David Gillespie is Professor of Russian at the University of Bath, UK, where he has taught since 1985. His books include Iurii Trifonov: Unity through Time (1993), The Twentieth Century Russian Novel: An Introduction (1996), Early Soviet Cinema: Innovation, Ideology and Propaganda (2000), and Russian Cinema (2003). He has published almost 70 journal articles and book chapters on modern Russian film and literature, and is a regular traveller to Russia to teach at universities in European Russia, the Urals and Siberia, and speak at conferences.