Ivan the Terrible Ruled as an Autocrat, Now Wisely and Sagely, Now Recklessly and Cruelly

Autocracy (samovlastye), according to V.I. Dahl's Explanatory Dictionary, is unlimited power, strength, will, or the right of disposal, constrained by nothing, felt and perceived as a right or a quality.

The word "samovlastnost", as representing a fusion of the meanings of supreme power and the highest independence, is given as identical to the term souveraineté, taken from Hegel's "Phenomenology of Spirit" (Herrschaft) and used by Georges Bataille to denote an end point, a state in which a being dwells for the whole of its life, for a time, or for a single moment, and a quality with which subjects and phenomena may be endowed

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At the close of the Strugatskys' "Roadside Picnic" the Golden Sphere is asked for this: "Happiness for everybody, free, and let nobody go away unsatisfied!" I do not promise to leave no one aggrieved, but the digest really does come free

At the close of the Strugatskys' "Roadside Picnic" the Golden Sphere is asked for this: "Happiness for everybody, free, and let nobody go away unsatisfied!" I do not promise to leave no one aggrieved, but the digest really does come free. So, here is the

Frederic Leighton

Frederic Leighton. “Daedalus and Icarus”, 1869 Daedalus warns his son not to climb too high: the heat of the sun may melt the wax, but Icarus is already gazing into the distance, and the lamentations of a foolish old man interest him not in the least

Ivan the Terrible Ruled as an Autocrat, Now Wisely and Sagely, Now Recklessly and Cruelly

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At the close of the Strugatskys' "Roadside Picnic" the Golden Sphere is asked for this: "Happiness for everybody, free, and let nobody go away unsatisfied!" I do not promise to leave no one aggrieved, but the digest really does come free

Frederic Leighton

Attempts to resolve the problems of many years of uncontrolled mass migration

Characters from Gogol's "Petersburg Tales" on the pedestal of the monument to Nikolai Gogol on Nikitsky Boulevard, photograph of the 1960s