Engraving of the Earl of Strafford's bedroom, with a bed between two columns, a fireplace, an armchair and a man reading at a candlelit table.

NB! · Aristocracy · Architecture · Observations · Mores

The Earl of Strafford's bedroom at Wentworth Woodhouse, with a bed set between two marble columns

In my opinion, it is a very strange architectural decision to place two marble columns at the foot of a bed. Or, more precisely, to set the bed between marble columns. But that is how the Earl of Strafford's bedchamber at Wentworth Woodhouse was arranged.

Computer rendering of a white colonnaded building on a riverbank, with blooming cherry trees and people on its terrace, the Washington Monument far behind and roads in front.

NB!

Rendering of the Kennedy Center on the Potomac in Washington

Aerial rendering of a large building with a light facade on a riverbank at dusk, surrounded by roads and autumn trees.

Architecture · Moscow · Society · Humour

Trump's surname added to the name of the Kennedy Center in Washington in late 2025

Trump Unveils Renderings of the Trump-Kennedy Center, and It Looks Most of All Like the Tretyakov Gallery on Krymsky Val. The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington itself, I remind you, was renamed, with the surname Trump appended, in late 2025 by decision of the

NB! · Observations · Mores · Society

All of Us, Spending the Whole Day in Front of Screens

Faith · Moscow · Observations

Letter notation of numbers in Russia before the 18th century, from a thousand to a billion

A Moscow church invites visitors to recall the Slavonic numeral system. Until the eighteenth century, numbers in Russia were written with letters marked by a stroke, the "titlo", above them, on a scheme similar to the Roman notation. Numbers above 1,000 were written by placing a doubly

Archive · Books · Observations · Mores · People

Nekrasov in later life reconsidered his harsh verses about his father, the landowner Alexey Sergeyevich

Nekrasov's biography, and the biographical motifs in his work, are a tricky matter. He often and sharply criticised, abused and ridiculed his father. Though, if one looks into it, his father, the impoverished landowner Alexey Sergeyevich, was not such a dreadful man after all, but merely an average

NB! · Archive · Mores · Ethnography

Peasants of Saint Petersburg Governorate in a Two-Wheeled Cart in the 1860s

Peasants of Saint Petersburg Governorate in a two-wheeled cart in the 1860s. One of the oldest photographs of the Russian countryside, unfortunately by an unknown author

Books · Moscow · Mores · People

Nekrasov on his lines about bread from slave labour and the ancestral estate he bought

"The bread of fields tilled by slaves does me no good..." Nikolay Alexeyevich Nekrasov Nekrasov wrote these lines when he was quite young, at 33, while living at a dacha in Petrovsky Park near Moscow together with Botkin. Shortly before his death the poet would recall this verse

Books · Ethnography

An Old Woman Went Off to Sell Her Milk, and the Village Was Far from the Market

An old woman went off to sell her milk, The village was far from the market. The old woman grew tired and, her business done, Lay down to doze by the very roadside. A merry puppy came up to the old woman, Seized her by the skirt and tore her

NB! · Archive · Mores · People

Leo Tolstoy with his grandchildren Vanya and Tanya Tolstoy outside the house at Yasnaya Polyana in 1908

Architecture · Faith · The East · Heritage

The Turkish minaret of Kamianets-Podilskyi, crowned with a statue of the Madonna in 1756

The ensemble of the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul in Kamianets-Podilskyi comprises the Cathedral itself, a bell tower, a triumphal gate and a Turkish minaret. Moreover, the Turkish minaret standing beside the Cathedral is crowned with a statue of the Virgin Mary. In 1672 the vast army of

NB! · Faith · Moscow · Mores

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