Russian Accent | Blog of Nadia Sikorsky

War Arabesques

Today, a short story collection by the Ukrainian writer Serhiy Zhadan is reaching bookstores in Switzerland, France, Belgium, and Canada. Published by the Lausanne-based Éditions Noir sur Blanc in Iryna Dmytrychyn’s French translation, it bears the title "No One Will Ask Anything. News from Kharkiv" (Personne ne demandera rien. Nouvelles de Kharkiv).

Wizard vs. Mage : When a Word Flatters Power
03.02.2026

The Swiss release of The Kremlin Wizard, a film by the French director Olivier Assayas based on Giuliano da Empoli’s novel Le Mage du Kremlin, has, unsurprisingly, triggered a wave of emotions and commentary. I, too, will say a few words.

Spirits at Art Genève
29.01.2026

Today, the traditional contemporary art fair opens at Geneva’s Palexpo exhibition centre, an event I have followed since its founding in 2012. This year, however, one particular stand is of special interest to me: for the first time, the Barbier-Mueller Museum is taking part in the project.

A Museum of Survival
27.01.2026

By decision of the United Nations, 27 January, the day Auschwitz concentration camp was liberated by Soviet troops in 1945, is observed as International Holocaust Remembrance Day. On this occasion, I would like to tell you about the Jewish Museum of Switzerland in Basel, which I visited last week.

“Family Matters”
22.01.2026

This is the theme of the upcoming Yehudi Menuhin International Music Festival in Gstaad, which will take place from 16 July to 5 September 2026.

Jonathan Nott and the “сhildren”
20.01.2026

The contract of the British conductor as Music Director of the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande expired at the end of last year. Yet he is already returning to Geneva, this time as a guest conductor, to bring together the OSR and the Orchestra of the Geneva Music Conservatory (HEM Geneva).

Lucerne Impressions
18.01.2026

In just two days at the Le Piano Symphonique festival, I gathered enough impressions for an entire season. Let me share them with you.

A Realm of Darkness Without a Ray of Light
15.01.2026

Today, the novel Return to Ostrog by Sasha Filipenko goes on sale in bookshops across Switzerland, France, Belgium, and Canada. The French translation, by Marina Skalova, has been published by the Lausanne-based Éditions Noir sur Blanc. 

About the author

Nadia Sikorsky

Nadia Sikorsky was born and raised in Moscow. She graduated from the Faculty of Journalism at Moscow State University and went on to complete her postgraduate studies there, earning a PhD in History. She spent 13 years at UNESCO, first in Paris and then in Geneva. After serving as Director of Communications at Green Cross International, founded by Mikhail Gorbachev, she launched NashaGazeta.ch in 2007, Switzerland’s first Russian-language online daily newspaper.

In 2022, Nadia Sikorsky was named to Le Temps’ Forum des 100, which brings together individuals who, in the newspaper’s view, have “significantly contributed to the success of French-speaking Switzerland”, from across public life, business, politics, science and culture.

After 18 years at the helm of NashaGazeta.ch, Nadia Sikorsky decided to devote herself to what had always held a special place in her work as a journalist: culture in all its diversity. This led to the creation of Russian Accent, a trilingual cultural blog in Russian, French and English, born in the heart of Europe, in Switzerland, which has become her second home and whose multiculturalism and multilingualism have helped shape the character of this new project.

At the heart of the project is the perspective of a European of Russian origin, drawing on more than 35 years of professional experience and a deep knowledge of both cultural traditions. Nadia Sikorsky sees her role as that of a cultural mediator between the two. The title of the blog, Russian Accent, reflects this idea: the accent is neither a linguistic barrier nor a political position, but a distinctive cultural imprint within a European context.

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Most read
Daniil Harms: Between Reason and Zaum

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 Frail Iron Genius

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.