Books · Observations · Humour
You lot might want to check that. Garage did not publish one and a half million books, however tempting it is to dazzle with handsome figures. What it did was print one and a half million copies of some fixed number of titles, I don't know, perhaps 100
Archive · Geography · Maps · Moscow
In 1618 an engraving with a view of Moscow appeared in the six-volume atlas of the cities of the world, Civitates Orbis Terrarum. The atlas was compiled by the Cologne priest Georg Braun, beginning in 1572, and this was already the second map of Moscow in the edition. A
Architecture · Moscow · Education · People
Among the Moscow state gymnasia, the Fourth stood in a class of its own. It was a classical school of the highest rank, with Latin and Greek, and with the right of direct entry to Moscow University. Its teachers were men of uncommon gifts: the physicist Kraevich, whose textbook outlived
Art · People · Pop Culture · Saint Petersburg
A new record for Timur Novikov at the Vladey auction: the contrast-fabric work "Rocket Attack" of 1986 sold for 243,000 euros. The work dates from the period when Novikov collaborated closely with Kino, designing the group's concerts and living in the same artistic space
Observations · Science · Society · Nature · Humour
Despite the sudden loss of 1.6 million bee colonies in a mass die-off across the US in a single year, the Trump administration plans to close the USDA's leading bee research laboratory. Between June 2024 and March 2025, 1.6 million bee colonies died in the
Cinema · Books · Observations · Mores
Has anyone seen this book in their library? It was written by Arkady Vasilyev. A comedy film was made from the story, too. You know the plot: swindlers of every stripe, traders, restaurateurs, butchers, railway station employees and various other rogues found a joint-stock partnership, a sort of secret
In the Press · Observations · Education · People · Humour
A Cambridge lecturer on the childhood of Ivan the Terrible. As the saying goes, this is as far as your education has taken you Fortunately, in this case the British scholar is not, after all, a professional historian, nor indeed a scholar at all, but merely gives lectures in adult
NB! · Observations · Society · Nature · Humour
Architecture · The East · Art · Heritage
A thoroughly epic memorial complex in Georgia. Built by Zurab Tsereteli. Possibly the best of his projects. "Sakartvelo Matiane", or "The History of Georgia", "The Chronicle of Georgia", "The Annals of Georgia": it took about 20 years to build, from 1985 to
In the Press · The East · Museums · Heritage · Society · Paris
"The Angel of History," wrote Benjamin, "has his face turned toward the past, but a storm is blowing from Paradise and propels him irresistibly into the future. What to us appears as a chain of events, to him is one single catastrophe." March turned out to
Moscow · Observations
Remember how it was at Zhenovach's? Why do people go to the theatre nowadays? Probably for the same reason that a besieged city goes on laying the table. Because a laid table is the last thing that separates us from those outside. The table stands in the middle
Archive · Monarchies · People
Photograph by Cecil Beaton, 1955