Aristocracy · In the Press · Observations · Mores · Ethnography

Sergey Tolstoy married the singer Maria Shishkina after parting with Tatyana Bers

Sofya Bagdasarova has published an interesting piece on love between Romani women and Russian noblemen in the nineteenth century. And here I cannot help recalling the love story of Maria Mikhailovna Shishkina, a singer in the Tula Romani choir, and Sergey Nikolayevich Tolstoy, the elder brother of Leo Tolstoy. At

Art · Observations · Education

Greetings for 1 September and Uchi Dzhaparidze’s painting “Grandfather’s Pride” of 1955

Congratulations to all on the First of September! Even if you left the walls of school and university long ago, the symbolic start of a new academic year is a great holiday. And perhaps it deserves to be greeted with joy, for what in this life is more interesting than

NB! · Archive · Monarchies · Paris · People

Twenty-four years ago, Arthur Edwards, who had photographed Princess Diana for seventeen years, took this picture of her coffin leaving the ancient Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital in Paris

Books · Observations · People · Humour

Charles Baudelaire’s lines on perishable beauty, on the 154th anniversary of his death

But remember: you too, exuding contagion, will lie a rotting corpse, you, sun of my eyes, my living star, you, radiant seraph. You too, my beauty, you too will be touched by decay, And you will rot down to the bones, Dressed in flowers to the sound of mournful prayers,

Oval miniature of a girl with long fair hair, a lace collar and a dress embroidered with flowers, against a blue background, with the date 1619 at right.

Art · Observations · Humour

Miniature portrait of a girl in a lace collar, dated 1619

I'll wear it loose! What a charming little girl from the year 1619

NB! · Observations · Humour

I do love the discussions in my favourite group, above all for the insanely important information

I do love the discussions in my favourite group, above all for the insanely important information. For example, about what can give a man a nervous disorder

Cinema · Moscow · Mores · Society

In the film "Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears", which begins in 1958, we meet the girls working at a factory

In the film "Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears", which begins in 1958, we meet the girls working at a factory. The heroine, Katerina Tikhomirova, who has come from the provinces, becomes not merely a fitter but a setter-operator. That, however, is another matter altogether: different circumstances,

Portrait of a man with long hair in a black cap and dark clothing against a blue sky with clouds.

NB! · Art · Observations · Humour

Portrait of an Unknown Man by Giovanni Bellini, made between 1475 and 1500

A truly splendid hairdo and headgear, right at the top of the mode. Should I ever decide to change my style, this portrait of an unknown man, dated approximately 1475-1500 and painted by the Venetian artist Giovanni Bellini, may well serve as my point of reference

Top view of several mushrooms lying cap-up and cap-down, their pore layers and cut stems stained blue. Grass, dry leaves and green plant leaves surround them.

NB!

Mushrooms with blue-staining flesh lying in grass and leaves

Observations · Nature

Did you know that such an incredibly beautiful mushroom exists, called Gyroporus cyanescens, popularly known as the "Bruise" (Sinyak), and looking as though it had been painted in Gzhel blue?

The mushroom is edible, and moreover very tasty. In Russia it grows in mixed forests, most often under birches, and is listed in the Red Book

Monarchies · Observations · Pop Culture · Humour

Augustus, Caracalla, Hadrian and other Roman emperors depicted as cartoon characters

One can always do something more productive, but then we should never have learnt which of the Roman emperors makes the most charming cartoon character: Augustus, Caracalla, Hadrian, Vespasian, Otho, Nero or Galba? Alas, the outcome resembles a sitting of the Federation Council, and one can look with any warmth

Page of an old book with a poem dedicated to V. S. Sreznevskaya, dated 1913, with blue pencil marks and underlining.

Books · Observations · People

A 1913 poem dedicated to V. S. Sreznevskaya about lost youth and passing years

1913: Anna Akhmatova, aged 24, regrets that she can never take back her unkissed lips. How swiftly the years do sail by, to be sure

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