Archive · Faith · New York · People · Humour
Like this photo of John Paul II playing baseball during his visit to the US? John Paul II really was a sportsman, and a keen one, but he did not play baseball, and that is not him in the photo. The picture is genuine, but it shows Gene Greytak, an
Archive · Faith · Humour
Patriarch Kirill on skis in Switzerland in 1971 and Pope John Paul II on skis in northern Italy in 1984. The heads of the largest churches are bound together by snow. John Paul II skied all his life: first in Poland, in the Tatras, and then, having become pope, he
NB! · Archive · People · Ethnography
Archive · Mores · Ethnography
This photograph by Rustam Mukhametzyanov is titled "A Tatar Woman's Farewell" 1984, a send-off to the army in a Tatar village.
Archive · Books · Science · People
The librarian of the Rumyantsev Museum and philosopher of the "Common Task" Nikolai Fyodorov held that humanity is obliged to resurrect literally all its dead ancestors. By what means? By technical effort, or rather by the collective effort of reason. Tolstoy knew him, read him, argued with him,
NB! · Archive · Society · Paris
Paris in May 1968. The corner of Boulevard Saint-Michel and Rue Soufflot. Nowadays the spot is occupied by something along the lines of a Burger King
NB! · Archive · Architecture · Faith · Moscow
Archive · Society · Pop Culture · Humour
Anti-British propaganda in Japan in 1941 plays on Churchill's initials W.C., the international sign for a lavatory, water closet. The gesture, frequently found in manga, anime and comedy scenes as an exaggerated reaction to something foul-smelling, may in the broader context of visual culture be
Archive · Mores · People · Saint Petersburg
At the centre of the photograph, in Russian costume, sits the 82-year-old Vladimir Stasov, host of the evening. Behind him, to his right, is Fyodor Chaliapin; at the piano, Felix Blumenfeld; on other evenings, Cesar Cui and Rachmaninoff would occupy that place. The eye is caught by Stasov&
NB! · Archive · Faith · Monarchies
Archive · Moscow · Society
In April 1917, on the eve of the April Crisis, which through Milyukov's note would bring down the first Provisional Government, the chief political topic in Moscow was the "Liberty Loan", that is, the Provisional Government's war loan to continue the war. On 15
Archive · Moscow · Society
A rally on Skobelev Square in Moscow, April 1917. Today the square can be recognised by the church of Saints Cosmas and Damian peeping out from behind the building. Yes, yes, this is how Tverskaya Square looked a hundred years ago. On the very spot where the monument to the