Tag Archives: Vladimir Putin

From the diary of a writer-publisher: 32

Posted on March 17, 2025 by Patrick Miles

9 February 2025 I have unsubscribed from Twitter after ten years or so. It was useful for marketing Sam&Sam books, especially George Calderon: Edwardian Genius in 2018, but I think the quality of Tweets and even images was far higher … Continue reading →

Posted in Heroism and Adventure, Personal commentary | Tagged 'My First Communist', Alexandra Cann, Black Snow, Donald Trump, East of the Rhine, Elon Musk, Geoffrey Archer, Helen Dunmore, J.D. Vance, Julie Curtis, Keith Dewhurst, lies, Lucy Caldwell, mendacity, Mikhail Bulgakov, minerals, Monica Coghlan, National Theatre, Oval Office, peace plan, perjury, Polish food, roast knuckle of pork, Rose Tremaine, Royal National Theatre, science fiction, short stories, The Retiral of C.B.F. Warrington, Twitter, Ukraine, Vladimir Putin, Volodymyr Zelensky, vranë, White Bow & Ghoune, William Gaskill, X | Leave a comment

Ukrainian journal

Posted on November 3, 2024 by Patrick Miles

23 September 2024 Vladimir Kara-Murza, a Cambridge graduate historian and scion of a Russian family with opposition to autocracy in its DNA, has given an interview with The Times following his release from a 25-year prison sentence for ‘treason’. Instead … Continue reading →

Posted in Personal commentary | Tagged 20 July 1944 Plot, Adolf Hitler, Andrei Amal'rik, Chernobyl, Crimea, Donald Trump, Donbas, Evan Gershkovich, Gary Kasparov, Iran, Kamala Harris, Kursk, meat grinder, NATO, Nicholas II, Nikolay Andreyev, North Korea, nuclear weapons, Open Russia, Owen Matthews, peace negotiations, rats, Russo-Ukrainian War, sovietologists, Ukraine, Vladimir Kara-Murza, Vladimir Putin, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Will the Soviet Union Survive Until 1984? | Leave a comment

Ukrainian journal

Posted on August 1, 2024 by Patrick Miles

27 June 2024 A Russian opposition group called the Congress of People’s Deputies, consisting of over sixty exiled politicians who were once MPs in the State Duma, has met this week in Warsaw to discuss their plan to overthrow the … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Adolf Hitler, Anton Chekhov, assassinations, Buiurnuz, comments, Congress of People's Deputies, conventional forces, Crimea, Donald Trump, Evgeniia Berkovich, Freedom of Russia Legion, Gallipoli, genocide, Ivan Krastev, Keir Starmer, Koktebel', Kyiv, Kyrylo Budanov, NATO, nuclear war, Populism, Reinhard Heydrich, Russia, Sergei Shoigu, terrorism, The Crimean War, The People's Will Party, Ukraine, Valerii Gerasimov, Viktor Erofeev, Vladimir Putin, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Yalta | Leave a comment

From the diary of a writer-publisher: 29

Posted on May 15, 2024 by Patrick Miles

5 April 2024 I have received from a cousin the above image of our grandfather’s regimental sword. This plate on its scabbard seems to supply some context to what I knew about his military career. He joined up in 1894 … Continue reading →

Posted in Heroism and Adventure, Modern parallels, Personal commentary | Tagged A Group Photograph, Alcaic metre, Andrew Tatham, anoraks, badges, British Expeditionary Force, brooches, Caitlin Pirie, Charles Miles, comments, Foreign Office, Friedrich Hölderlin, George Calderon, haikus, I Shall Not Be Away Long, Japan, Jim Miles, koi carp, military aid, NATO, Northamptonshire Regiment, paranoia, swords, The Clay Akita, The Great War, typos, Ukraine, verse translation, Vladimir Putin, World War I | Leave a comment

From the diary of a writer-publisher: 28

Posted on March 25, 2024 by Patrick Miles

11 February 2024 Do not be put off trying an ‘Escape Room’ because you fear claustrophobia: you aren’t actually locked into it, you simply have to solve a series of problems (often involving locks) in order to complete a narrative … Continue reading →

Posted in Personal commentary | Tagged Aleksei Navalnyi, androconia, Armageddon, asteroids, birds of prey, Brimstone butterflies, butterflies, catacomb Christians, Christ's Harrowing of Hell, counterpoint, Dmitrii Medvedev, Dmitrii Peskov, drones, E.B. Ford, escape rooms, games, German language, Green-Veined White, Hölderlin, icons, Ivan Turgenev, metres, Petr Tchaikovsky, puzzles, resurrection, Sam&Sam, Sam2, scents, science fiction, space station, The Cleopatra, The Myrrh-Bearing Women, The White Bow:Ghoune, Twitter, verse translation, Vladimir Putin, Vlamiri Nabokov, Wenn aus der Ferne | 1 Comment

From the diary of a writer-publisher: 27

Posted on February 5, 2024 by Patrick Miles

16 January 2024 I translated a few poems as a teenager and student (Rilke, Brecht, Hölderlin, Pushkin, Tiutchev, Mayakovsky, Yevtushenko, Brodsky), but bothered to see only a couple published. The fact was, I didn’t take verse translation very seriously. I … Continue reading →

Posted in Personal commentary | Tagged afterlife, Alcaic metre, Alexander Pushkin, Anton Chekhov, appeasement, BASEES Conference, Belarus, Belorussia, Bertolt Brecht, Brest, British Rail, Christian era, death, Diotima, Estonia, Fedor Tiutchev, Flavinus Stone, Friedrich Hölderlin, Henry Vaughan, Hexham, Hexham Abbey, Joseph Brodsky, Jürgen-Joachim von Sandrart, Kaliningrad, Latvia, Leonid Brezhnev, Lithuania, memorials, Munich Agreement, NATO, Old Cambridge Tales, poetry, pronunciation, Rainer Maria Rilke, Rightmove, Russia, Sam&Sam, security messages, St Wilfrid, Susette Gontard, Suwalki Gap, train travel, translation, Ukraine, Vladimir Mayakovsky, Vladimir Putin, Winston Churchill, Yevgeny Yevtushenko | Leave a comment

From the diary of a writer-publisher: 26

Posted on December 5, 2023 by Patrick Miles

7 November 2023 Ukraine must win. There is no alternative, because Putin will never offer a true peace, only a breather before making another attempt to destroy Ukraine as a sovereign state then torture, murder, deport and imprison its people. … Continue reading →

Posted in Edwardian character, Heroism and Adventure, Personal commentary | Tagged Alexander Lukashenka, Anton Chekhov, Berkers, Brest, Cambridge Young Chekhov Company, comments, Crocs, Crox, dedicatees, Donald Trump, Edinburgh, Fathers and Children, Garry Kasparov, gene pools, George Calderon, glasnost', Gothic, Ivan Turgenev, Jane Austen, Jonathan Routh, Kaliningrad, Matt Dimmick, NATO, Nicolson Square, old age, Olga Knipper-Chekhova, pavements, perestroika, Remembrance Sunday, Rob Roy, rubber bands, Russia, Scotland, Scott Monument, Scottish Rationalism, shop girls, short stories, Stephan Roman, Taiwan, The Great War, Ukraine, USA, Ventnor, Vladimir Putin, Volodymr Zelensky, Walter Scott, Wilfred Owen, World War I, Xi Jinping | Leave a comment

From the diary of a writer-publisher: 25

Posted on October 16, 2023 by Patrick Miles

27 September 2023 There can be no surer sign of age than picking up litter on the way to buy the daily newspaper… I have done this for the last four mornings, including a banana skin. 2 October I have … Continue reading →

Posted in Personal commentary | Tagged Adolf Hitler, Alexander Pushkin, Angela Merkel, Anton Chekhov, bananas, BASEES Conference, biographies, C.F. Clay, Cambridge University Press, chrestomathies, Clays of Bungay, Death of a Poet, English literature, Finland, First Love, George Calderon, Greater Russia, John Clay, Kittie Calderon, literary criticism, litter, Mikhail Lermontov, New York Times, newspapers, Percy Lubbock, poetry, prosody, readers, Richard Clay II, Russian Empire, Sauli Niinisto, short stories, To the Slanderers of Russia, Very Early Cambridge Tales, Vladimir Putin | Leave a comment

From the diary of a writer-publisher: 24

Posted on August 28, 2023 by Patrick Miles

29 July 2023 As followers may recall, I always believed that the Russian Army was less than enthusiastic about Putin’s war — which is one reason he and Shoigu had to use private armies — and that eventually military opposition … Continue reading →

Posted in Personal commentary | Tagged 'My First Communist', Alexander Pushkin, archives, As You Like It, British North Borneo, butterflies, Charles Fernyhough, Crox, Damian Grant, ephemerality, Evgenii Prigozhin, evolution, haiku, John Pym, Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum, letters, Malaysia, memory, palace revolutions, Parthenos sylvia lilacinus, publishers, Raffles Museum, RSC, Russia, Russian Army, Sabah, Sergei Shoigu, shaiku, short stories, silent majority, Singapore, sonnets, sub-species, The Clipper, the past, treason, Ukraine, Valerii Gerasimov, Vladimir Putin, war, William Shakespeare | Leave a comment

From the diary of a writer-publisher: 23

Posted on June 19, 2023 by Patrick Miles

16 May 2023 The suspense about the Ukrainian ‘counter-offensive’ is terrible. I hope it will last. It winds the Russians up and keeps them guessing. Moreover, except at Bakhmut, Russian forces have been in deep defensive positions for months now, … Continue reading →

Posted in Personal commentary | Tagged Anton Chekhov, Badenweiler, Bakhmut, Brexit, butterflies, conceptual photography, conservation, counter offensive, Crimea, Dr Schwörer, Duke of Burgundy Fritillary, fakes, Kyiv, Lavrentii Beria, Le Monde Diplomatique, Leo Rabeneck, military defeat, Moskovskii Komsomolets, newspapers, Olga Knipper-Chekhova, photographs, Pinterest, Queen of Spain Fritillary, Riodinidae, Russian Army, The Lake District, Ukraine, Vladimir Putin, W.H. Smith, Zaporizhzhia | 1 Comment

From the diary of a writer-publisher: 20

Posted on January 9, 2023 by Patrick Miles

16 December 2022 The Times has a long piece today entitled ‘Putin’s absence fuels rumours of Noah’s Ark plot’. It reports Putin cancelling his annual ice hockey match on Red Square, his annual press conference, and his annual ‘conversation with … Continue reading →

Posted in Personal commentary | Tagged 20 July 1944 Plot, Adolf Hitler, Alexander II, Argentina, Christmas, Crimea, Crimean War, Donetsk, Erwin Rommel, Field Marshal Rommel, iconography, James Miles, Japan, Jim Miles, John Polkinghorne, Joseph Brodsky, Luhansk, Nativity, Nicholas I, Noah's Ark Plot, Odessa, Paul Dirac, professors, Russian Army, Russian language, Russian poetry, Sam1, Sam2, Seamus Heaney, The Quantum World, The Times, translation, translations, Ukraine, Venezuela, verse translation, Vladimir Putin, What Can We Hope For? | Leave a comment

A year of hope

Posted on January 1, 2023 by Patrick Miles

A happy new year to subscribers and viewers, and thank you sincerely for following us through our ninth year of existence. The question of Calderonia’s future is always in my mind, but I can assure you we shall continue at … Continue reading →

Posted in Heroism and Adventure, Personal commentary | Tagged A Message from Ukraine, BASEES, BASEES Conference, Boris Johnson, Bucha, Cambridge, comments, courage, despair, Dnepro, Elon Musk, hope, Joe Biden, Justin Welby, Kiev, Kyiv, New Year messages, pandemics, Russia, Sam&Sam, the pandemic, Ukraine, Vladimir Putin, Volodymyr Zelensky | Leave a comment

From the diary of a writer-publisher: 19

Posted on November 28, 2022 by Patrick Miles

4 November On its back page, the voluminous weekly DIE ZEIT, which I still think is the best newspaper in Europe, always carries a large photograph of an animal looking at the camera with a distinctive expression, and the caption … Continue reading →

Posted in Personal commentary | Tagged Adolf Hitler, Alexander Korotko, China, choughs, chrysanthemums, comments, Die Zeit, Edward Lear, emeritus professors, Georg Trakl, haiku, images, Iona, Islay, Kherson, malt whisky, Mexico, Osip Mandel'shtam, peace conferences, professors, Russo-Ukrainian War, soap, soapstone, Sudetenland, Ukraine, Vladimir Putin, Volodymyr Zelensky, war poems, war poetry, whiskies, Winston Churchill | 3 Comments

From the diary of a writer-publisher: 18

Posted on September 12, 2022 by Patrick Miles

8 August I introduced this summer’s ‘Edwardian Return’ series of posts on 4 June, but it really kicked in with Alison’s guest post ‘Edwardian grandmothers’, which as I write has been up for a week and has another to go. … Continue reading →

Posted in Edwardian character, Modern parallels, Personal commentary | Tagged Alison Miles, ante-cruciate ligament, Basil Bunting, Bloodaxe Books, British Empire, Chernobyl, chinoiserie, Comfrey, counter offensives, D.H. Lawrence, Damian Grant, Die Zeit, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Dnepro, Faber & Faber, floral messages, foreign travel, Foxwold, Gary Kasparov, guest posts, herbal remedies, howitzers, icons, Jesus Christ, John Pym, John Russell Brown, Kherson, knee injuries, Laurence Brockliss, Lucas Cranach, Michael Triegel, Mikhail Bakhtin, Mikhail Gorbachev, missiles, mystery object, National Theatre, Naumburg, Nezavisimaia gazeta, penguins, prosopography, rudeness, Snake Island, soapstone, St Mauritius, St Paul, St Peter, subjectivity, The Edwardians, The Moskva, The New Dark Blue Cowboys, The Virgin Mary, The Wailing Wall, Ukraine, Vladimir Putin, Zaporozhzhia | Leave a comment

Man of sorrows

Posted on June 20, 2022 by Patrick Miles

I was not planning or expecting to write this, but I feel I must, whether I prove right or wrong, because we all ought to be aware that the Russo-Ukrainian War is now at a critical point. It is the … Continue reading →

Posted in Personal commentary | Tagged Armistice, artillery, Belorussia, betrayal, Chechnia, democracy, Emmanuel Macron, EU, France, Great Britain, Kiev, Mario Draghi, military strategy, missiles, NATO, Olaf Scholz, peace, peace deals, peace talks, petards, Poland, Russia, Russo-Ukrainian War, Severodonetsk, special military operations, Syria, UK, Ukraine, United States of America, USA, Vladimir Putin, Volodymyr Zelensky, war | Leave a comment

A writer-publisher’s Ukrainian diary: 5

Posted on May 17, 2022 by Patrick Miles

7 May 2022 People are, I know, frightened by Putin’s threats to use nuclear weapons. I have suggested that even western leaders have been sufficiently frightened by these threats to be militarily unproactive. This means that Putin doesn’t need to … Continue reading →