Science · Mores · Paris · People

The French Pantheon once saw a joint burial, connected with the first woman admitted to that mausoleum, Sophie Berthelot, who in the scale of French history was remarkable only for being the faithful wife of the outstanding French physicist and chemist…

The French Pantheon once saw a joint burial, connected with the first woman admitted to that mausoleum, Sophie Berthelot, who in the scale of French history was remarkable only for being the faithful wife of the outstanding French physicist and chemist Pierre Marcellin Berthelot, familiar to us at least from

Books · Observations · Heritage · Society · Paris

While in Russia they timidly wind down discussion of moving the long-suffering body of Lenin from Red Square, and all but ignore the dismantling of the necropolis at Novodevichy Convent, in France the subject of famous graves is at the centre of attention

A petition is being put to the President for re-interment in the national Pantheon; it has already been signed by 10 former ministers of culture and various eminent figures of the intelligentsia. The subject is two notable nineteenth-century poets, Arthur Rimbaud and Paul Verlaine. The romance of Rimbaud

NB! · Art · Books · People · Pop Culture

Arthur Rimbaud in his bed after Paul Verlaine shot him with a revolver

Arthur Rimbaud in his bed after Paul Verlaine shot him with a revolver. A painting by Jef Rosman. And the very revolver with which Verlaine tried to shoot his lover was sold in 2016 for €430,000.

Archaeology · The East · Observations · Mores

My grandmother collected household textiles, and whenever I heard about wonderful Egyptian cotton, it seemed like yet another Soviet marketing prejudice, in the manner of unique Czechoslovak crystal and inimitable Chinese…

My grandmother collected household textiles, and whenever I heard about wonderful Egyptian cotton, it seemed like yet another Soviet marketing prejudice, in the manner of unique Czechoslovak crystal and inimitable Chinese camel-hair blankets. After all, excellent crystal was also made in the Vladimir region, camel wool is the pride

London · Monarchies · Observations · Humour

Queen Victoria, the Biedermeier style and her upbringing at Kensington Palace

Yesterday, at an interior-design lecture, a respected lady informed us with a perfectly straight face that Queen Victoria, being an ethnic German, invented the Biedermeier style upon arriving in England. Decorators and architects are of course under no obligation to be historians and to know such things, so I

Observations · Pop Culture · Society Pages

Kirill Serebrennikov, congratulating the magnificent Alla by video link, has just put it very precisely: "Alla Sergeyevna has kept her back straight all her life

Kirill Serebrennikov, congratulating the magnificent Alla by video link, has just put it very precisely: "Alla Sergeyevna has kept her back straight all her life. She has never bowed down to anyone, never bent the knee."

Moscow · Observations · People · Society Pages

Alla Demidova came incognito to an evening in her honour on her birthday

The incomparable Alla Demidova appeared incognito at an evening in her own honour on her birthday. Alla Sergeyevna slipped quietly into the auditorium while Sergey Nikolayevich was speaking of her Phèdre and her Ranevskaya, and Pavel Kaplevich was telling how he had mixed up Vera Vasilyeva with Yekaterina Vasilyeva. For

A long corridor with black and white doors on the left, dark columns, brass ceiling lights, and windows with radiators on the right.

NB! · Architecture · Moscow · Mores

Two Entrance Doors in Every Apartment of the Narkomfin Building and Children's Games

Every flat in the Narkomfin Building has two front doors: one black, one white. One door gives onto the lower level, the other leads upstairs. The children, it must be said, make cheerful use of this original architectural solution, playing tag without, strictly speaking, ever leaving their own home, yet

Aristocracy · Archive · Art · Moscow · Mores

Pyotr and Varvara Sheremetev raised two Kalmyk girls in the 18th century

In the eighteenth century Russian aristocrats took to a new fashion: adopting orphans from the poorest classes. Many families took into their homes the children of non-Russian peoples and brought them up as their own. Pyotr Borisovich and Varvara Alexeyevna Sheremetev raised two Kalmyk girls, the cousins Annushka and

NB! · Archive · Observations · People · Humour

This is not quite what I had in mind when I bought a magazine with the cover line MUSCULAR STRONGMAN ALEXANDER KUPRIN

Architecture · Faith · Observations · Heritage

Activists from the Kostroma Region are raising funds for conservation and emergency stabilisation work in the Resurrection Church of the Neronovo estate, with its original 18th and 19th-century interiors

Activists from the Kostroma Region are raising funds for conservation and emergency stabilisation work in the Resurrection Church of the Neronovo estate, with its original 18th and 19th-century interiors. I should note at once that the Neronovo estate is privately owned, which, however, does not diminish its cultural significance

Archive · Books · Science

An indispensable work for all who are interested in military history and the history of Russian military dress, "A Historical Description of the Clothing and Armament of the Russian Troops" by Colonel Bibikov and Staff Captain Viskovatov, has appeared on

An indispensable work for all who are interested in military history and the history of Russian military dress, "A Historical Description of the Clothing and Armament of the Russian Troops" by Colonel Bibikov and Staff Captain Viskovatov, has appeared on the website of the Historical Library in almost

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