On October 16 at 5:00 PM, the Peredelkino Writers' House will host an event presenting the Russian translation of the book June Snow ("Junischnee") by Austrian author Ljuba Arnautovic, translated by Svetlana Subbotenko.

Svetlana Subbotenko holds a Candidate of Philological Sciences degree and heads the Department of Romance and Germanic Philology at Kursk University. Her published translations include Stefan Zweig’s Diary 1914–1916, Josef Bierbichler’s Mittelreich, Matthias Senkel’s Dark Numbers ("Dunkle Zahlen"), and Daniel Speck’s Yoga Town.

At the event, translator Svetlana Subbotenko will read excerpts from her translation. The evening will be moderated by translator and literary editor Alexander Kabisov.

Austrian writer, translator, and radio journalist Ljuba Arnautović was born in Kursk in 1954. Her parents Nina Bocharova and Karl Arnautović—met in the Gulag. She has lived in Vienna since 1987. Her documentary novel Junischnee recounts the fates of her father, Karl, and his brother, Slavko—illustrating how political arbitrariness shaped lives in the 20th century, including that of her own family. The novel is set in Vienna, Moscow, Kursk, and the Gulag. It was published by Zsolnay in early 2021.

In 1934, Eva—Ljuba Arnautović’s grandmother and a member of the Republican Protection League (Republikanischer Schutzbund) in Vienna—sent her sons, Slavko and Karl, to a distant, safe location to protect them from the National Socialists. These so-called "Schutzbund children" (Schutzbundkinder) first traveled to Crimea for a holiday and were subsequently housed in a luxurious residence in Moscow. However, when Hitler broke the pact with Stalin, the situation in the USSR changed rapidly. Slavko disappeared, while Karl was sent to a youth correctional facility and later to a labor camp. There, he was branded an "enemy of the people." It was in the Gulag that he met his future wife, Nina—the author's mother.

In 2021, Peredelkino piloted a "Writer and Translator" residency format, which involved a translator working on a literary work for one or two weeks—with the author’s participation—followed by a presentation of the results. In October 2021, the Peredelkino Writers' House hosted Austrian author Ljuba Arnautovic. Translator Svetlana Subbotenko (from Kursk) worked on translating an excerpt from Arnautovic’s novel Snow in June. The results of their collaboration were presented at readings held at the Museum of the History of the Gulag, the Nekrasov Library, and the Library for Foreign Literature.