Society · Cinema · Pop Culture
As soon as you say "enough", all your gold will turn to potsherds. The Central Bank will issue collectable roubles dedicated to the cartoon The Golden Antelope. The issue will form part of the series "Russian (Soviet) Animation". In all there will be three versions of
Architecture · Moscow · Faith · Heritage · Society
The Bell Tower of the Strastnoy Monastery as a Beacon of Anti-Religious Propaganda. The bell tower of the Strastnoy Monastery, demolished in 1937, was used in the Soviet years for anti-religious propaganda and for advertising Communist ideas: the monastery had been closed since 1919 and housed the Central
Archive · Pop Culture
This is Russia! German Vogue, October 1992
Museums · Society · Paris · Heritage
On Saturday the Paris police arrested two dimwits from Germany at the Louvre, who had fixed two paintings of their own, each measuring 30 by 40 cm, to the wall beside the "Mona Lisa". One of the pictures they had brought depicted a man in armour. The other
NB! · Archive · Architecture · Faith · Moscow · Heritage
The “Annushka” tram on Malaya Dmitrovka in 1896. Straight ahead is the Cathedral of the Passion Icon of the Mother of God, part of the Strastnoy Monastery, demolished in 1937. On the left is the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin in Putinki, built in 1652 and surviving to
Architecture · Moscow · Coming Up · Art
Art at the entrance of a building has long ceased to be a rarity: the golden “Prometheus” has stood in Rockefeller Center since 1934, Picasso's work in Chicago's Daley Plaza since 1967, and there is no need to look far afield: Savitsky's famous sculpture
Cinema · The East
A still from the 1991 film Pour Sacha, in which the beautiful violinist Laura, played by Marceau, follows a French professor of philosophy to Israel in 1965. Then the Six-Day War begins… Recommended viewing, if only for Marceau.
NB! · Archive · Geography · Observations
The icebreaker Krasin in 1934. I look at these photographs and cannot get it into my head on what grounds, or by what leap of imagination, anyone decided to rename an icebreaker with the splendid name Svyatogor after a Party functionary.
NB! · Architecture · Humour
Archaeology · The East · Science
Chinese historical texts repeatedly mention the cutting off of the nose as a judicial punishment, one of the so-called five punishments. Until now, archaeologists in China had found no skeletal confirmation of the practice. Now researchers describe the first probable case. The remains of a woman who lived some
Archaeology · Faith · Science
A pendant of copper alloy, dated to the eleventh century, has been found in Staraya Russa. One side shows a warrior with a spear and shield, presumably a Christian saint; the other, a head with snakes, reminiscent of Medusa. Such objects are known as zmeeviki ("serpent amulets"). Four
Books · Interviews · In the Press · Cinema · People
The attack on the writer took place on 12 August 2022 in Chautauqua, in upstate New York, where Rushdie was due to speak. Griffiths was at home in New York that morning and learned of what had happened by telephone from an acquaintance, the details reaching her only later through