Russian Editor Alexander Pumpyansky to Speak at Ayers Lecture

By Sherry Kughn
JSU News Bureau

5 November, 2004 — When Russian officials banned Alexander Pumpyansky from practicing journalism in 1976, he was honored. To him, it meant he was doing his job well. Thanks to Gorbachev’s policies of Glasnost that were put in place during the late 1980s, Pumpyansky was able to resume his trade. He will speak about his career, the crisis in the Russian economy and the crisis in the Russian press at the 2005 Ayers Lecture at Jacksonville State University on December 1.

The annual lectureship began in 1988 as a sponsorship between The Anniston Star and JSU to honor the late Harry M. and Edel Ayers, publishers of The Star. The lecture’s goal is to bring in respected journalists from throughout the world to discuss media issues.

Pumpyansky is editor-in-chief for the weekly magazine Novoye Vremya and the monthly New Times (Moscow). He is a professional journalist and worked for 15 years at the newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda and for eight years as the deputy editor-in-chief of the weekly newspaper, the Moscow News.

In addition, Pumpyansky is the author of several books and scripts used for documentary films, including his participation in the Soviet-American serial, “The Unknown War.” His latest books are Humpty Dumpty Sat on the Wall, which is a collection of literary essays and Two Leaders: History as an Earthquake, which is a collection of political essays.

Pumpyansky is the 1986 recipient of the Vorovsky Prize for outstanding publications on international affairs and the 1989 recipient of the Journalist of the Year Prize of the Interpress Service Agency. In 1989, he received the John Hopkins University diploma for excellence in international journalism.

The lecture will be from 2-3:30 p.m. on December 1 at the 11th floor of Houston Cole Library and will include a question and answer period. The public is invited.

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