FABS Moscow Tour, 17–24 September 2017

            Details are now available for the FABS Tour to Moscow from 17– 24 September 2017. Up to 20 places are available. Full details may be obtained from the Tour Director, Professor William Butler, at webakademik@aol.com.  The cost is US$950.00, which is payable by the end of April 2017.

            The Tour is arranged in the FABS tradition: an intensive program of bibliophilic visits which includes no time for the usual tourist sites. If you want to see those, come early and/or depart late. A block of rooms has been reserved at Marriott hotels in Moscow and St. Petersburg at a special rate, both centrally located. You will need to follow our instructions to make reservations yourself at the FABS rate; if you are a member of Marriott incentive programs, their conditions will be relevant for upgrades.

            What the Tour Cost Includes: Farewell dinner in St. Petersburg on 23 September; rail transport between Moscow and St. Petersburg on the evening of 20 September; all relevant entrance fees to tour visits as a group; services of interpreter(s) throughout the visit; local transfers to site visits; visa support letters; trip briefing materials, including background readings on Russian bibliophily, printing, bibliography, and the like.

            What is NOT Included: airfare or other travel to and from Russia; return travel from St. Petersburg if your arrangements require that you return to Moscow for departure home; meals other than the Farewell Dinner; visa; transfers to and from Russian airports; baggage charges; trip cancellation, health, and evacuation insurance; incidental personal expenses such as hotel minibar, business center, and the like.

            Hotel rates in Moscow and St. Petersburg are quoted in rubles and will be subject to the exchange rates at the time. As of mid-December 2016, the ruble rate is about 65 per US$1.00. Single and double rooms are available.

            Visits and Events. Following an orientation on Sunday evening, 17 September, visits in Moscow are anticipated to include: Museum of the Book (Russian State Library); Exlibris and Miniature Book Museum; Leo Tolstoy Home and Museum; Moscow University Rare Book Library; perhaps a home visit to a private collection; antiquarian bookshop(s) and/or mini book fair for the group

            Visits in St. Petersburg are anticipated to include: Russian National Library (with perhaps special attention to the Voltaire personal library there); Library of the Russian Academy of Sciences; Library of The Hermitage; the Brodsky/Akhmatova Home Museum; possibly the Dostoyevsky Museum; a local atelier for livres d’artiste; and others.

            We hope to work in lectures on the history of Russian bibliophily, the Russian bookplate, and the Slavonic book.

            Places will be filled in the sequence of receipt.