"Nine-tenths of writers will die off, nobody will remember them, such is their specific (weight)

"Nine-tenths of writers will die off, nobody will remember them, such is their specific (weight). Whereas I shall shine through the ages. You have seen to it that Gorky wants for nothing, and Tolstoy receives 36,000 roubles a month. Why am I not provided for in the same way?"

From an appeal by Marietta Shaginyan to Alexander Shcherbakov, organising secretary of the Union of Writers, in September 1935.

Mine!

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September digest: archaeological finds, exhibitions, museums, theatre and the Church

In the finale of the Strugatskys' Roadside Picnic, the Golden Ball is told: "Happiness for everybody, free, and let nobody go away unsatisfied!" I do not promise to offend nobody, but the digest really does come free of charge. So, here is the main business of the

Frederic Leighton

Frederic Leighton. “Daedalus and Icarus”, 1869 Daedalus warns his son not to climb too high: the heat of the sun may melt the wax, but Icarus is already gazing into the distance, and the lamentations of a foolish old man interest him not in the least

"Nine-tenths of writers will die off, nobody will remember them, such is their specific (weight)

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September digest: archaeological finds, exhibitions, museums, theatre and the Church

Frederic Leighton

Attempts to resolve the problems of many years of uncontrolled mass migration

Characters from Gogol's "Petersburg Tales" on the pedestal of the monument to Nikolai Gogol on Nikitsky Boulevard, photograph of the 1960s