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Porteur de caljan: the hookah-bearer
Porteur de caljan: the hookah-bearer. From Cornelis de Bruijn's «Travels in Muscovy, Persia and India».
Archive · Books · People · Saint Petersburg
Corrector Varvara Timofeyeva's recollection of Dostoevsky's punctuation
Dostoevsky preferred intuitive punctuation and did not resort to the rules of orthography when placing punctuation marks. He read his manuscripts aloud and put commas wherever the intonation called for a pause. There is a curious recollection of Dostoevsky on this score by the writer and translator Varvara Timofeyeva, who
Coming Up · Architecture · Moscow · Museums
Central Museum of Russian Cossacks to be Housed in a Mansion in Bolshoy Levshinsky Lane
A Museum of the Cossacks is to open in Moscow. It will become part of the complex of the State Historical Museum. The Central Museum of the Russian Cossacks will be housed in an old mansion in Bolshoy Levshinsky Lane, where before the Revolution of 1917 the Palace Department had
NB! · Observations · Humour
Every Time You Go New Year Shopping
NB! · Observations
I Hope It Is Not 2025
NB! · Art · People · Humour
Winter Salvador Dalí Reminds Us to Wrap Up Warm Before Leaving the House
NB! · The East · Maps · Books · Moscow · Observations
Panorama of Moscow in the 1718 edition of Cornelis de Bruijn's travels
Panorama of Moscow from Cornelis de Bruijn's "Travels in Muscovy, Persia and India", in my 1718 edition. Incidentally, I have found my own house here.
NB!
Woodblock transmitter, a replica of a 1970s KGB bug, on museum display
Archive · Moscow · Society
The Legendary US Coat of Arms with Bugs, Presented to the American Ambassador in the USSR by Young Pioneers
The legendary US coat of arms with bugs, presented to the American ambassador in the USSR by Young Pioneers. A wood-carved copy of the Great Seal of the United States was presented to the ambassador by a delegation of Young Pioneers who had come on an excursion to the
Museums · Observations · Society
There Is No Such Thing as a Voluntary Change of Power
Museum directors, television channel heads, editors-in-chief of magazines, radio stations and newspapers, presidents of academies, university rectors, heads of film studios and theatres: all of them change very rarely indeed. YOU can readily recall all the names yourselves. In the leading institutions the management typically stays put not
Books · Observations
Excerpt arguing that ambition, not poverty, makes people unhappy
Those greedy for riches are ever discontented with their estate. When you are born in poverty, what need have you to wish yourself wealthy? Is it not better to sleep on felt and be in health than on down and be sick? Is it not better to wish to preserve