At a museum dinner marking Leo Tolstoy's 190th anniversary, I learned that among other things the May Decrees of 2012 included a provision that exhibitions of copies do not count towards the state assignment, so a museum cannot report them as fulfilment o

At a museum dinner marking Leo Tolstoy's 190th anniversary, I learned that among other things the May Decrees of 2012 included a provision that exhibitions of copies do not count towards the state assignment, so a museum cannot report them as fulfilment of its plan. The innovation was conceived as a gesture towards the regions, to which, at the wave of a presidential decree, originals of historical and artistic objects were to start being sent, rather than the pallid copies that are the reality. But you understand for yourselves what that costs: insurance alone for originals comes to a fortune, to say nothing of transport, storage and display. Far from every museum can afford it. For an exhibition to count towards the state assignment, it must contain at least 25% authentic exhibits. But, as museum insiders say, it is a good day if there is even one. Such are the ways of the world

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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

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

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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