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Art · Moscow · Museums · Mores · Ethnography
The Dowry in Old Russia and Pukirev’s “Accepting the Dowry by Inventory”
The Reception of the Dowry According to the Inventory, Vasily Pukirev, 1873. Collection of the Tretyakov Gallery. The bride is not easy to find in this picture: all the attention is on the things. The dowry, a word still heard in our grandmothers' vocabulary, had in the old days
Books · Observations · Humour
Come round, I'll show you my magnificent library
A magnificent library:
Moscow · Observations · Pop Culture · Society Pages
Ultima Salon Africa party at Plus Dacha in Gorky Park with a concert by Emtee
After yesterday's radio broadcast I hurried to Plus Dacha in Gorky Park, where in the coolness of the spreading avenues the atmospheric playlist of the "Ultima Salon: Africa" party, curated by Ultima Yandex Go and Yandex Music, was already playing. Plus Dacha has changed greatly since
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Oval portrait of a woman in a red velvet frame
Cinema · Books · Observations
One of the finest screen adaptations of Dostoevsky was made by Ivan Pyryev in 1958
One of the finest screen adaptations of Dostoevsky was made by Ivan Pyryev in 1958. Alas, the unfinished two-part film "The Idiot" was not duly appreciated in its day. The general mood after its release was such that Pyryev abandoned the idea of shooting the second part.
Cinema · Moscow · Observations · People
Yuliya Borisova and her roles at the Vakhtangov Theatre from 1947 until her death in 2023
I remember first meeting People's Artist of the Soviet Union Yulia Borisova, as I waited by the stage door for Lyudmila Maksakova, to have a word with her after the performance. The door opened and up the steps came a slight, slender Yulia Borisova with a small bouquet
NB! · Art · Museums · Observations · Paris
Drifting into the weekend with Gustave Caillebotte, acquired not long ago by the Musée d'Orsay for 3 million euros with the help of Bernard Arnault, who added a further 40 million from his company's coffers
NB! · Archive · Monarchies · Observations
Elizabeth II smiling from a train window in a black-and-white photograph
Elizabeth II at a train window. Sad, though it is some time now since she was seen off.
NB! · Coming Up · In the Press
Listen to me on Radio Mayak, on the programme “Understand Yourself If You Can”, with Artem Novichenkov and Vladislav Timkin
Architecture · Books · Monarchies · Society · Saint Petersburg
In 1922 a quatrain by Demyan Bedny was carved on the pedestal of the monument to Alexander III:
My son and my father were executed in their lifetime, And I have reaped the lot of posthumous ignominy: I stand here as a cast-iron scarecrow for a country That has cast off for ever the yoke of autocracy. Literal translation
NB! · Art · Mores
Abraham Bosse's 1636 engraving of women dining together without their husbands
Women at table in the absence of their husbands. Abraham Bosse, 1636