Art · Humour
Lenin on the Rampage
The Croatian artist Jozo Kljaković, 1924
Latest
Archive · Moscow · Mores · People
Lev Tolstoy masters the bicycle and in 1896 receives a licence to ride in Moscow
Leo Tolstoy learned to ride a bicycle at the age of 67. It is very strange why I am drawn to do this. Yevgeny Ivanovich tried to dissuade me and was distressed that I ride, but I feel no shame. On the contrary, I feel that I do not care
Books · Observations · Education
The grammatical gender of the Russian word biennale in dictionaries and in practice
In the Russian Academy of Sciences' Russian Orthographic Dictionary, biennale and b'ennale are recorded as nouns of masculine or feminine gender. The dictionary of foreign words, by contrast, makes biennale neuter. In practice, meanwhile, we see that biennale is most often used as a feminine word. Though
Faith · Education · Society
From 1 September 2025, Russian schools will begin cutting the hours devoted to foreign languages
From 1 September 2025, Russian schools will begin cutting the hours devoted to foreign languages. In Years 5 to 7, the number of lessons will fall from three to two a week, while the total number of hours for the subject in Years 5 to 9 will drop from 510
Aristocracy · Interviews · Education · People
I drew a very lucky ticket in my fate, because at the end of 1944, while the war was still going on, I was sent to the Moscow Choir School
I drew a very lucky ticket in my fate, because at the end of 1944, while the war was still going on, I was sent to the Moscow Choir School. This was preceded by the wartime years and then a rather painful evacuation. My father had already sent my papers
NB! · Observations
As in Moscow
NB! · Moscow · Society
Pavements Washed with Shampoo: Now in Moscow Too
Faith · Books · Observations
Reflection on the origin of adversity and light from darkness, quoting Isaiah
Who can speak of joy without having known pain, or of peace without having seen and known strife? At dawn the day is parted from the night, and each is known in its own nature and strength, for without contrast nothing is revealed. No image appears in a clear mirror
Archive · Faith · Art
Illustration “Send-Briefe” from a work by Jacob Boehme, known to Russian Freemasons
In essence, what we have before us is an eighteenth-century depiction of the interaction between non-human intelligence, or superintelligence, and mortal men. An illustration from Jakob Böhme, the German mystical and theosophical symbolist of the seventeenth century, well known to the Russian Freemasons
Faith · Observations · Society · People
Charles de Gaulle at prayer in a church in 1960
Europe will be all right when we see its rulers at prayer in church, and not at pop concerts. It would be as well, of course, if they looked like Charles de Gaulle in church in 1960
Coming Up · Art · Saint Petersburg
Exhibition of 80 works on collecting and Jung's shadow runs until 12 October
On 31 August the Anna Nova gallery in Saint Petersburg will open "Trauma and Rebirth", a large-scale exhibition from the contemporary art collection of the patron Zoya Galeyeva. The concept of the exhibition rests on the psychoanalytic theory of Carl Gustav Jung and his notion of the
Architecture · Faith · The East · Heritage · Society
Authorities confirm Armenian cathedral in Ani will become a mosque after restoration
It is reported that the Armenian Cathedral of the Holy Virgin in Ani, the capital of medieval Bagratid Armenia, in present-day eastern Turkey on the border with Armenia, is to be turned into a mosque. The cathedral has enormous historical and symbolic significance for Armenians. The thousand-year-old