Faith · Interviews · Society · People

Pope Francis in a Spanish radio interview on migrants, the European Union and Catalonia

Pope Francis has given a long interview to Spanish radio. And, it seems, for the first time. I have listened to the two-hour conversation with the pontiff, restored to health by the grace of God, and made notes on the most important points. Whether or not you have already

NB! · Faith · Interviews · People

Pope Francis returns to duty after illness; yesterday he gave a lengthy radio interview to the Spanish journalist Carlos Herrera

NB! · Museums · Pop Culture

The Piano on Which All the Hits of the Russian Pop Stage Are Written

Art · Observations · Humour

Once They Bury Their Noses in Their Gadgets: how much better things were in the old days!

In the old days: Portraits in the Countryside, Gustave Caillebotte, 1876

Books · Observations · Science · Education

The word abiturient changed its meaning from school leaver to applicant

Originally, the word abiturient was used to mean "a pupil finishing secondary school, a school-leaver". Today it has acquired practically the opposite sense: not one who leaves school, but one who applies for admission. As late as the 1960s, explanatory dictionaries described abiturients exclusively as school-leavers.

Aristocracy · In the Press · Observations · Mores · Ethnography

Sergey Tolstoy married the singer Maria Shishkina after parting with Tatyana Bers

Sofya Bagdasarova has published an interesting piece on love between Romani women and Russian noblemen in the nineteenth century. And here I cannot help recalling the love story of Maria Mikhailovna Shishkina, a singer in the Tula Romani choir, and Sergey Nikolayevich Tolstoy, the elder brother of Leo Tolstoy. At

Art · Observations · Education

Greetings for 1 September and Uchi Dzhaparidze’s painting “Grandfather’s Pride” of 1955

Congratulations to all on the First of September! Even if you left the walls of school and university long ago, the symbolic start of a new academic year is a great holiday. And perhaps it deserves to be greeted with joy, for what in this life is more interesting than

NB! · Archive · Monarchies · Paris · People

Twenty-four years ago, Arthur Edwards, who had photographed Princess Diana for seventeen years, took this picture of her coffin leaving the ancient Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital in Paris

Books · Observations · People · Humour

Charles Baudelaire’s lines on perishable beauty, on the 154th anniversary of his death

But remember: you too, exuding contagion, will lie a rotting corpse, you, sun of my eyes, my living star, you, radiant seraph. You too, my beauty, you too will be touched by decay, And you will rot down to the bones, Dressed in flowers to the sound of mournful prayers,

Oval miniature of a girl with long fair hair, a lace collar and a dress embroidered with flowers, against a blue background, with the date 1619 at right.

Art · Observations · Humour

Miniature portrait of a girl in a lace collar, dated 1619

I'll wear it loose! What a charming little girl from the year 1619

NB! · Observations · Humour

I do love the discussions in my favourite group, above all for the insanely important information

I do love the discussions in my favourite group, above all for the insanely important information. For example, about what can give a man a nervous disorder

Cinema · Moscow · Mores · Society

In the film "Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears", which begins in 1958, we meet the girls working at a factory

In the film "Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears", which begins in 1958, we meet the girls working at a factory. The heroine, Katerina Tikhomirova, who has come from the provinces, becomes not merely a fitter but a setter-operator. That, however, is another matter altogether: different circumstances,

Alexandr Radayev