Archive · Books · Humour
Humour: an engaging oddity of the mind. A humorist: a merry jester. A humoristess: a clever wag. From the Dictionary of the Church Slavonic and Russian Language of the Second Section of the Imperial Academy of Sciences, 1847
NB! · Books · Monarchies · Observations
Klyuchevsky on power in Russia after Peter I. Once again the prophetic genius of Vasily Osipovich is confirmed: he saw a great deal further than his own time
Cinema · Books · Observations · Science · Pop Culture
Do you remember how Frodo lit up Shelob's lair with the light of distant Eärendil, drawing out the elven phial given to him by Galadriel, with the light of the far-off Evening Star trapped inside it, pointing the way to the shores of the Undying Lands? It
Books · Monarchies · Observations · Mores
"Of course, her pleasant face bore traces of obesity": I suggest that all ageists read Byron's description of Catherine II, the imperial mistress of Don Juan. It might seem a not especially flattering beginning. But in fact Byron is kind and benevolent towards the 62-year-
Archive · Books · Monarchies · Society
"Thirteen years of the reign of Emperor Alexander III have passed, and the more hurriedly the hand of death hastened to close His eyes, the wider and more astonished grew the eyes of Europe to the world significance of this brief reign. At last even the stones cried out:
Archive · Books · Observations
"When I think of Russia, I picture to myself what I have read in Turgenev and in my friend Maurice Baring. I picture a country where the winters are so long, and the summer is sultry and bright; where expanses of carelessly tilled fields stretch far and wide; where
Archive · Books · People · Ethnography
The lines in the third stanza of Pushkin's "Monument" listing the peoples of Russia who will remember the poet. "And the proud grandson of the Slavs, and the Finn, and the now-savage Tungus, and the Kalmyk, friend of the steppes" - Literal translation in
Archive · Books · Moscow · Society
And long shall I be loved by the people for this, That with my lyre I awakened kindly feelings. As early as 1880 it became known that the version of "Monument" published in Zhukovsky's edition contained censorial corrections and differed considerably from the original, touching important
Archive · Books · People
Saltykov-Shchedrin in a letter to Nekrasov, 14 November 1875:. “Goncourt writes excellently… Zola’s article on the Goncourts is very good… Zola’s despatch on the floods is the kind of thing that makes one’s hair stand on end. A whole appalling drama… If it does not work
Books · Paris · People
Saltykov-Shchedrin was not a particularly sociable man, nor one inclined to make new acquaintances: for many years he kept company with one and the same circle of people. Unlike many of his contemporaries, he was not dazzled by foreign authors and did not cling to them. All the more
Coming Up · Architecture · Books · Society · Nature
The park created by the architect Brodsky at the Veretyevo art estate needs help restocking its library, scattered across tiny pavilions over 7 hectares of wooded marsh. Anna Narinskaya, curator of the Veretyevo book project, has already written that many visitors to the park, for some reason, take the bookshelves
Cinema · Books · Observations
If anyone remembers one of Philip K. Dick's most popular novels, the one on which "Blade Runner" is based. The action is set in 2021, after a world war that has wrecked the whole earth; part of humanity has emigrated into space, while the rest have