Archive · Art · Museums · Humour

Repin centenary exhibition in Perm in 1944 from the evacuated works of the Russian Museum

The centenary of Ilya Repin's birth in 1944 was marked by a large exhibition at the Perm Regional Museum, assembled from the holdings of the Russian Museum, evacuated to the city in 1941. In all, some 200 works by Repin found themselves in evacuation: watercolours, paintings, drawings. The

Aristocracy · Archive · Moscow · Mores

The Military Governor of Moscow, Yury Vladimirovich Dolgorukov, was a great friend of the eminent grandee Stepan Stepanovich Apraksin, formerly Military Governor of Smolensk and known above all for his lavish receptions at his house on…

According to the account of Elizaveta Petrovna Yankova, Apraksin and Dolgorukov had made a rather peculiar compact: whichever of them died first was to give a sign to the other, who remained among the living, and to appear to him three times before his death, to announce that the hour

NB! · Archive · Books · Society · People

Stinking Democrats, Cunning Communists, Screeching Liberals, Idiots, Suicides and Thieves

Stinking Democrats, cunning Communists, screeching liberals, idiots, suicides and thieves. Inna Lisnyanskaya on the events of October 1993, in a letter to her daughter

Archive · Mores · Society

Penalties for Dishonour under the Sobornoye Ulozheniye of 1649, from Fines to the Knout

A word on Russian justice. Under the Law Code (Sobornoye Ulozheniye) of 1649, cases of dishonour were punished not only by fines but also by imprisonment or corporal punishment. The severity of the verdict depended on the standing of the injured party and of the accused, or, to be more

NB! · Archive · Moscow · Society · People

A Little on How Gorbachev Secured the Central Committee's "Consent" to His Decisions

A little on how Gorbachev secured the Central Committee's "consent" to his decisions. From the memoirs of V. V. Grishin

NB! · Archive · Moscow · Society · People

How Mikhail Gorbachev Was Remembered by Viktor Grishin, the First Secretary of the Moscow City Committee of the CPSU Whom He Sent into Retirement

Archive · Faith · Ethnography

Which horns are used for the shofar at Rosh Hashanah services and what it symbolises

At the synagogue service for Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year), the shofar, a wind instrument made of a ram's horn, is sounded a hundred times, the very instrument whose blasts brought down the walls of Jericho. A shofar is made from the horns of rams, antelopes and

Archive · Books · Mores · People

Turgenev described the life of Louise Héritte, eldest daughter of Pauline Viardot

Turgenev described in some detail the madness of Pauline Viardot's eldest daughter Louise Héritte, who, instead of marrying the Frenchman with whom she was involved, married, against all persuasion, a certain Héritte and very soon came to hate him. Allegedly for his narrowness of mind. She bore a

Old bond of 1822 with Russian text, a double-headed eagle at the top, two orange stamps and the inscriptions “Roubles 960” and “£148 Sterling”.

NB! · Archive · Society

Five per cent bond for 960 roubles of 1822 issued to Nathan Rothschild

A 5% bond for 960 roubles dated 1 March 1822, issued to Nathan Rothschild, whose signature appears in the upper right corner of the document. In all, bonds of this kind were issued to the Rothschilds to the value of £3.5 million sterling

NB! · Archive · Monarchies · Moscow · Mores

Emperor Alexander Pavlovich, having accepted the hospitality of P.A. and P.Yu. Kologrivov

Emperor Alexander Pavlovich, having accepted the hospitality of P.A. and P.Yu. Kologrivov, deigned in their house to take tea from this cup, on the 21st day of January 1818, in Moscow

NB! · Archive · Architecture · Faith · Heritage

Plan of the 42-Metre Church of the Dormition in Kondopoga, Destroyed by Fire Today

NB! · Archive · Art · Books

Boethius sees in a mirror how Lady Philosophy, for some reason standing at a distance from the bed, comforts and heals him in his sickness and infirmity