Archive · The East · Geography · People

Parisian traveller Hugues Krafft photographed Egypt in March 1887

Photographs from a journey to Egypt, 13 to 27 March 1887. The photographs are by Hugues Krafft, a wealthy Parisian bourgeois of German origin who inherited an enormous fortune on his father's death, which allowed him to devote his life to the arts and to travel. He wandered

Books · Observations · Science · People

I would never die for my beliefs, because I might be wrong

Bertrand Russell

A man with closed eyes lies in a bed under a white canopy. Beside him are a woman with children, men in dark coats and officers in uniforms with epaulettes.

NB!

Farewell at a deathbed: family and officers gathered around the bed

Books · Monarchies · People

Napoleon's death in exile on 5 May 1821 and Chateaubriand's response

5 May 1821, 203 years ago, Napoleon Bonaparte died in exile. He himself used to say that “Death is nothing, but to live defeated and without glory is to die every day.” Many rejoiced, many mourned, and almost all agreed that one of the makers of history had departed. Chateaubriand

NB! · London · Monarchies

Today marks a year since the coronation of the new King of England, Charles III

A green tree projected on the apse wall, with light spots on the ribbed vaults. Stained-glass windows with figures are below, and a carved pulpit is at right.

NB!

Light projection of a tree inside a Gothic church

Old Russian icon in which Christ in light robes takes by the hands two kneeling figures in tombs, with saints standing around.

Faith · Observations

Paschal troparion on the Resurrection of Christ in Church Slavonic and Russian

Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and upon those in the tombs bestowing life. Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and to those in the graves granting life!

Books · Society · People

I laugh at those peoples, sunk in abasement, who, egged on by demagogues, dare to speak of freedom without having the least notion of it, and who, with hearts full of all the vices of slaves, imagine that to become free…

I laugh at those peoples, sunk in abasement, who, egged on by demagogues, dare to speak of freedom without having the least notion of it, and who, with hearts full of all the vices of slaves, imagine that to become free it is enough to be rebels. Proud and holy

Black-and-white photo: two women in headscarves and felt boots stand facing each other on a slope, with log houses and barns behind a fence.

NB!

Two women talking in front of log buildings in a northern village

NB! · Archive · Mores · Ethnography

The Women of Mezen, Arkhangelsk Governorate, in the 1900s

Books

Mikhail Svetlov's 1962 poem about loss, grief and the nearness of death

Doing no harm to anyone, I lived and lived in the middle of the century, and trust came to me, the first friend of man. How many losses I have endured, How much my lips have kept silent! Now grief too has knocked at the door, And I welcomed it

NB! · Geography · Observations · Science

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