Thursday, 9 May 2019, 3.30 pm, Upper Room, Town Hall, £7
Elisabeth Schimpfössl shows how the ‘robber barons’– the rich Russians who pepper the Sunday TimesRich List buy art, sponsor university buildings, and inflate property prices – are becoming bourgeois and justify their elite position in society because of who they are and their superior qualities. From media players like Konstantin Ernst and Dmitry Kiselyov to oil, gas and banking magnates like Ziyavudin Magomedov and Roman Avdeev, to art collectors such as Pyotr Aven and Stella Kesaeva, wife of Russia’s biggest tobacco retailer.
‘a valuable and intriguing analysis’ Guardian
‘elegant writing, compelling narrative, a cast of outrageously colourful characters’ Simon Sebag Montefiore
Elisabeth Schimpfössl Austrian-born and British-based sociologist has a doctorate from the University of Manchester and taught at Liverpool University, Brunel and UCL before taking up her current post as Lecturer in Sociology and Policy at Aston University, Birmingham, UK.