The East · Art · Observations · Ethnography

Similarities between Abramtsevo carving and Afghan household objects of the early 20th century

Everyone probably knows, or has at least once seen in a museum, Abramtsevo carving and the household objects and furniture made in its techniques. The craft is sometimes called Abramtsevo-Kudrino carving, and it is connected above all with Abramtsevo, Polenovo and the name of the artist Elena Dmitrievna Polenova.

A white object resembling a crocheted lace tablecloth with spiral motifs and an openwork edge covers a cube against a dark background, its folds frozen in place.

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White sculpture of a lace tablecloth draped over a cube

NB! · Art

Skilled Work, Then and Now:

Archive · Architecture · Observations · Saint Petersburg

Construction of a new archive complex on Zanevsky Prospect has been completed in Saint Petersburg

"There will be two reading rooms for working with original documents: this will solve the problem of the queue that exists today. We have created comfortable conditions for the specialists of the Restoration Laboratory," the city's mayor reported. The design, of course…

Art · People

A Knitted Doily in Carrara Marble

The Greek sculptor Argyris Rallias, born in 1993. We shall not compare him with the masterpieces of the past, but by the standards of our own times it looks rather good

NB! · The East · Cinema · Observations · Humour

The bishop's tent and the whole setting of the scene before the Russian host's battle with the Livonian dog-knights in the film "Alexander Nevsky" recall the pavilions of the Saracens, especially as the snow looks rather more like sand

A page in pre-reform Russian orthography, numbered 234, with pancake recipes 592–594: buckwheat and wheat, plain wheat, and buckwheat with eggs.

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Page 234 of an old Russian cookbook with pancake recipes

Archive · Books · Mores · Ethnography

Fourteen old blini recipes with explanations of words no longer in use

Pancakes from Elena Molokhovets's Legendary Cookery Book "A Gift to Young Housewives" Fourteen key old recipes for pancakes: buckwheat blini, buckwheat blini made half and half with wheat flour, plain wheat blini, buckwheat blini with eggs, Lenten buckwheat blini, "amateur" blini, red blini, milk

NB! · Observations

As They Say, I Wish You All of It!

Archive · Cinema · Moscow · Observations · Society · Paris

Children wiping car windows at a Moscow intersection, as in 1990s films

Little Street Musicians of Montmartre, 1937. Remember how, in the films of the 1990s, children earning a living on city streets by washing car windscreens at junctions and selling chewing gum and flowers were a common sight? Then they vanished from view for a while, as the economic situation changed.

Screenshot of a news article: headline about the famous clock removed from the Obraztsov Theatre facade, the date 22 May 2023 circled in red, and a quote from director Elena Bulukova below.

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Clock on the Obraztsov Puppet Theatre facade sent for restoration in May 2023

NB! · Archive · Books · People

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