To: H-EARLYSLAVIC@H-NET.MSU.EDU
Sent: Tuesday, May 08, 2007 7:07 PM
Subject: obituary for Lindsey Hughes






Dear All,



Thank you to all of you who sent your condolences for the loss of Lindsey
Hughes. Please find below an obituary by Paul Dukes and a note from Lindsey's
colleagues from the Georgetown University. Another obituary can be found in the
Independent at http://news.independent.co.uk/people/obituaries/article2510866.ece



Sergei Bogatyrev







With the death of Lindsey Hughes on 26 April 2007, the academic world has lost
a bright star, and many of us have lost a dear friend.



Lindsey Audrey Jennifer Hughes was born on 4 May 1949 at Swanscombe in Kent. At
Dartford Grammar School for Girls, she learned her first Russian and remained
grateful for this to the end of her life. She contributed a chapter to the
school's centenary volume a few years ago.



In 1967 she went to Sussex University to study Russian. She was taught by Beryl
Williams, Sergei Hackel and Robin Milner-Gulland and spent a year in Moscow.
Graduating with first-class honours, she proceeded to Darwin College,
Cambridge, to do postgraduate work on Moscow Baroque architecture under the
supervision of Nikolay Andreyev. She spent another year in Moscow working on
her dissertation. In her spare time, she appeared on Soviet TV singing English
songs with her guitar for children's language programmes. She was awarded her
PhD in 1976.



In 1974, she was appointed lecturer in Slavonic studies at Queen's University,
Belfast (under Marcus Wheeler), at the height of the troubles and remained
there until 1977 when she was appointed lecturer in Russian at Reading
University. The Russian Department, whose other members were Jim Dingley and
Mike Pursglove, had recently become independent from the German Department.
Lindsey taught literature, history and language there.



Following the Atkinson Report, the vice chancellor at Reading decided to
abolish Russian. There followed a difficult few years while it wound down.
Lindsey was transferred to the School of Slavonic and East European Studies
(SSEES) in London in 1987, but worked part-time at Reading until 1989,
finishing off the last undergraduate course. She was promoted to senior
lecturer in 1989, reader in 1992 and professor in 2000. Her main books have
been Russia and the West: the life of a 17th-century Westerniser: Prince V.V.
Golitsyn (1984); Sophia, Regent of Russia (1990); Russia in the Age of Peter
the Great (1998); and Peter the Great: A Biography (2002); all receiving
deservedly high praise. She was also responsible for several volumes of
Academic International Press's scholarly translation of Solov'ev's History of
Russia, the last of which is in press. She completed the manuscript of her last
book, a history of the Romanov dynasty, on 16 March 2007, the day before she
had her final relapse. While all her works were thoroughly researched and her
approach was dutifully comprehensive, she most enjoyed their cultural aspects,
scornfully dismissing pig-iron production statistics and other such data.



Lindsey frequently participated in national and international conferences, and
delivered lectures at a wide range of institutions. She was an active member of
several academic organisations, most notably perhaps the Study Group on
Eighteenth-Century Russia of which she became Convener in succession to Tony
Cross. All those who attended the Group's January meetings at High Leigh
Conference Centre will always remember the spirited manner in which she
conducted and contributed to these meetings, as well as the cracking pace at
which she led the walk to the local pub afterwards.





Students spoke highly of her teaching, which sometimes included an element of
amateur theatricals in which all members of the class were urged to
participate. She did more than her fair share of administration, too, often
arriving in her office before 8am in order to see to e-mails and other
correspondence before getting down to the main business of the day. Very much a
team player at SSEES, she took on the editorship of Slavonic Review, among many
other responsibilities.



Lindsey was diagnosed with cervical cancer in 1995. Following surgery, she was
thought clear of the disease until December 2005, when she was diagnosed with
terminal secondary cancer of the liver. Excellent treatment by Dr Ron Beaney
and the staff of the London Bridge Hospital, plus her own determination and the
much-appreciated support of her husband, gave her an extra 17 months of life,
most of which was happy and productive. After 23 years together, Lindsey and
her partner Jim Cutshall were married in January 2006.



She loved cats, gardening, the theatre, antique collecting, two 'soaps'
(Eastenders on TV, the Archers on radio) and singing. During the last years of
her life, she got great pleasure from singing with the St. Paul's Knightsbridge
Festival Choir, including in their performance of the Messiah last Christmas.



Much of the basic information in this brief obituary was kindly supplied at
this most difficult time by Jim Cutshall, to whom the deepest sympathy.



Paul Dukes

p.dukes@abdn.ac.uk





From: "David Goldfrank" <goldfrad@georgetown.edu>

To: "Early Slavic Studies" <H-EARLYSLAVIC@H-NET.MSU.EDU>



We at Georgetown share this great sorrow. Lindsey was pure delight for
us, as we collaborated on our textbook, for which she contributed the
chapters on the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. We loved her
dearly and so shall miss her and cherish her memory and her legacy.

Catherine Evtuhov, Richard Stites, David Goldfrank

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