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In 1920 Alexandra Tolstaya, daughter of Leo Tolstoy, was arrested on a charge of involvement in a counter-revolutionary organisation and sentenced to three years' confinement in a concentration camp at the Novospassky Monastery in Moscow
She wrote: “My father, whose views I share, openly denounced the tsarist government and yet remained free even then. <...> I do not conceal that I am not a supporter of Bolshevism; I stated my view openly and plainly at the trial, but I have never spoken out, and
Archive · Books · Mores · Society
Germain de Lagny on the Condition of Russian Serfs and the Knout in His 1853 Book
The law protects only the life and property of the boyars. The serf, regarded as a ploughing machine, has no need of laws; a plough may spend the night in the street, in the snow, in the rain. What else is a serf in Russia but a wandering plough? For
NB! · Archive · Monarchies · Observations · Humour
The resemblance between Nicholas II and George V in matching photographs
Nicholas II and George V are such card-players, swapping places in identical photographs to confuse everyone around them: the Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen of their day. I just can't decide whether this is already "Big Daddy" or still "Two of a Kind: Me
Archive · Moscow · Society · People
Mikhail Frunze's horse in the funeral procession on Red Square, 3 November 1925
At the funeral of Mikhail Frunze, his horse was led in the procession. 3 November 1925, Red Square, photograph by Arkady Shaikhet. The horse became a full participant in the funeral cortège and walked behind its master's coffin together with the leaders of the Soviet state: Stalin, Zinoviev,
Archive · Moscow · People
Nikolai Pushkin, the poet's grandson, and his wife on Povarskaya Street in 1902
The grandson of Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin with the girls. 1902, Povarskaya Street Nikolai Alexandrovich Pushkin and his wife Nadezhda Alexeyevna Petunnikova on the right, with Madame M. N. Nikolayeva on the left. The family, with two children, emigrated after 1917 and settled in Belgium. The writer Kataev visited the poet&
Archive · Books · People
Leo Tolstoy on the death of Fyodor Dostoevsky, whom he never saw
How I wish I could say all that I feel about Dostoevsky. I never saw the man and never had any direct dealings with him; and suddenly, when he died, I understood that he was the closest, dearest, most necessary person to me. And it never once entered my head
Archive · Moscow · Pop Culture · Humour
L. P. Orlova, back at the Mossovet Theatre after yet another successful plastic surgery operation
L. P. Orlova, back at the Mossovet Theatre after yet another successful plastic surgery operation, discovers in the programme for the production of "The Strange Mrs Savage" the name of V. P. Maretskaya set against her own role of Mrs Savage, 15 February 1973. Dissatisfied with V. P.
Archive · Art · Monarchies · Saint Petersburg
The Imperial Family of the Russian Imperial House in Alexander Eikhov's photograph of 1867, showing Alexander II with his wife, children, brothers and nephews, one of the first examples of photomontage in the history of photography
The Imperial Family of the Russian Imperial House in Alexander Eikhov's photograph of 1867, showing Alexander II with his wife, children, brothers and nephews, is one of the first examples of photomontage in the history of photography. All the figures were photographed separately. Moreover, as Alexey Loginov, curator
Archive · Society · People
Vysotsky's paternal grandparents and Lev Levin, the doctor executed in 1938
The paternal grandparents of Vladimir Vysotsky were called Wolf Shliomovich Vysotsky and Dora Ovseyevna Bronstein. Wolf was a schoolfellow of Mikhoels and Babel. Dora Ovseyevna's stepfather, Lev Levin, physician to members of the government and to Maxim Gorky, was shot in 1938 on a charge of participating in
Archive · Monarchies · Paris · People · Humour
Louis XVI's Fear of Cats and Two Incidents of Killing Them
Louis XVI could not abide cats and was mortally afraid of them. Once, during a brilliant reception at Versailles, a cat somehow slipped into the hall; Louis, beside himself, leapt from his seat, seized a heavy candelabrum and killed the animal on the spot. On another occasion, hammer in hand,
Archive · Mores · People
Lilya Brik and Elsa Triolet with their mother, Elena Kagan, in 1918
The last known family photograph, taken before Elsa left Russia with her mother in the summer of 1918. In the photograph: Lev Grinkrug, Elsa, her friend Tamara Beglyarova, Elena Yulyevna Kagan and Lilya Brik