Archive · Cinema · Books · Observations

I learned that I have a huge family: the path and the little wood, and in the field every single ear of corn!

Я узнал, что у меня Есть огромная семья: И тропинка, и лесок, В поле – каждый колосок! Речка, небо голубое – Это все мое, родное. Это Родина моя! Всех люблю на свете я! Literal translation I learned that I have A huge family: The path and the little wood, And in the

NB! · Art · Moscow · Museums · Observations

For New Year cheer I am, for the moment, relying on a bauble bearing a sketch of a space object by Rostan Tavasiev, from the Moscow Museum of Modern Art

Aristocracy · Archive · Art · Moscow · Museums

Silhouettes of the Nyryshkin Family at an Exhibition on the Decembrists

Silhouettes of the Nyryshkin family at an exhibition on the Decembrists. Moscow, 1850. Most remarkable of all, every sitter is identified by name: Anastasia Yakovlevna, Evdokia Mikhailovna, the Abbess Maria, Varvara Alexandrovna, Rachel; in the middle row, Nikolai Alexandrovich, Yakov Alexandrovich, Annette, Kirill Alexandrovich, Mikhail Alexandrovich; in the bottom row,

Faith · London · Monarchies · Observations · Society

Christmas and the requirement for the King of England to belong to the Church of England

In his Christmas message, King Charles III of Great Britain speaks with rapture of Islam, Judaism, Hinduism and the "diversity of communities" But Christmas is surely not about inclusivity, nor about the brotherhood of foreign creeds, nor about any Oriental rites or political truisms. Christmas is the feast

NB! · Observations · Humour

Psst, how many days to New Year?

NB! · Art · People

Cardinal Richelieu?

Archive · Books · Monarchies · Science · Saint Petersburg

The Russian Tricolour in Carl Allard's 1695 Dutch Book on Shipbuilding and Flags

One of the earliest depictions of the Russian tricolour appears in a Dutch book on shipbuilding and flags of the late seventeenth century, where it is captioned as the Flag of His Tsarist Majesty of Muscovy. The book, «The New Dutch Shipbuilding», which contains essential information on the building of

Portrait of an elderly woman in a lilac turban and a blue shawl with a patterned border and fringe. Her hands are folded, holding a handkerchief. Framed watercolour with a mat.

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Watercolour portrait of an elderly woman in a blue shawl and headscarf

Archive · Art · Museums · Observations

Of the scanty listings of events devoted to the Decembrists, one exhibition made a good impression: "In the Depths of the Siberian Mines

Of the scanty listings of events devoted to the Decembrists, one made a good impression: the exhibition "In the Depths of the Siberian Mines. The Decembrists. 200 Years of History" at the In artibus foundation. The display brings together exhibits from six state collections, chiefly watercolours with portraits

Observations · Science · Society

Long before the Decembrists were admitted to the canon of the revolution's forerunners, Klyuchevsky called them a historical accident overgrown with literature, and Tyutchev remarked that Russian history was, to his taste, far too perversely arranged…

And now, two hundred years after the Uprising, one has the feeling that there is no longer a place for the Decembrists in the official pantheon, and that they will never again be as revered as they were in the middle of the twentieth century, when they were extolled as

NB! · Art · Books

Dyl Bul Shchyl Kruchenykh, sculpture by Leonid Sokov, 2005

NB! · Archive · Art · Pop Culture

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