National Electronic Library opens free access to classic works in an app

The National Electronic Library, under the Ministry of Culture, has released an app called “Svet” [“Light”] with free access to thousands of books, films and plays. Since we do, after a fashion, have a copyright law, what has been made openly available is mostly classic works whose terms happen to permit it; the idea is simple: to make an acquaintance with the classics possible in the easiest form. Well, we shall see whether this format takes off

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Alexander I as King of Poland and the Incorporation of the Duchy of Warsaw into the Russian Empire in 1815

Alexander I, King of Poland, Tsar and Autocrat of All the Russias Just a reminder of Russia's borders before 1918: in 1815 the greater part of the Duchy of Warsaw became part of the Russian Empire as the Kingdom of Poland, or the Vistula Land, until everything fell

A 1930 photograph showing the eviction of a kulak and his family during dekulakisation.

How Many Suffered in Dekulakisation: Estimates by Zemskov, Ivnitsky and Conquest

A photograph of 1930 showing the deportation of a kulak and his family The number of victims of dekulakisation has still not been established and can hardly be stated unambiguously, since the figure includes both those directly repressed (stripped of their property, evicted, exiled, arrested) and, on occasion, the victims

Félix Bonfils, photographs of a dragoman and guide for travellers in Syria

From a guidebook to Syria. Photographs by Félix Bonfils (1831-1885)

Fire at Miller House in Saint Petersburg and bans on building after fires in the laws of several countries

On the evening of 1 October the Miller mansion at 3 St Isaac's Square in Saint Petersburg burned down. A house of the second half of the eighteenth century, rebuilt in 1879-1880 in eclectic forms by the architect Ferdinand Miller, it was granted the status of a

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Alexander I as King of Poland and the Incorporation of the Duchy of Warsaw into the Russian Empire in 1815

How Many Suffered in Dekulakisation: Estimates by Zemskov, Ivnitsky and Conquest

Félix Bonfils, photographs of a dragoman and guide for travellers in Syria

Fire at Miller House in Saint Petersburg and bans on building after fires in the laws of several countries