Archive · Books · Mores · Society
Peasants reading newspapers in the open air in a Russian village, 1932
An Open-Air Reading Room in the Village of Sovetskoye, Nizhny Novgorod Region. The appetite for reading in an ordinary Russian village in 1932
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· 1919 stories
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Archive · Monarchies · Museums · Nature
The hive of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, photographed in 1896 for the album of the experimental apiary of the Imperial Russian Society for the Acclimatisation of Animals and Plants at Izmailovo
The hive is now kept in the museum of the Research Institute of Beekeeping in Rybnoye, in the Ryazan Region
Aristocracy · Archive · Monarchies · Observations · Society
It is striking how closely what is happening in the country today resembles the general mood in the upper reaches of power in the 1870s
The Russian publicist Prince Vladimir Petrovich Meshchersky, a Kammerherr (chamberlain) of Emperor Alexander II, wrote in 1870 to Grand Duke Alexander Alexandrovich and Maria Feodorovna: All those who are not at court, all who work honestly for the good of the government and of Russia, who are selflessly devoted to
NB! · Archive · Art · People
Photographs by the Catalan photographer Lloreç Herrera Altés (1948-2026)
NB! · Archive · Mores
Girls playing hopscotch in a stairwell in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, 1960s
Girls playing hopscotch in the stairwell of a block of flats in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk in the 1960s. Photo by Yury Sadovnikov, MDF archive
Archive · Books · People
Two writers photographed by Sofya Andreyevna at Yasnaya Polyana in October 1900
Gorky Was Forty Years Younger than Tolstoy. At Yasnaya Polyana the writers were photographed by Sofya Andreyevna in October 1900
NB! · Archive · Observations · Mores · Society
Miners' children resting on the lakeshore in Chebarkul District in 1953
Miners' children at a rest home of the coal industry trade union in the Chebarkul district of the Chelyabinsk region, on the shore of the three lakes, in 1953. Do you think such bliss will ever be seen in Russia again?
NB! · Archive · Mores · Humour
Spouses Boris Dmitrievich and Maria Vasilyevna Vostryakov flagrantly flout Venice's 2008 ban on feeding pigeons, punishable by a fine of up to 500 euros, on their honeymoon in 1898
NB! · Archive · Art · Moscow · Museums
The queue for Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa" at the Pushkin Museum in July 1974
Archaeology · Archive · In the Press · The East · Observations
1913 newspaper reports of temple chambers inside the Great Sphinx and Reisner's denial
I have told this story before, but in view of the alternative news I shall repeat myself. In 1913 a number of English-language newspapers carried an article reporting that several chambers of a temple-like character had been discovered inside the Great Sphinx. The text claimed that a fairly
Archive · Monarchies · Mores
Emperor Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna on holiday in Darmstadt with family and retinue, 1899
In the front row, left to right: Grand Duchess Victoria Feodorovna (Victoria Melita of Great Britain), Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig of Hesse, Empress Alexandra Feodorovna. In the second row: first on the right, our handsome, dearly beloved Emperor Nicholas II; second on the left, Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich; on the
Archive · Books · Heritage · New York
17 stolen antiquities returned, including six Chinese-language books by Jesuits
Manhattan District Attorney's Office Returns 17 Items to Italy and the Vatican. On 26 March 2026 a ceremony was held for the handover of 17 stolen antiquities and rare books with a combined value of more than $1.5 million. The items were seized in the course of