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How It Went:
Kolya, my dear fellow! Yes, yes, I agree, I agree, only put out that cigarette!
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NB! · Archive · Art · Books
The Queen of Sheba, miniature from the first illustrated manual of military engineering, Bellifortis by Konrad Kyeser, early 15th century
NB! · Archive
Girls of the Free French ambulance unit knitting between calls on the Italian front, 1944
Archive · Art · Education · Saint Petersburg
"I remember that in the private Tenishev studio run by Repin, a student turned up in our group who proved to be colour-blind
"I remember that in the private Tenishev studio run by Repin, a student turned up in our group who proved to be colour-blind. He drew well, but when he took up the brush, faces and objects acquired unnatural colours and shades under his hand. Repin did not know
Coming Up · Archive · Art · Museums · Education
New Jerusalem Museum opens “Master Repin”, an exhibition on Ilya Repin as a teacher
“When looking over the work of his pupils he spoke for the most part abruptly, in short phrases: ‘The head is too small’, ‘The hand is drawn wrongly’... Why too small, why wrongly, Repin usually did not explain, but demanded that his pupils grasp it for themselves. Yet at times
Archive · Geography · Society · Paris · Nature
The 1910 Paris flood and the end of wooden block paving on the city's streets
The Paris flood of January–February 1910 was the worst since 1658. The Seine itself did not burst its banks, but the rise of the water in it and in its tributaries flooded most of the city through the sewers, drainage pipes and underground tunnels, the Metro included. Hundreds of
NB! · Archive · People
Joe Biden in 1960, that is, the 46th President of the United States is 18 in this photo
Archive · Art · Monarchies
A 15th-century French book of hours on Melusine, the queen who turned into a dragon
The March calendar summons people to plough, sow and put their houses in order. And dragons to return to the castle. Though, strictly speaking, we are talking about one very particular dragon. A French book of hours of the fifteenth century records one version of the legend of Queen Melusine,
Archive · Books · Observations · Society
So, Professor Thomas Salmon, in his "Modern History, or the Present State of All Nations" of 1735, reports that once Russia has mastered the subtleties of navigation and the other sciences, nothing can prevent her from becoming the foremost commercial pow
Russia produces goods without which other nations, and maritime powers in particular, would find it very hard to subsist. From Russia come pitch, tar, hemp, planks and round timber. Thanks to the canals between the Volga and the Baltic Sea, Russia is able to supply grain at low prices. The
NB! · Archive · Mores · People · Humour
Frenchman Louis Coulon, with a beard 3.5 metres long, posed for postcards
The Frenchman Louis Coulon and his beard of three and a half metres, in which a cat could be hidden. And, very likely, a cow. The old gentleman grew his beard and made his living by being photographed for comic postcards
Archive · Moscow · Mores
“…And in this present year of 746, in Cheese Week, on the Monday, he, Gavrila, went to the Foreign Quarter, to the market called Ladoga, and at that market he, Gavrila, fell in with the runaway soldiers Ivan, surnamed Stromynsky, and Savely… and the said
“…And in this present year of 746, in Cheese Week, on the Monday, he, Gavrila, went to the Foreign Quarter, to the market called Ladoga, and at that market he, Gavrila, fell in with the runaway soldiers Ivan, surnamed Stromynsky, and Savely… and the said Ivan and Savely invited him,
NB! · Archive · People