Peter I's autograph drawing of a tricolour flag with the colours indicated, and of a flag with the diagonal Saint Andrew's cross, 1699

Peter I's autograph drawing of a tricolour flag with the colours indicated, and of a flag with the diagonal Saint Andrew's cross, 1699. Collection of the Archive of Ancient Acts.

The sketch of the three-striped white-blue-red flag is drawn on the reverse of a sheet bearing instructions sent to the Russian envoy in Istanbul, Yemelyan Ukraintsev. Russian ships were to sail under this flag, but it did not appear for the first time in 1699: in June 1694 it was precisely the white-blue-red flag that was raised over a 44-gun Rotterdam frigate purchased by Russia, which Peter would name the "Holy Prophecy".

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At the close of the Strugatskys' "Roadside Picnic" the Golden Sphere is asked for this: "Happiness for everybody, free, and let nobody go away unsatisfied!" I do not promise to leave no one aggrieved, but the digest really does come free

At the close of the Strugatskys' "Roadside Picnic" the Golden Sphere is asked for this: "Happiness for everybody, free, and let nobody go away unsatisfied!" I do not promise to leave no one aggrieved, but the digest really does come free. So, here is 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

Peter I's autograph drawing of a tricolour flag with the colours indicated, and of a flag with the diagonal Saint Andrew's cross, 1699

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At the close of the Strugatskys' "Roadside Picnic" the Golden Sphere is asked for this: "Happiness for everybody, free, and let nobody go away unsatisfied!" I do not promise to leave no one aggrieved, but the digest really does come free

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