Do you remember the phrase attributed to Stalin, when he refused to exchange his son from his first marriage, Senior Lieutenant Yakov Dzhugashvili, for the former commander of the 6th Army in the Stalingrad "cauldron", Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus: "I d

This is a fairly commonplace formula for patriotic myths. Something similar is attributed to Barclay de Tolly, who was told of the death of his son during the Battle of Leipzig: "An officer has been killed; I beg you not to interrupt me, for now all children belong to the fatherland."

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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

Do you remember the phrase attributed to Stalin, when he refused to exchange his son from his first marriage, Senior Lieutenant Yakov Dzhugashvili, for the former commander of the 6th Army in the Stalingrad "cauldron", Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus: "I d

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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