Archive · Moscow · Society

Viktor Grishin's 1975 visit to the play “Fasten Your Seat Belts!” at the Taganka Theatre

The story of Viktor Grishin, for many years the master of Moscow, visiting the Taganka Theatre in 1975 has long since been overgrown with conjecture and turned into legend. The play itself, “Fasten Your Seat Belts!”, which openly mocked the failings of the Soviet system, stayed in the theatre'

Aristocracy · The East · Observations · Ethnography

The author has launched a new Telegram channel on the history and society of medieval Asia

Well, don't laugh, but I have started another channel. This time it is about the history of medieval Asia. I shall be writing about what, regrettably, was missing from my textbooks: the aristocracy of the East, the origins of the customs of rank and estate, the reverse side

NB! · Art · Observations · Humour

Though, you know, looking at this Ganymede, for instance, only one thought comes to mind: he did go and find himself some adventures to sit on

Marble relief on a red wall: a large eagle bends toward a seated, half-naked youth who feeds it from a bowl.

NB! · Art · Museums · Observations · Saint Petersburg · Humour

Relief in the Hermitage showing Ganymede feeding the eagle, the form Zeus took

Zeus stole the beautiful Ganymede by turning himself into an eagle. I do not know whether the youth is feeding the bird on this bas-relief from the Hermitage before the abduction or after it, but I think you will have understood what a vile, lecherous beast this Zeus was

NB! · Aristocracy · Archive · Art · Saint Petersburg · Humour

The Bengal Lion and Tiger and the Petersburg Lion and Tiger

The Bengal Lion and Tiger and the Petersburg Lion and Tiger. A caricature, presumably of the 1840s, from the album of Prince Pyotr Urusov. In the guise of the Petersburg lion is Arkady Pavlovich Golenishchev-Kutuzov (above)

Mores · Ethnography · Humour

English rhyme on what cutting nails on each day of the week foretells

An old English nursery rhyme warns that cutting your nails on a Friday will bring grief and misfortune! Better make it Saturday: a Saturday manicure promises a journey. As for Sunday's nails, they will be dedicated to evil and will deliver you into the devil's power

Mores · Society · People

Timoclea of Thebes and the killing of a Thracian commander, acquitted by Alexander the Great

Timoclea, a noblewoman of Thebes raped after the city's capture, is said to have lured the commander of the Thracians into her garden with a promise to show him treasure in a well. And show him she did, pushing her assailant in and heaping stones upon him. Alexander

A woman in a dark dress and diadem tips a man in armour and a red cloak over a stone parapet, with a copper jug below.

NB! · Art · People

Timoclea of Thebes in a 1659 painting by the Bolognese artist Elisabetta Sirani

Timoclea of Thebes throws her rapist into a well. Elisabetta Sirani, 1659. The Bolognese painter produced a whole series of pictures on historical and mythological subjects devoted to avenging women and women of strength

Faith · Observations · Society

Lines from the Psalms of King David on injustice and lawlessness, applied to the state

The collected psalms of the Judaean king David say: "...he travaileth with iniquity, and hath conceived mischief, and brought forth falsehood". This is about our state

Coloured chalk drawing of a stout man in an armchair with a bare foot on a stool, an angry woman in a bonnet and a man in boots bending toward them.

NB! · Archive · Science · Mores

Gout remedies advertised in the 19th century were almost useless, as the causes were unknown

Interestingly, the gout remedies so widely advertised in the 19th century were almost useless, since the causes of the disease had not yet been established. And the advertising mostly described the shape of the little bottles

Hand-coloured engraving of a smiling man in an armchair with a swollen leg on a stool, surrounded by small black demons.

NB! · Science · Mores · Humour

Gout in caricature: a disease that betrayed a prosperous way of life

No one will laugh at the touch of gout. Still, people felt no embarrassment in speaking of this malady, which betrayed their prosperous and leisurely way of life

Nativity scene on a staircase in a Baroque interior, with figures of the three kings on red cloth, fir trees and moss, and Mary and Joseph at the top.

NB! · Architecture · Faith · Heritage · Rome

Nativity scene on the Holy Stairs in Bonn, a copy of the Roman shrine

A nativity scene in Bonn has been set up on the famous Holy Stairs, an exact copy of the Roman relic. According to legend, Jesus once climbed this staircase in Pontius Pilate's palace, before it was brought to Rome in the time of Saint Helena

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