenance of the works.

The title of my blog suggests a connection with something, if not Russian, then at least connected to the Russian-speaking world – I had to set myself some kind of framework. And it can be frustrating when you want to write about something and no such connection can be found. But that happens rarely.

Tickets for all nine performances of Verdi’s Nabucco at Milan’s La Scala, the last of which will take place on 9 June, sold out long ago. This is hardly surprising, given both the genius of the music and the level of the cast, led by Anna Netrebko as Abigaille.

On 8 June, the remarkable pianist Arcadi Volodos will appear at Victoria Hall. If you have not yet heard him, do not miss the opportunity to discover a truly great musician.

On 7 May, the Tbilisi City Court sentenced the world-famous Georgian opera singer Paata Burchuladze to seven years in prison on charges of organising mass violence, attempting to seize a strategic facility, and calling for the overthrow of the government.

The Orchestre de la Suisse Romande invites music lovers to concerts in Geneva, Lausanne and Lucerne on May 20, 21 and 22. Under the direction of Lithuanian conductor Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla, with Latvian pianist Georgijs Osokins as soloist, the orchestra presents an original programme featuring works by Frank Martin, Frédéric Chopin, Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel.

Today in Europe, and tomorrow in Russia, Victory Day is commemorated: for Europeans, the Second World War; for Russians, the Great Patriotic War. Unfortunately, this holiday has ceased to be shared. It is precisely these days that the exhibition We and War is taking place at the Swiss National Museum in Zurich, in a country that did not take part in combat operations.

On 2 May, the Metropolitan Opera broadcast Eugene Onegin from New York to audiences around the world. I could not resist the pleasure of hearing this beloved opera again, at the Cinéma Empire in Geneva.

An early work by the popular Geneva-based writer was reissued twenty years after its first publication and caught my eye.

To begin with, let me clarify: this is not about the French political figure whose remains rest in the Panthéon, but about a religious thinker and philosopher who, at the age of ten, declared herself a “Bolshevik”.

These days, Geneva’s Théâtre de Carouge is presenting "Ivanov", directed by the French director Jean-François Sivadier, who has taken on the Russian repertoire for the first time. In my view, there is a dissonance between him and Chekhov.

The outstanding writer whom Russia, Switzerland and the United States all regard as their own would have been 127 today: Vladimir Nabokov was born in St Petersburg on 22 April (New Style) 1899. On this occasion I would like write about a very interesting book published last year in his native city.