Archive · Art · Moscow · Museums

Group portrait of the heroine airwomen of the 46th Guards Taman Night Bomber Aviation Regiment, Order of the Red Banner and Order of Suvorov, by the artist Sergey Bocharov, 1985

Group portrait of the heroine airwomen of the 46th Guards Taman Night Bomber Aviation Regiment, Order of the Red Banner and Order of Suvorov, by the artist Sergey Bocharov, 1985. The painting was acquired by the Central House of Aviation and Cosmonautics of DOSAAF, where it remains on display to

Moscow · Museums · Observations · Society

Model of the White Sea Canal in the GULAG Museum and estimates of construction deaths

The GULAG Museum has a model of the structures of the White Sea Canal. Besides the questions "what for?" and "at what price?", one finds oneself wondering HOW. How could so colossal a construction be built in such conditions, and at the cost of what sacrifices?

Museum panel with a black-and-white halftone portrait of a bearded man, captioned "Latsis Martyn Ivanovich", with a quotation in Russian. Red threads are stretched across the display.

NB!

Museum panel with a portrait of Martyn Latsis and a quotation on class origin

Moscow · Museums · Observations · Society

The exhibition of the Museum of the History of the Gulag makes a very powerful impression

The exhibition of the Museum of the History of the Gulag makes a very powerful impression. It really is, perhaps, one of the best museums, in Moscow at least. Take, for example, the stand with pronouncements by the leaders of the Soviet state on repression and on the people. Kirov,

Faith · Moscow · Heritage · Society

Concentration camps in former Moscow monasteries and churches that existed until 1954

Hard to imagine, but concentration camps were scattered all over Moscow. The young Soviet state needed as many prisons as it could get, so concentration camps took over the buildings of former monasteries and churches, from the Novospassky to the Ivanovsky in the very centre of the capital, where barbed

Archive · Moscow · Society · People

In 1920 Alexandra Tolstaya, daughter of Leo Tolstoy, was arrested on a charge of involvement in a counter-revolutionary organisation and sentenced to three years' confinement in a concentration camp at the Novospassky Monastery in Moscow

In 1920 Alexandra Tolstaya, daughter of Leo Tolstoy, was arrested on a charge of involvement in a counter-revolutionary organisation and sentenced to three years' confinement in a concentration camp at the Novospassky Monastery in Moscow. She wrote: “My father, whose views I share, openly denounced the Tsarist government

Archive · Monarchies · Society · People

Ferdinand VII congratulated Napoleon, then abolished the constitution on his return

The admirers of Ferdinand VII could, of course, have known that while they fought for his freedom under the slogans «God. Fatherland. King», their dearly beloved ruler was heartily congratulating Napoleon on his victories on the Spanish front. The Otechestvennye zapiski of 1868 offered a rather pithy characterisation of Ferdinand:

Art · Observations · People

The Goddess Flora by Bartolomeo Veneto and the Debate over Lucrezia Borgia

An anemone, daisies and a buttercup: a charming little posy from the goddess Flora. For a long time it was held that in this painting the artist Bartolomeo Veneto had deified the notorious Lucrezia Borgia, daughter of Pope Alexander VI, though many scholars dispute the view. Whoever she may be,

Architecture · Paris · People

Banker Émile Gaillard built a Paris mansion for his collection of antiques

This strange and slightly daft creature, flying along the stone balustrade of a Neo-Renaissance mansion in the centre of Paris, is the banker Émile Gaillard. As you may have guessed, he came from a wealthy but provincial family. The banker assembled an enormous collection of medieval and Renaissance antiques,

Books · Society · People

Charles Chesnutt, the octoroon and the American rule of one drop of blood

In his day the American writer Charles Chesnutt was called an octoroon, a designation resting on the notorious "one-drop rule". "Octoroon" or "octaroon" is a racial term adopted in the United States for people with one eighth of African blood, that is, 12%

A damaged silver bust with wavy hair and a deformed face stands on a transparent base against a background of architectural plans.

Archaeology · Museums · Humour

Silver Bust of Livia and Bronze Figure of the God Bes from Herculaneum

"You look fantastic!" "Thanks, so do you" A silver bust identified as Livia, and the Egyptian bronze god Bes. Finds from Herculaneum

Science · Mores · People · Humour

Anecdote about the mineralogist Alexander Ushakov, who as a juror acquitted every defendant

There is an anecdote about the nineteenth-century Russian writer and mineralogist Alexander Pavlovich Ushakov. Ushakov was the kindest of men, wrote several important works on mineralogy and was reputed a connoisseur of the stage and the ballet. But he held rather original principles, calling idiots all who did not

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