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Vladimir Sorokin in 1992
Photo by Yury Rybchinsky
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NB! · Archive · Faith · Heritage
The Trinity Lavra of St Sergius in 1962
Archive · Observations · Society · Paris
The Paris Commune and its Bolshevik interpretation, a 1921 poster
The dead of the Paris Commune have risen again beneath the red banner of the Soviets! We understand, of course, that this is an ideological construct fashioned by the Bolsheviks after the fact, for the sake of appearances, so to speak: a justification of their own model of dictatorship and
Archive · Books · People · Humour
Krupskaya recalls a peasant doubting the strength of a bridge when she travelled with Lenin
This Is Very Funny. From the reminiscences of Nadezhda Konstantinovna Krupskaya about Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. I remember how we once drove up to a bridge of decidedly doubtful sturdiness. Vladimir Ilyich asked a peasant standing beside it whether a motor car could cross. The peasant shook his head and said
Archive · Faith · Education
Nuns of the Saint Joseph de Saint-Vallier school skate in Quebec in 1967
A Remarkable Photograph, More Like a Painting. Nuns who teach at the Saint Joseph de Saint-Vallier girls' school in Quebec skate against the backdrop of the Laurentian foothills. 1967. Photo by John Lanois
Archive · London · Monarchies · Heritage
Equestrian statue of Charles I in the oldest known photograph of London from 1839
The oldest known photograph of London was taken in 1839. It shows the equestrian statue of Charles I near Charing Cross station This is the oldest bronze statue in London. It rises on a traffic island where Trafalgar Square meets Whitehall. The spot is officially called the “centre of London”
Archive · Art · Pop Culture
Canadian Supermodel Yasmin Ghauri with Friends
Photograph by Albert Watson for German Vogue, 1992 Mood: Tamara de Lempicka
Archive · Monarchies · Saint Petersburg
The Tsar’s car in front of the Shuvalov Palace on Italyanskaya Street in February 1917
Nicholas II's Half-Track Packard 3-38 of 1915. The photograph was taken in February 1917 in front of the Shuvalov Palace on Italyanskaya Street; by that time the Tsar's motor car had already been requisitioned and handed over to the Military Motor-Car School
Archive · Books · Ethnography
A Nenets Girl with a Book
Konstantin Dorokhov, 1938
Archive · The East · Art · Books · Mores · People · Saint Petersburg
Portrait of Alexei Arkadyevich Stolypin (Mongo) in Kurdish Costume
Watercolour by Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov, 1841 Alexei Stolypin was Mikhail Lermontov's first cousin once removed and a close friend. Alexei was the son of Arkady Alexeyevich Stolypin, Procurator-General of the Senate, who was the brother of Lermontov's grandmother. On completing the School of Guards Sub-
Archive · Moscow · Mores
Maslenitsa in Moscow in 1958
And not a Peking duck in sight
Archive · The East · Books · Mores
Street trade and shops of Cairo in Tatyana Vyacheslova's memoirs of the 1959 tour
In Cairo the shops stay open until nine in the evening, and sometimes later, depending on how trade is going. Light, colour, shouting, noise and movement stun the senses. Everything shouts: the Arabs shout, the cars hoot, the hawkers shout, the donkeys shout, but loudest of all shout the stallholders,