Blurred black-and-white night photograph of a woman in dark clothing standing barefoot on grass and aiming a bow.

Archive · Cinema · People · Pop Culture

An actress on the set of “The Mongols” in 1960 shot a bow like a professional

Actress Anita Ekberg fires a bow at intrusive paparazzi after they refused to leave her in peace. 1960: the actress was filming "The Mongols", and the bow and arrows were her props. She was a professional markswoman.

Colour photograph of a girl in a pink dress walking on a path by a building with wooden galleries, a man and a woman talking nearby.

NB! · Archive · Monarchies · Observations · Mores

A girl in court dress at Marie Antoinette's Hamlet in Versailles in 1966

Look at this delightful little girl in court dress in Marie Antoinette's hamlet at Versailles in 1966. From the photograph it is impossible to tell whether the gown is of the English or the French type, but be that as it may, what a touching gesture of reverence!

NB! · Archive · Faith · The East

The Promised Land, photographs from the early twentieth century

Archive · Books

Zhukovsky should be ashamed of himself; how am I worse than Princess Charlotte, that he should not write me a line in three years

Zhukovsky should be ashamed of himself; how am I worse than Princess Charlotte, that he should not write me a line in three years. Is it true that he is translating the Giaour? And I, at my leisure, am writing a new poem, Yevgeny Onegin, in which I am choking

Archive · Books · Observations

Pyotr Vyazemsky in 1875 on the tact of historians and untimely truth about the dead

The cemetery and the graves, too, must be treated with care and reverence. It is neither fitting nor proper to carry into the churchyard all manner of rumour and gossip, of the kind on which the salons of the living subsist. Voeikov used to say: with the dead there is

Archive · Faith · The East · Monarchies · Moscow

Handwritten charter of the Council of Constantinople on the founding of the Moscow Patriarchate, on parchment with the lead seal of Jeremias II, Patriarch of Constantinople, May 1590

The text is as follows: "Jeremias, by the mercy of God Archbishop of Constantinople, New Rome, and Ecumenical Patriarch. Whereas the pious and peaceable Autocrat, Tsar of all the land of Russia, … and lord of other Orthodox Christians, Feodor Ivanovich, … has sought a dignity from us by the election

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Stolnik Pyotr Tolstoy describes Venetian gondolas, how they were built and hired

Gondoliers in Venice are an exclusively male profession, but if this engraving of 1610 is to be believed, women were also admitted to the traditional gondola race. A Russian traveller of that time, the stolnik Pyotr Tolstoy, describes what he saw in Venice as follows: In Venice there are hackney

Archive · Faith · Monarchies · Moscow

Spiritual testament of Prince Dmitry Ivanovich on the division of lands among his sons

The Spiritual Testament, that is, the Will of Dmitry Donskoy, Grand Prince of Moscow, Russian State Archive of Ancient Acts. "In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, behold, I, the sinful and unworthy servant of God, Dmitry Ivanovich, write this spiritual

NB! · Archive · Cinema · People · Pop Culture

Julia Roberts during the filming of "Wild Horses of Mongolia" in 1999

Archive · Faith · Society

Death penalty for preventing the celebration of the liturgy in church

For such crimes, the Council Code of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich prescribed the following:. "And should any miscreant, coming into the church of God during the holy liturgy, by whatever means prevent the divine liturgy from being performed: then, having seized him and established the truth of the matter, that

An elderly man in a hat, with a pipe in his mouth, peels a potato; on the table are a basket of potatoes and carrots and a bowl with cabbage.

Archive · Art · Society

Genre painting urging the English in wartime to eat simple, readily available food

“Dig for Victory: The Wise Eat More Potatoes”, Charles Spencelayh, 1942. A genre painting with a social purpose, urging the English in the hard years of war to change their consumer habits in favour of simple, readily available foodstuffs

Archive · Monarchies · Museums · Society

A silver casket with a scroll is kept in the Archive of Ancient Acts

A silver casket with a scroll is kept in the Archive of Ancient Acts. The casket was made in 1767, and a scroll 309 metres long, with 959 glued joins, was placed in it. The scroll contains the Law Code (Sobornoye Ulozheniye) of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich of 1649, bearing the