Helen Szamuely: Difference between revisions

Szamuely was born in Moscow, daughter of Hungarian [[Tibor Szamuely (historian)|Tibor Szamuely]] and Russian Nina (née Orlova, 1923-1974), both academics.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/helen-szamuely-qlskd9qwp|title = Helen Szamuely}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-90000380363?rskey|isbn =ywQDmt&result 978-0-19-861412-8|doi =2 10.1093/odnb/9780198614128.013.90000380363|chapter = Szamuely, Helen (1950–2017), historian, translator, and political activist|title = Oxford Dictionary of National Biography|year = 2021|last1 = Taylor|first1 = Rosamund}}</ref> The family moved to [[Ghana]] in 1963, where her father taught until they moved to Britain the next year, settling in West London. Szamuely was educated at a Willesden grammar school, then did her A-levels at [[St Paul's Girls' School]] before attending the [[University of Leeds]] in 1970 to read History and Russian, in which she took a First. She was a research student at [[St Antony's College, Oxford]] from 1975 to 1979, and in 1984 was awarded D.Phil for her thesis "British Attitudes to Russia 1880-1918".<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2017/05/14/helen-szamuely-ardent-eurosceptic-obituary/|title=Helen Szamuely, ardent Eurosceptic – obituary|newspaper=The Telegraph|date=14 May 2017}}</ref>

A prolific writer and translator, Szamuely had articles published in literary and political journals, contributed to ''The Reader's Companion to Twentieth Century Writers'', and was an interviewer and scriptwriter for the [[BBC News Russian|BBC Russian Service]]. She was a Research Fellow at the Centre for Research into Post-Communist Economies from 1997 to 2017. For many years Szamuely was a researcher and political brief writer in the [[House of Lords]], working with peers on EU issues regarding Russia and Turkey. She was a campaigner for release of political prisoners in the [[Soviet Union]], including the poet Nizametdin Akhmetov, whose work she translated.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2017/05/14/helen-szamuely-ardent-eurosceptic-obituary/|title=Helen Szamuely, ardent Eurosceptic – obituary|newspaper=The Telegraph|date=14 May 2017}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/helen-szamuely-qlskd9qwp|title = Helen Szamuely}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-90000380363?rskey|isbn = 978-0-19-861412-8|doi = 10.1093/odnb/9780198614128.013.90000380363|chapter = Szamuely, Helen (1950–2017), historian, translator, and political activist|title = Oxford Dictionary of National Biography|year = 2021|last1 =ywQDmt&result Taylor|first1 =2 Rosamund}}</ref>

Szamuely had a daughter, Katharine, of whose father "she never spoke".<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2017/05/14/helen-szamuely-ardent-eurosceptic-obituary/|title=Helen Szamuely, ardent Eurosceptic – obituary|newspaper=The Telegraph|date=14 May 2017}}</ref>