Archive · Books · Ethnography

A Cossack with his Cossack wife, and Russians in national costumes

Illustration from the children's educational book of the early nineteenth century, "Cosmorama"

Books · Observations · Society

Nothing illustrates a passage from Jean Raspail's "The Camp of the Saints", one of the major books of the twentieth century, as precisely as these pictures from Brussels in 2021, in which an anonymous homeless man fries an omelette on the Eternal Flame at

Your universe means nothing to them. They will not try to understand. They will grow tired, they will be cold, and they will light a fire at your beautiful oak door ― Jean Raspail. These photographs spread across social media at the time amid a great wave of discussion about illegal

Coming Up · Observations · Education · Society

Once, at a job interview, I was asked how I understood the phrase "from dream to realisation is but one step"

Once, at a job interview, I was asked how I understood the phrase "from dream to realisation is but one step". To be honest, I don't understand it at all. It is one step from dream to realisation only if, say, your dream is to get

A huge billboard with a metro line diagram, the word «Метрополитен» and banners with slogans about construction speed. Passers-by walk in front of it, beside a wooden construction fence.

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Propaganda billboard with a Moscow Metro map and construction slogans

Black and white photograph of a huge board with the Moscow Metro map above a street, with a tram passing and pedestrians in front.

NB! · Archive · Geography · Maps · Moscow

Giant model of the Moscow Metro map installed on Okhotny Ryad in the 1930s

The Moscow Metro map as an octopus. The installation is a gigantic model of the metropolitan railway. It was set up in the 1930s in Okhotny Ryad

Museums · Observations · Society

Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam warns it will close without additional government funding

Following the Louvre, the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam has announced financial difficulties. In a recently published press release, the administration stated that the museum will close unless the Dutch government allocates additional funds for renovation. According to the statement, the authorities are "failing to keep the promise"

NB! · The East · Geography · Observations · Science

The Spread of the Sanskrit Word शर्करा śarkarā, or Sugar, Around the World

A white-bearded man in a dark vest and a man in a dark suit shake hands. Behind them are a spacious hall, a red carpet, several people and a woman in a light blue jacket.

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Two men share a warm handshake in a hall with a red carpet

Two men in dark jackets embrace in a hall with a blue patterned carpet, with a man in a suit and two women in blue jackets standing nearby.

The East · Observations · Society

A possible alliance is called very interesting from a historical point of view

Putin, Modi, Xi. From a historical point of view, this would be a very interesting alliance.

NB! · Geography · Observations

Let us choose the ocean with the most epic relief

NB! · Archive · Cinema · People · Society Pages

Charlie Chaplin at a Fancy-Dress Party in 1925

Archive · Books · Museums · Society · People · Saint Petersburg

Pasted-over pages in books at the Akhmatova Museum and her poems about Stalin

The Akhmatova Museum in the Fountain House holds collections of verse with pasted-over pages. It is reported that Akhmatova herself pasted these pages shut. What is beneath? Akhmatova's poems about Stalin. It is believed that Anna Andreyevna was compelled to write them in order to help her

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