Sword swallower model by Rudolf Pohl at the German Hygiene Museum in Dresden, 1900
The sword-swallower of the healthy man. German Hygiene Museum in Dresden, a medical model by Rudolf Pohl showing what it means to 'go too far', 1900
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Letter from the Decembrist Mikhail Lunin to his sister, written in the village of Urik on 29 September 1836
I live among people who see me and do not understand me, or with the Invisible One whom I cannot comprehend. The darkness of my sins veils him, even when the deadly lead had grown numb in my body; a gleam of his gaze flashed before me when the blade
Alexander I as King of Poland and the Incorporation of the Duchy of Warsaw into the Russian Empire in 1815
Alexander I, King of Poland, Tsar and Autocrat of All the Russias Just a reminder of Russia's borders before 1918: in 1815 the greater part of the Duchy of Warsaw became part of the Russian Empire as the Kingdom of Poland, or the Vistula Land, until everything fell
How Many Suffered in Dekulakisation: Estimates by Zemskov, Ivnitsky and Conquest
A photograph of 1930 showing the deportation of a kulak and his family The number of victims of dekulakisation has still not been established and can hardly be stated unambiguously, since the figure includes both those directly repressed (stripped of their property, evicted, exiled, arrested) and, on occasion, the victims
Félix Bonfils, photographs of a dragoman and guide for travellers in Syria
From a guidebook to Syria. Photographs by Félix Bonfils (1831-1885)