NB! · Cinema · Pop Culture · Humour
Alexandr Radayev
Faith · Science · Nature · Rome
The legend of the sacred geese of the Capitol and the Gallic sack of Rome in 390 BC
The Sacred Geese before the Temple of Juno Moneta on the Capitoline Hill. The historical chronicles, including the works of Titus Livius, offer no reliable confirmation that it was the geese who played the decisive part in saving the Capitol. The legend seems rather to have arisen as a symbolic
Faith · Society
The Synaxis of the Holy Innocents of Bethlehem
This icon recalls the 14,000 infant souls slaughtered by order of the tetrarch Herod. The murdered children of Bethlehem are venerated as the first martyrs for Christ. Today this icon is prayed before by parents who, following the example of Herod, have dealt with their own children by destroying
NB! · Geography · Nature
The floor of the Pacific Ocean is very interesting
NB! · Observations · Humour
Do You Love Unboxing as I Love It?
Archive · Moscow · Observations · Society
Moscow's Theatre Square in the 1930s decorated with tractor models for May Day
I was leafing through an album of photographs of 1930s Moscow and came upon a picture of Theatre Square decked out for May Day with outline models of tractors and ploughs. You know, for all the naivety and artlessness of such agitational dressing of urban spaces, it looks far better
NB! · Art
“The Voice of Space”: René Magritte Unrecognisable
“The Voice of Space”: René Magritte unrecognisable. 1928
Art · Humour
Lenin on the Rampage
The Croatian artist Jozo Kljaković, 1924
Archive · Moscow · Mores · People
Lev Tolstoy masters the bicycle and in 1896 receives a licence to ride in Moscow
Leo Tolstoy learned to ride a bicycle at the age of 67. It is very strange why I am drawn to do this. Yevgeny Ivanovich tried to dissuade me and was distressed that I ride, but I feel no shame. On the contrary, I feel that I do not care
Books · Observations · Education
The grammatical gender of the Russian word biennale in dictionaries and in practice
In the Russian Academy of Sciences' Russian Orthographic Dictionary, biennale and b'ennale are recorded as nouns of masculine or feminine gender. The dictionary of foreign words, by contrast, makes biennale neuter. In practice, meanwhile, we see that biennale is most often used as a feminine word. Though
Faith · Education · Society
From 1 September 2025, Russian schools will begin cutting the hours devoted to foreign languages
From 1 September 2025, Russian schools will begin cutting the hours devoted to foreign languages. In Years 5 to 7, the number of lessons will fall from three to two a week, while the total number of hours for the subject in Years 5 to 9 will drop from 510
Aristocracy · Interviews · Education · People
I drew a very lucky ticket in my fate, because at the end of 1944, while the war was still going on, I was sent to the Moscow Choir School
I drew a very lucky ticket in my fate, because at the end of 1944, while the war was still going on, I was sent to the Moscow Choir School. This was preceded by the wartime years and then a rather painful evacuation. My father had already sent my papers