The Russian House in Dhaka has organised two literary lectures at the University of Dhaka (DU) and the University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh (ULAB).

During the first session at ULAB on "Fyodor Dostoyevsky and Rabindranath Tagore: Litterateurs, illustrators and artists," Indian Professor Debal Dasgupta, a prominent promoter of Russian language and culture, displayed an array of illustrations, sketches and doodles by the two authors and talked in depth about the artistic abilities of the two great masters of literature, their critical look at the harmony between their illustrations and the literary characters.

The second programme "Alexander Pushkin and Rabindranath Tagore: The creators of the new hero in world literature" was held at DU.

Debal, a recipient of the Pushkin Award, explained the trends in Russian literature, stressed the dominance and influence of classicism, sentimentalism and romanticism and showed how Pushkin broke the rules of the time, albeit under the pseudonym of Ivan Belkin.

He also talked about Tagore. Both authors used pseudonyms to portray real characters in their literary works.

Debal is an MA and PhD in Russian philology from the Jawaharlal Nehru University and Baroda University and the director of 48 full-length plays staged in Moscow and different parts of India.