The East · Books · Observations · Mores · Humour

Theories on the origin of the word kolbyag, used for foreigners in Ancient Rus'

There is an old, forgotten Russian word, kolbyag, used in Ancient Rus' to denote foreigners. Which foreigners exactly is not entirely clear: according to one version, the kolbyagi were predominantly of eastern origin. Such too are the foreigners named in the Russkaya Pravda "Varangians" (Western Europeans) and

Books · Humour

People could put up with the bite of a wolf, but it was the bite of a sheep that truly outraged them

James Joyce

NB! · Cinema · Observations · Humour

Curiously, among the companions of Odysseus (Matt Damon) in Christopher Nolan's new film is a character played by the South Korean actor Will Yun Lee

Observations · Society · Pop Culture · Humour

The United States ends penny minting as each coin costs more than three cents to make

The United States has stopped minting the penny, that is, the copper one-cent coin. A vast country, a great economy, space-age technology, and yet things did not work out with one small piece of copper. They counted, they reckoned, and they discovered that producing a one-cent coin

Moscow · Museums · Observations · Society

Paid admission at GES-2 and reflections on ideology in contemporary art museums

I know the news is stale, and that everyone has spent the past week and a half in embarrassment and has even stopped talking about it. But since I was away travelling for a long time and did not follow events closely, I am doubly unhappy about this innovation. Though,

NB! · Observations · Society

Why Every Organisation Must Have an info@ Email Address

Mores · Pop Culture · Humour

Young lady, this is a chest of drawers from the GDR: have you any idea how long the queues for them were?

Photo: Alex Manchev

Cinema · Books · Observations

Frodo Baggins Was 33 When He Received the Ring of Power

He set out from Rivendell for Mount Doom only 17 years later. All that time Gandalf was gathering information about the Ring. Thus the Ring was destroyed when Frodo was already past 50. In the film adaptation, all of this took no more than a couple of weeks, three at

Faith · Art · Society · Pop Culture

The author considers anime-style icons acceptable in books but not in church premises

Patriarch Kirill on Orthodox anime:. …a few words on church art as an instrument of the Orthodox mission. Church art, in its most varied forms, has always been a vital component of our national culture. Of late, a new and highly ambiguous style of icon painting has gained currency, in

NB! · Faith · Observations · Heritage · Society

Non-stop vandalism in churches, cemeteries, squares and memorials across Europe

Non-stop vandalism in churches, cemeteries, squares and memorials across Europe. But the most frightening thing is that this is only the beginning

Art · Museums · Observations · Mores

Following the Example of Their Elders

In the painting by Vasily Maximov (1844-1911) from the collection of the Irkutsk Regional Art Museum, we see a boy secretly drinking wine, unbeknown to his parents. The painting is called "Following the Example of Their Elders". Our youth love luxury, they are badly brought up, they

In the Press · Books · Heritage

The channel has already published a piece on how, in recent years, European libraries have suffered badly from thefts of rare editions of Russian classics: in the Baltic states, Berlin, Warsaw, The Hague, Geneva, Lyon, Munich, Paris, Prague and Helsinki,

The channel has already published a piece on how, in recent years, European libraries have suffered badly from thefts of rare editions of Russian classics: in the Baltic states, Berlin, Warsaw, The Hague, Geneva, Lyon, Munich, Paris, Prague and Helsinki, book thieves substituted copies for the originals. The most popular

Alexandr Radayev