Archive · In the Press · Museums · Observations

Museum collection acquires first authentic item linked to Governor Alexander Pilts

Yesterday in Irkutsk a press conference was held on the occasion of my donating to the Muravyov-Amursky Irkutsk Regional Museum of Local Lore a letter from my collection written by the last Governor-General of Irkutsk, Alexander Ivanovich Pilts. As it turned out, the museum's holdings contained

NB! · Archive · Art · Observations · Humour

If time machines do not exist, how did Patrick Bruel end up in a fourteenth-century manuscript?

NB! · Archive · Monarchies · Mores · Paris · People

Princess Diana and Dodi Al-Fayed in the lift of the Paris Ritz on 30 August 1997, the last day before their deaths

Princess Diana and Dodi Al-Fayed in the lift of the Paris Ritz on 30 August 1997, the last day before their deaths. The third person in the lens of the surveillance camera is Claude Roulet, assistant to the president of the Ritz hotel

NB! · Archive · Society

Gorbachev Was the Last of the Trio Who Brought the Cold War to an End

Gorbachev was the last of the trio who brought the Cold War to an end. Mikhail Gorbachev (1931-2022), Margaret Thatcher (1925-2013), Ronald Reagan (1911-2004)

Archive · The East · Geography · Mores

"The Portuguese of Hormuz Eat in Water, Because the Ground Is Very Hot"

"The Portuguese of Hormuz eat in water, because the ground is very hot." An illustration from a sixteenth-century Portuguese codex. Quite so, and quite literally: that is exactly what they did. Fleeing the unbearable heat, the Portuguese who had settled in the Persian Gulf began to fill

NB! · Archaeology · Archive · The East · Heritage

This is how the warriors of the Terracotta Army looked just after their discovery in 1974, but their colours very quickly faded under the effects of the environment

NB! · Archive · Moscow · Society

The 15-tonne Dzerzhinsky toppled from his pedestal on Lubyanka Square on the night of 23–24 August 1991

Detail of a medieval manuscript: a saint's face drawn in thin outline, with a red halo, large eyes and red patches on the cheeks.

NB! · Archive · Faith · Art · Books

Saint Matthew writing his Gospel in a drawing from the late 9th or early 10th century

Mood: Saint Matthew writing his Gospel. Drawing, late 9th to early 10th century

Archive · Faith · Nature · Humour

Three Rises in the Level of Lake Pleshcheyevo in 1557 and a Religious Procession

On 16 May 1557 the level of Lake Pleshcheyevo rose three times, causing great alarm, and it was decided to hold a religious procession. And, you know, it helped

Archive · Monarchies · Mores · People

Elena, Queen of Poland and daughter of the Russian Tsar Ivan III, wrote to her father in 1503 asking him to send her black sable pelts, and by all means with the fore and hind paws and claws attached

Elena, Queen of Poland and daughter of the Russian Tsar Ivan III, wrote to her father in 1503 asking him to send her black sable pelts, and by all means with the fore and hind paws and claws attached. But by the custom of those years the hunters cut off

Archive · The East · Observations · Science · People · Saint Petersburg

Academician Abich resigned from the Academy in 1865 over his work on the geological map of the Caucasus

On the Probity of Scholars. In November 1865 Academician Abich asked to be released from the Academy and renounced the title of full member, since at that time he was unable to attend the Academy's sessions and to bear the duties of a member of the conference on

NB! · Archive · Mores · People