Archive · Faith · Rome
A not-so-old photograph from Saint Peter's Basilica, 1 November 1950, when Pope Pius XII proclaimed the Dogma of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, on the taking up of the Mother of God into heaven, body and soul, at the end of her earthly life.
Archive · Art · People · Humour
The muralist's wife amuses herself with works of art. Can you imagine that this might have been written about Frida Kahlo? An unexpected mention of Frida in the press of 1933, in the column "Visiting Interesting People", and visiting not her at all, but her husband,
NB! · Archive · Books · Observations · Humour
An insert in the collected works of Stalin asking that the book bearing this personal label be returned should any defect be found in it. One does not, of course, envy the inspector after whose check a flaw or error turns up in a book by Stalin. Oh, one does
NB! · Archive · In the Press · Science · Nature
Archive · Society
Copying archival files oneself was formally permitted as long ago as 2016, when the Supreme Court declared this restriction on archive visitors unlawful. A copy of a page could cost five hundred roubles, and this was a weighty concession, finally adopted by Rosarkhiv last year, albeit with the proviso that
Archive · Mores · New York · People
Retired society divas Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale and her daughter Edith Bouvier Beale at their estate, Grey Gardens, where they lived in complete seclusion for many years
Archive · Architecture · Moscow · Observations
"In Moscow, near the Kremlin, the Palace of Soviets is being built. It will be the tallest structure on earth, higher than the Egyptian pyramids, the Eiffel Tower and the American skyscrapers. The Supreme Soviet of the USSR, the parliament of the only truly democratic country in the world,
Archive · Architecture · Moscow
In this August 1928 photograph Lenin's Mausoleum is still wooden, though very like the later stone version, also designed by the architect Alexey Shchusev. The drawing is by Isaak Brodsky, from 1924, and flowers still stand by the Mausoleum. Note the crowned double-headed eagles on the Kremlin
Archive · Books · Museums · Science · People · Saint Petersburg
The Institute of Russian Literature (Pushkin House) of the Russian Academy of Sciences announces the long-awaited acquisition of Vladimir Nabokov's Swiss archive, after three years of preparatory work and colossal logistics. The archive amounts to as many as 300 boxes of documents, manuscripts and texts. To be
Archive · Moscow · Society · People
Stalin in the Kremlin in August 1941, when he learned of the German advance on Kyiv. The photograph was taken by Boris Burkov, editor-in-chief of Komsomolskaya Pravda, and preserved in defiance of an order to destroy the frame as showing the leader in an unflattering light. It is
NB! · Archive · Architecture · Moscow · Observations
It turns out that this luxurious pavilion of Moscow's Arbatskaya metro station, by the architects Polozkov and Zenkevich, still exists; it is merely closed to the gaze of outsiders, standing hemmed in by the General Staff building. Photograph of 1953
Archive · Books · Mores · People
Many Tolstoys, for understandable reasons, do not care for Chertkov, the closest friend, confidant, fellow thinker and comrade-in-arms of Lev Nikolayevich. To appreciate Chertkov's place in Tolstoy's life, it is enough to recall that their correspondence fills five volumes of Tolstoy's collected