Architecture · Moscow · Heritage · Society

The four double-headed eagles of the Kremlin, removed in October 1935 and melted down

The double-headed eagles soared above the Moscow Kremlin for a very long time: until October 1935. It turns out that they witnessed not only the shelling of the Kremlin by artillery, the first parades in honour of the revolution, Lenin's speeches and Party mobilisations, but also the

Black-and-white panoramic photograph of a large columned building with a wide staircase, with cars and passers-by in the street.

Archive · Books · Moscow

Black-and-white panorama of a colonnaded building, photographed by Alexey Alexandrov

The Russian State Library in the 1950s. Photo by Alexey Alexandrov

A multi-domed wooden church and a bell tower in a snowy haze, with a ski-equipped aircraft and a small human figure in the foreground.

Architecture · Faith · Heritage

Church of the Transfiguration in Kizhi in Winter and an An-2 Aircraft, Photographed by Alexander Steshanov

Kizhi. The Church of the Transfiguration of Our Lord in the snow. In front of the church, an Antonov An-2 aeroplane. Photo by Alexander Steshanov

An elderly man in a grey coat and dark knit cap speaks into a microphone with open hands, in front of a banner with partly visible lettering.

Books · Observations · Society

A saying on how any population divides into the cruel, the merciful and the persuadable

In 2005, Kurt Vonnegut wrote that Susan Sontag, when asked about the Holocaust, said the following:. 10% of any population are cruel, whatever the circumstances, and 10% are merciful, whatever the circumstances, and the remaining 80% can be swayed in either direction.

Museums · Society · Paris

Centre Pompidou cancels exhibition for 200th anniversary of photography at Grand Palais

The Centre Pompidou gives up one of its two exhibition spaces at the Grand Palais owing to financial difficulties faced by both institutions. While the main building of the Centre Pompidou is closed for renovation, the museum has been using two venues at the Grand Palais; it has now been

NB! · Archive · Moscow · Mores

Winter in Zamoskvorechye in the 1990s

Art · Humour

Monkeys Playing Backgammon, 1635-1690

Tric-trac is one of the varieties of backgammon, the tournament version, one might say

Cinema · Observations · Society · Humour

Greek counteroffensive as the Axis powers' first defeat in Europe in the Second World War

In a Netflix documentary on the Second World War, the Greek resistance to Italy is called "weak", although in fact Greece drove the Italians back into Albania, liberating Northern Epirus. Yes, the worst army of the Second World War attacked the second-worst army and suffered such a

Geography · Observations · Society

The Albanian Prime Minister Declares That the Greeks Are Wrong to Consider Themselves Heirs of Plato and Aristotle

And so we find that hostility towards Greece flourishes not only in Turkey but in Albania too. What is more, the anti-Greek discourse in these countries reaches the point of absurdity: one hears time and again the claim, for instance, that Greece never existed at all and was invented

Art · Museums · Paris

Diana of Anet in the Louvre, a sculpture of 1550 by an unknown artist

Diana of Anet, made around 1550 and crowning a monumental fountain in the park of the Château d'Anet. Unfortunately, the sculptor's name has remained unknown, but this masterpiece has been attributed, consistently and mistakenly, to Benvenuto Cellini, Jean Goujon and Germain Pilon. Collection of the Louvre;

NB! · Humour

"Just don't copy it word for word." "Fine."

Archaeology · Museums · Science · Palaeontology · Nature

Bones from Alaska long thought to be a mammoth's proved to be whale remains

For more than 70 years, bones in the collection of the University of Alaska Museum of the North were mistaken for the remains of a mammoth. In 1951–1952 the anthropologist Otto Geist found these bones in the interior of Alaska and gave them to the museum, and from then

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