What connects Fyodor Ivanovich Tyutchev and Boris Johnson, apart from perpetually dishevelled hair?

To a certain extent, they may be called relations, by way of Tyutchev's second wife, the former Baroness Ernestine von Pfeffel. Ernestine's own brother, the Bavarian Baron Karl Maximilian von Pfeffel, who was related to Duke Paul of Württemberg, Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich, King Wilhelm II and Duke Wilhelm of Nassau, is a direct ancestor of Boris Johnson in the fifth generation.

So, in some fashion, the Russian writer Fyodor Tyutchev turns out to be a first cousin four times removed, or something of the sort, of the British Prime Minister.

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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

What connects Fyodor Ivanovich Tyutchev and Boris Johnson, apart from perpetually dishevelled hair?

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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