Hanging of the Decembrists to a Basta song in the finale of “Union of Salvation”

“When I am gone, I shall sing with the voices of my children and the voices of their children”: I could not believe my ears when this melody struck up in the final scene of “Union of Salvation”. On screen, the hanging of Pestel, Ryleyev, Muravyov-Apostol, Bestuzhev-Ryumin and Kakhovsky; off screen, Russian pop. It was presumably meant to be touching, but I cannot hear Basta at all without remembering how he campaigned for the pension reform.

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September digest: archaeological finds, exhibitions, museums, theatre and the Church

In the finale of the Strugatskys' Roadside Picnic, the Golden Ball is told: "Happiness for everybody, free, and let nobody go away unsatisfied!" I do not promise to offend nobody, but the digest really does come free of charge. So, here is the main business of 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

Hanging of the Decembrists to a Basta song in the finale of “Union of Salvation”

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September digest: archaeological finds, exhibitions, museums, theatre and the Church

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