Hi Dave,

Wow, what an interesting family heritage! No, I don't have anything like that in my family. I just started learning German and Russian at school in Liverpool in the 60s, then did an MA in German & Russian at McMaster, Hamilton, Ontario - but thereafter I very much concentrated on German, living in Germany for a few years, doing a PhD and ending up lecturing at university in Sheffield before retiring 4 years ago - so my Russian has always been very underused and gets weaker by the year! I also don't perform any Russian material - my wife, Vic Shepherd, and I perform English traditional material, with some Canadian and N. American variants. However, I would be interested in any Russian song books you want to get rid of - let me know how to contact you.

All the best,
John