Masonic Moscow

Masonic Moscow. A six-pointed star, blazing torches and a medallion with a three-faced figure in the bas-reliefs on the façade of the Kazakov building of Moscow University (photos 1, 2), rebuilt in 1817 under the direction of Domenico, or Dementy Ivanovich, Gilardi.

Today the Kazakov building houses the holdings of the university library and the Institute of Asian and African Studies, founded in 1956. Which makes it curious that the façades of another oriental institute in Moscow bear similar bas-reliefs, only without the six-pointed star, which symbolises the fire-sun-masculine principle striving upwards and the water-moon-feminine principle striving downwards. I mean the Lazarev Institute of Oriental Languages in Armyansky Lane (photos 3, 4)

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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

Masonic Moscow

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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