Thursday, 1 October 2026 · Almaty

Not long ago I wrote on Threads about the Polytechnic Museum, asking when it will open, whereupon a man turned up and began to assert that the museum has had another storey added – mark this – from below!

Not long ago I wrote on Threads about the Polytechnic Museum, asking when it will open, whereupon a man turned up and began to assert that the museum has had another storey added – mark this – from below!

For all the adepts of TikTok education, I took these photographs yesterday while passing by. The lower storey has always been there! Yes, it was dug out, yes, it was adapted to a new use, reinforced and refurbished, but for now we do not tack lower storeys on to historic buildings with quite the ease with which people speak of the embellished Moscow.

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