This, by the way, is no legend: the saddle really was presented to Sheremetev by Peter I

This, by the way, is no legend: the saddle really was presented to Sheremetev by Peter I. I saw it with my own eyes at the 2009 exhibition in the Kremlin, marking the 300th anniversary of the Great Northern War and the Battle of Poltava. I remember it as if it were yesterday: there was also the uniform of Charles XII from Stockholm, the only one of his uniforms to have survived, incidentally. And it was in this very coat that Charles was killed in 1718 during the siege of the fortress of Fredriksten. He was in the trenches, on the front line, and died from a stray bullet or, by some accounts, a ricocheting button! On the collar of his coat there are still traces of royal blood (that of the last monarch in Europe to fall on the field of battle).

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Old colour photograph with cracks: adults and children resting on the grass on a slope under a tree.

Orientalist Grigory Kozakov with relatives and children at a picnic near the village of Zhikharevka in 1903

The Orientalist Grigory Alexandrovich Kozakov, surrounded by his relatives, his daughter-in-law Countess Anna Nikolayevna Tolstaya, the children and their tutor, at a picnic near the village of Zhikharevka in 1903

Konstantin Ivanov's Cosmonautics Day poster, published in Moscow in 1977

Grow strong, cosmic youth! A poster for Cosmonautics Day, created by the artist Konstantin Konstantinovich Ivanov in 1977. The work was issued by the Moscow publishing house “Plakat” for 12 April. Konstantin Ivanov was a Soviet graphic artist and poster designer, Honoured Artist of the RSFSR. The theme of space

Signs of violent death found on skulls from burials beside the royal tombs at Abydos

An American archaeologist has carried out a forensic analysis of skulls of people who were buried beside the tombs of Egypt's first kings at Abydos, and has found on many of them traces of violent death. Abydos in Upper Egypt served as the burial place of the kings

Black-and-white group photograph of people in masquerade costumes with fans and headdresses, some seated on a floor covered with confetti.

Guests at a costume party in a Moscow theatre in the early 20th century

A costume evening at one of the Moscow theatres in the early twentieth century

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Orientalist Grigory Kozakov with relatives and children at a picnic near the village of Zhikharevka in 1903

Konstantin Ivanov's Cosmonautics Day poster, published in Moscow in 1977

Signs of violent death found on skulls from burials beside the royal tombs at Abydos

Guests at a costume party in a Moscow theatre in the early 20th century