More About Ludmilla

"Half a year in prison was considered by my grandmother to be the best days of her life" .... Ludmilla

Born (1956) and raised in Russia, Ludmilla draws on her experiences as a Russian child, communist young group and party activist, university student and faculty member, married woman, mother, historian, author and international lecturer.

Professor Ludmilla Selezneva graduated with honors from Rostov State University in Rostov-on-Don, Russia, in 1978, where she received her graduate degree in 1979 and her first doctorate in history in 1982. She attained her second doctorate in 1996 from the Russian State University of the Humanities, in Moscow. Since 1981 she has been a faculty member of the history department at Rostov State University.

In September 1997 she joined the faculty of the Russian State University for the Humanities (Moscow), where was appointed Chief of the Department for the Culture of Peace and Democracy. Since 2001 Ludmilla has worked as a professor of history and politics at the University for the Humanitarian Education (Moscow).

She has published more than 50 articles and authored or coauthored 10 books, the most recent of which are entitled Dialogue, compromise, consensus (Russian - English), Western Democracy through the Eyes of Russian Liberals (Russian) and Leliers from Ludmilla: Growing Up Russian (English).

Ludmilla has participated in more than 100 national and international conferences on politics, history and government. Speaking tours have taken her to the United States, Great Britain and Canada, where she has been enthusiastically received by both academic and civic audiences in cities including New York, Washington, D.C., Salt Lake City and Naples, Florida, Lexington, Loisvill, Linchburg, Frankfort, Fresno, Des Moine, San Diego, London, Oxford, Cambridge, Southampton, Edinburgh, , Essex, Kent, Bath, Manchester, York, St.Andrews, Inverness, Scarborough, Great Missenden, Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa. She is an honorary citizen of Mobile, Alabama and has been a featured guest on several TV programs in USA. In February 2000 she gave lectures at Chatham House of the Royal Institution of International Affairs and in Palace of Westminster for the British-Russian All Party Parliament Group. In March 2002 she spoke for the International Cultural Exchange in the House of Lords.

Ludmilla is the main speaker on a number of cruises in and around Russia.

Each lecture creates enormous tension in Ludmilla and during the lecture she successfully passes this energy onto her audience leaving herself drained!

When not lecturing Ludmilla spends a great deal of time keeping up with world affairs.

Her other passion is ballroom dancing and she is rather good at it! Achievemants include 3rd place in the ProAm Russian Championship in 2008. She is delighted when asked to perform a demonstartion of professional ballroom dancing as part of a lecture event.

"Basketball is my favourite sport, but my favourite hobby – a kind of sport- is ballroom dancing".... Ludmilla