Archive · Geography · Maps · Science · Nature

How the Source of the Volga at Volgoverkhovye Was Identified and Studied, from the Chronicle to Today

Photographs taken by Maxim Dmitriev in the 1900s near the source of the Volga. The officially recognised source of the Volga is a marshy area on the Valdai Hills in the Tver Region, near the village of Volgoverkhovye. It is a small spring at an altitude of about 228 metres

An elderly white-haired woman in a lilac cardigan talks on a white dial telephone beside a wooden secretaire.

NB! · London · Monarchies · Society · Humour

Soviet ATS-1 special communications telephone in the private apartments of Elizabeth II

The Soviet AToS-1 special communications set, otherwise known as the "vertushka", in the private apartments of Elizabeth II. The cryptographic information-protection equipment is, in all likelihood, built into the walnut secretaire

A round curved mirror on a pale wall distorts the reflected gallery: hanging glass elements, framed works, silhouettes of visitors and the photographer.

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Concave round mirror on a gallery wall

Archive · Mores · People · Humour

At Least Come Out of the Water to Eat! Look, You've Gone Quite Blue

At least come out of the water to eat! Look, you've gone quite blue - the deafening cries of the public, to the accompaniment of which Salvador Dalí took his rest in Venice

NB! · Archive · Architecture · Moscow · Observations

I don't know about you, but to me this 1967 photograph, showing the "book" towers going up on Novy Arbat, taken from the Church of the Saviour on Spasopeskovskaya Square, is a very sad sight

I don't know about you, but to me this 1967 photograph, showing the "book" towers going up on Novy Arbat, taken from the Church of the Saviour on Spasopeskovskaya Square, is a very sad sight. They have no business being here; they ought to have been

In the Press · Museums · Observations · Society · Paris

It is hard to single out any aspect of this Louvre director's tenure that has not come in for devastating criticism

It is hard to single out any aspect of this Louvre director's tenure that has not come in for devastating criticism. Her departure can therefore rightly be called an act of responsibility, whoever may have initiated it Farewell, de Carmont - read my text on the crisis at the

NB! · Archive · Monarchies

Grand Duchess Anastasia in a special basket saddle during an outing at Kuntsevo

Books · Observations · People

I Love Watching Panic

Michel Houellebecq

An orange KamAZ lorry stands in a breach in the wall of a yellow building under a balcony, with rubble on the pavement.

Architecture · Observations · Heritage · Saint Petersburg · Humour

Lorry damages the façade of Golitsyn House on the Fontanka Embankment

KAMAZ: Looks Like I Really Am the First at This Arch. The Golitsyn House on the Fontanka Embankment: in pain

In the Press · Museums · Heritage · Society · Paris

Louvre director Laurence des Cars resigns four months after the museum robbery

What should have happened four months ago, after the robbery of the Louvre, has now come to pass: its director Laurence des Cars has resigned, and the President of France has accepted her resignation. And he promptly sent her off to work on cooperation between major museums as part of

Archive · Cinema · Moscow · People · Pop Culture

Robert De Niro's visits to Moscow from 1982 to 2015 and Kozakov's recollections

Robert De Niro first visited Moscow in February 1982, on the eve of filming Emil Loteanu's "Anna Pavlova", in a cameo as the ballerina's impresario Solomon Yurok. The participation of a Hollywood star might have secured the film a release in the United States,

NB! · Cinema · Books

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