Elena Zelinskaya. The last Russians were seen in Belgrade

A diary found by chance brings the legacy of composer Alexey Butakov back to life – this is how Elena Zelinskaya’s novel “The Last Russians Were Seen in Belgrade” begins.

The endless Russian flight brings the first wave of emigrants to the Balkans. They have only a couple of decades of peaceful life between two catastrophes – from the Civil War to the Second World War. Each turn puts the novel’s heroes – musicians, writers, journalists – before a classic 20th-century collision: how to remain human in the millstones of history. And each of them makes their own choice. What remains when all is lost? They had an answer.

A hundred years later, another wave throws new Russians onto the Belgrade shore. What trace will they leave in the history of this great city? Will they be able to find themselves and their place in a new life? How will they cope with their choice: between guilt and responsibility, losses and discoveries? Those last Russians are no more. But every evening the curtain rises at the Belgrade Opera and Ballet Theatre. Pearl threads sparkle in the sun in the white city on the shore of Lake Ohrid. And the city streets bear Russian names. This is the point history has made in their fate. And our story is just beginning...