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Vadim Rabinovich's 1979 book translates a philosopher's stone recipe into chemical formulas
"To prepare the elixir of the sages, or the philosopher's stone, take, my son, philosophical mercury and heat it until it turns into a green lion. After this, calcine it more strongly, and it will turn into a red lion. Digest this red lion in a sand
NB! · Museums · People · Saint Petersburg · Humour
Peter the Great's instrument for holding patients' mouths open
This is the instrument Peter the Great used to keep the mouths of his patients open. Good morning
NB! · Art · Monarchies · Observations · Humour
Portrait of Empress Catherine II by an Unknown Artist
Portrait of Catherine II by an unknown artist. Or how men thrust out the lower jaw in selfies
NB! · Monarchies · Observations · Humour
This is Ivan the Terrible versus the European one, who wished to marry in England, raised companies of pikemen, musketeers and oprichniki from among the Germans, and waged his wars with the help of hired Western Europeans
NB! · Art · Heritage · Paris · People
The most interesting part is that after the defeat of the Commune the column would be restored, and Gustave Courbet would be blamed for its destruction: by order of the court he was to pay 10,000 francs a year in compensation, and he died in poverty seven
NB! · Architecture · Art · Heritage · Paris
The Statue of Napoleon from the Toppled Vendôme Column
NB! · Architecture · Heritage · Society · Paris
The Demolition of the Vendôme Column on 18 May 1871
Architecture · Monarchies · Heritage · Paris
The Vendôme Column in Paris, from the statue of Napoleon to its destruction in 1871
The original turns out not to differ greatly from its prototype, save for a somewhat enlarged viewing platform on the, er... summit of the column, and a statue of Napoleon set at the very top. Originally the place on the Place Vendôme was occupied by a monument to Louis XIV,
NB! · Architecture · Observations · Paris · Humour
Original design of the Vendôme Column, erected by Napoleon in honour of the victory at Austerlitz
This is how the Vendôme Column might have looked, erected by Napoleon in 1807 in honour of the victory at Austerlitz. As they say, the associations are no accident: the form does indeed match the message
NB! · Archive · Mores · Society · Saint Petersburg
A girl's diary from the first months of the siege and the fate of the dog Silva
The first months of the siege. A little girl keeps a diary. In the end they decided to salt the dog Silva, but then did not, and salted the cat instead. In December poor Silva was stolen and eaten
Books · Observations · Saint Petersburg
“Blokadnaya kniga” as the war book the author advises reading
I have a sizeable library of books about the war, memoirs of those years, and I did not at once work out which story to recall today. All of them are heavy and grievous. But one cannot brush such horrors aside. If you have to read a single book about