Cathy Porter, author and translator, educated at London’s School of Slavonic and East European Studies and Cambridge University, has published books, articles and essays on Russian history, culture and politics, and translations from Russian, Serbo-Croatian and Czech, including many stage works performed in theatres in the UK, the States and Ireland.
Books
Fathers and Daughters. Russian Women in Revolution, Virago, London, 1976.
Alexandra Kollontai. A Biography, Virago, London/Dial Press, New York, 1984. 2nd edn. Merlin, London/Haymarket, Chicago, 2014
Blood and Laughter. Caricatures of the 1905 Revolution (with David King), Jonathan Cape, London, 1983.
Women in Revolutionary Russia, Cambridge University Press, 1987.
Moscow in World War II (with Mark Jones), Chatto & Windus, London, 1987.
Larisa Reisner. A Biography, Virago, London, 1989. New revised edn. Historical Materialism, Brill, Haymarket, Leiden/Chicago, 2023. Shortlisted for the Isaac Deutscher Memorial Prize.
The Best of ‘Ogonyok.’ The New Journalism of Glasnost (with Vitaly Korotich), Heinemann, London, 1990.
Russian Writers’ Drawing Book, Redstone Press, London, 1995.
Alexandra Kollontai. Writings from the Struggle, Bookmarks, London, 2020. 2nd edn. London, 2024.
Larisa Reisner. The Decembrists, Rab-Rab Press, Helsinki, 2024.
Translations
Love of Worker Bees, Alexandra Kollontai, Virago, London, 1977. 2nd edn. Chicago Review Press, Chicago, 2005.
A Great Love, Alexandra Kollontai, London, Virago, 1981. 2nd edn. Chicago Review Press, Chicago, 2005.
Ship of Widows, Irina Grekova, Virago, London, 1985.
The Diaries of Sofia Tolstoy, Jonathan Cape, London/New York, 1985. 2nd edn. Alma, London/New York, 2010.
Arise and Walk, Yury Nagibin, Faber, London, 1987. Winner of the Independent Prize for Translated Fiction.
Little Vera, Maria Khmelik, Bloomsbury, London, 1990.
The Moment between the Past and the Future, Yury Baklanov, Faber, London,1994.
Kremlin Wives, Larissa Vasileva, Chatto & Windus, London, 1994.
Witches’ Tears, Nina Sadur, Harbord Press, London, 1997.
The Funeral Party, Ludmila Ulitskaya, Heinemann, London, 1999.
Made in Yugoslavia, Vladimir Jokanovič (translated from Serbo-Croatian with Željana Zovko), Macmillan, London, 2000.
Living Souls, Dmitry Bykov, Alma Books, London, 2010.
Writings of Larisa Reisner (translated with Richard Chappell), Brill, Historical Materialism, Haymarket, Leiden/Chicago, 2024.
Translated Plays Performed, published and unpublished, include:
Stars in the Morning Sky, by Alexander Galin (translated with Michael Glenny), Nick Hern Books, London, 1987.
‘Starboy,’ by Nina Sadur (commissioned by BBC Radio 3), 1996.
Four Plays by Karel Čapek (translated from Czech with Peter Majer): ‘RUR;’ ‘The Insect Play;’ ‘The Makropoulos Case,’ ‘The White Plague,’ Bloomsbury, London, 1999.
Four Plays of Maxim Gorky: ‘The Zykovs;’ ‘Egor Bulychev;’ ‘Vassa Zheleznova’ (‘The Mother’); ‘The Last Ones,’ Bloomsbury, London, 2003.
Nina Sadur’s ‘Weird Woman;’ Ludmila Razumovskaya’s ‘Dear Elena Sergeevna,’ Alexander Afinogenov’s ‘Distant Point.’
Current and Future Projects
Translations of Alexandra Kollontai’s Finnish writings for Helsinki-based Rab-Rab Press. Compilations of more Gorky and Larisa Reisner translations, with connecting commentaries.
