Archive · Moscow · Science · Society

The Great Solar Eclipse of 19 June 1936 and the Arrests of Soviet Astronomers

Muscovites observe the Great Solar Eclipse of 19 June 1936: a solar eclipse on the eve of the repressions. Photographs by Yefrem Yefremov. Against the purplish-grey sky there flared a silken, silvery corona, of the form typical of the epoch of solar maximum. The absolutely black disc of the

Archive · Books · Mores · Society · People

Leonid Brezhnev's memoirs of his mother Natalia Denisovna

By nationality I am Russian, by origin a native proletarian, a hereditary metalworker. That is all that is known of my ancestry In the memoirs of Leonid Brezhnev, which are believed to have been written from his words by several prominent journalists and editors of the day and merely edited

NB! · Aristocracy · Archive · Mores

Prince Felix Felixovich Yusupov, Count Sumarokov-Elston, with his sons Nikolai and Felix in Cossack costume, 1890s

Archive · Architecture

Monument to Turgenev in Oryol

Photograph of 1969

Archive · Art · Monarchies · Paris

Glove possibly belonging to Marie Antoinette's son sold at auction in France

A glove said to have belonged to Marie Antoinette's son. It was sold at auction in France this year. The lot description stated that, according to its source, it was found in the queen's cell in the Conciergerie after her death, together with her last letter.

NB! · Archive · Nature · Saint Petersburg

The Summer Garden in Autumn, Saint Petersburg, photograph by Vsevolod Tarasevich, 1965

NB! · Archive · Books · People · Saint Petersburg

The Funeral of Anna Akhmatova, 10 March 1966

The funeral of Anna Akhmatova, 10 March 1966. Second from the left is Yevgeny Rein, beside him Arseny Tarkovsky. At the coffin is Alexey Panteleyev, and behind him Joseph Brodsky.

Archive · Faith · Observations · Society

Saint Tikhon rejected accusations that Orthodoxy in America served Russia

I did not know such details: it turns out that in the early twentieth century Orthodox Christians in America were accused of being agents of the Russian state. In 1901, when Saint Tikhon of Moscow was a bishop in the United States, he called “meaningless words” the charge that anyone

Archive · Books · Monarchies

When I receive the monthly reports on the state of my armies and my navy, which fill twenty fat volumes, reading them gives me more pleasure than a young lady derives from reading novels

Napoleon, 1806

NB! · Archive · People · Pop Culture

Photographs taken by Thierry Mugler during his trip to the USSR in 1985

Page of an old printed book describing the signs of the masculine and feminine type.

Archive · Books · Mores

Physical signs of men and women in an old book, with a note on exceptions

The Marks of a Manly Body: a Large Head, a Red or Swarthy Face, Somewhat Sunken Eyes, Shoulders and Body Quite Broad, a Protruding Chest, a Wide Belly. The signs of the female form: a small head, a white face somewhat flushed or pale, black eyes, a steady gaze, a

Archive · Art · Museums

Pliny the Elder on the fifth-century BC sculptors’ contest for the wounded Amazon

The Wounded Amazon, Franz von Stuck, 1905. A description of the image of the wounded Amazon is found in Pliny the Elder, who tells of a competition for the finest sculpture on the subject, in which the celebrated sculptors of the 5th century BC Polykleitos, Phidias, Kresilas and Phradmon took