Books · Education · Society

Mikhail Pogodin, in an 1832 lecture, on Russia's primacy among the European powers

Having looked upon Russia in a moment of her repose, let us now consider one of her deeds, accomplished before our very eyes. All Europe, having made ready for several years and gathered its forces, in the persons of twenty tongues, burst through undefended frontiers into the very heart of

Aerial view of an industrial site with spherical and cylindrical tanks, black smoke and flames, as boats moored at the quays shoot jets of water.

NB!

Fireboats spraying water on burning storage tanks at a waterfront industrial site

NB! · Geography · Science · Society · Nature

On 11 March 2011 a magnitude 9 earthquake, the strongest in Japan's history, triggered a tsunami that led to an accident at the Fukushima nuclear power plant, as terrible as the Chernobyl disaster of 1986

Books · Observations · People

Turgenev on Cosmopolitanism and Nationality in “Rudin” of 1856

Rudin's misfortune is that he does not know Russia, and it is certainly a great misfortune. Russia can do without any one of us, but none of us can do without her. Woe to him who thinks so, and double woe to him who actually does without her!

NB! · Aristocracy · Archive · People

Nikolai Yusupov, principal heir to the Yusupov fortune and to the princely title of his mother, Zinaida Yusupova, Count Sumarokov-Elston

Nikolai Yusupov, principal heir to the Yusupov fortune and to the princely title of his mother, Zinaida Yusupova, Count Sumarokov-Elston. Elder brother of Felix Yusupov. Killed in a duel in 1908, aged 25

Painted portrait of a fair-haired boy in dark blue clothing, seated in an ochre armchair against a blue sky.

Art

Viktor Vasnetsov paints a portrait of his son Boris, aged nine

Viktor Vasnetsov. Portrait of his son Boris. In the year the portrait was painted, the boy was 9 years old

NB! · Observations

In Any Unclear Situation, I Return to Academic Work

A bearded old man in a white robe with a staff walks hand in hand with a youth in a blue tunic while a dog barks at them.

NB! · Art

William-Adolphe Bouguereau’s painting “Homer and His Guide”

Homer and His Guide. Adolphe William Bouguereau

NB! · London · Mores · Humour

Macarons or macaroni, after all?

Macarons or macaroni, after all? In the middle of the eighteenth century, the word "macaroni" in England denoted neither a pasta nor even a dessert, but dandies who laboured diligently to dress up as French aristocrats. A macaroni could be recognised by the tiny hat perched atop a

Society · Humour

It is a disgrace that all the people who know how to run the country are busy driving taxis or cutting hair

George Burns

NB! · Art · Monarchies · People

Queen Victoria on Horseback

NB! · Observations · Society · Pop Culture · Humour

It is pleasant to know that, amid all this horror, someone spends as much time photographing himself as you do

It is pleasant to know that, amid all this horror, someone spends as much time photographing himself as you do. Macron one love

Alexandr Radayev