Black-and-white photograph of three women in dark veils seated before a painted wall, the central one holding a dagger and a bowl.

Archive · The East · Cinema

Three veiled women in a photograph by Elena Karusaar, 1988

Scenes from Sergei Parajanov's film Ashik Kerib. Photographs by Elena Karusaar, 1988

Aristocracy · Archive · Architecture

Vorontsov Palace in Alupka, 1897

Photograph by Alexander Zhivago

Archive · Faith · Art · Books

And it came to pass after that, in the second year, that Pharaoh dreamed a dream: he seemed to stand upon the bank of the river, by the river

And it came to pass after that, in the second year, that Pharaoh dreamed a dream: he seemed to stand upon the bank of the river, by the river. And behold, as it were out of the river came up seven kine, fair to look upon and fat in flesh,

Archive · Moscow

Fishing in the Moscow Region in 1961

Photo by Lev Borodulin

Archive · Faith · Observations

While reading a census of the mid-seventeenth century, I came across an interesting Old Russian name: Korman

While reading a census of the mid-seventeenth century, I came across an interesting Old Russian name: Korman. You will not find it in the calendar of saints, only in dictionaries; the saintly counterpart of Korman was Korniil or Kornilii

Archive · Architecture · Books · Education · Society · Saint Petersburg

From City Museum to Children's Palace, the Building's History and a Kostyor Story of Kirov

In February 1937 the Leningrad Palace of Pioneers opened in the Anichkov Palace, today the Saint Petersburg City Palace of Youth Creativity. Before that, after the Revolution, the city museum had existed here for a short time; it was closed in 1925, and until 1927 the same premises also housed

Archaeology · Archive · Art · Observations · Humour

I rather feel I have failed a primary-school task from the magazine for the youngest pioneers "Yozh" (The Hedgehog), November 1933

Applied art history for children, then, disguised as a training exercise for the eye. And if the spires and towers of Piazza San Marco in Venice are more or less clear, the second question, what the little figures at the bottom are made of, has proved a genuine puzzle to

Archive · Books · Observations · Mores · People

Nekrasov in later life reconsidered his harsh verses about his father, the landowner Alexey Sergeyevich

Nekrasov's biography, and the biographical motifs in his work, are a tricky matter. He often and sharply criticised, abused and ridiculed his father. Though, if one looks into it, his father, the impoverished landowner Alexey Sergeyevich, was not such a dreadful man after all, but merely an average

NB! · Archive · Mores · Ethnography

Peasants of Saint Petersburg Governorate in a Two-Wheeled Cart in the 1860s

Peasants of Saint Petersburg Governorate in a two-wheeled cart in the 1860s. One of the oldest photographs of the Russian countryside, unfortunately by an unknown author

NB! · Archive · Mores · People

Leo Tolstoy with his grandchildren Vanya and Tanya Tolstoy outside the house at Yasnaya Polyana in 1908

Silhouette of a black horse on a road marked with pale tyre tracks, with fog and three flames in the background.

Archive · The East · Nature

Steve McCurry photographed a black horse on a road amid flames in Kuwait in 1991

A black horse amid chaos. Kuwait, 1991 Photo by Steve McCurry

Aerial view of Paris with the Eiffel Tower and the project's spiral ramps joining its second level.

Archive · Architecture · Paris

Engineer André Badouin's 1936 project for car ramps to the second level of the Eiffel Tower

Spiral concrete ramps for reaching the second level of the Eiffel Tower by car. So as to get to the restaurant without bothering with the lift. This is how the symbol of France might look today, had the project proposed in 1936 by the engineer André Badvan been carried out.