Faith · Art · Books
John 14:28 These are among the most consoling words in the whole of the New Testament. Christ speaks them to his disciples before the Passion: I go away, and I shall return. The roundel from a Bolognese evangeliary of the late thirteenth or early fourteenth century shows Christ Pantocrator,
Faith · Books · Observations
Let the mountains be shaken with fear, Let the greedy abyss devour them, And the world pass away into heaps of dust, I have not the slightest dread. Let the sea be stirred up to storm, And let fearsome winds begin to roar; Calamities of ruin and grief Will not
The East · Books · Observations · Science
My warmest thanks to the staff of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences for making freely available to all the books written by the institute's researchers throughout its existence up to 2023. In essence, this is a colossal library of the finest Russian-
Coming Up · Books · Moscow · Museums
The First Dacha in Peredelkino is a new museum point on the village map, one you will want to return to. At present the exhibition at the First Dacha is centred on the figure of Viktor Shklovsky, with a detailed account of him: his life in Peredelkino, his relationships, connections
NB! · Books · People · Humour
Shklovsky probably invented the claim that Tsvetaeva said Pasternak looked at once like an Arab and like his horse. But who are we to judge the maestro?
Archive · Books · Observations · Mores · People
Nekrasov's biography, and the biographical motifs in his work, are a tricky matter. He often and sharply criticised, abused and ridiculed his father. Though, if one looks into it, his father, the impoverished landowner Alexey Sergeyevich, was not such a dreadful man after all, but merely an average
Books · Moscow · Mores · People
"The bread of fields tilled by slaves does me no good..." Nikolay Alexeyevich Nekrasov Nekrasov wrote these lines when he was quite young, at 33, while living at a dacha in Petrovsky Park near Moscow together with Botkin. Shortly before his death the poet would recall this verse
Books · Ethnography
An old woman went off to sell her milk, The village was far from the market. The old woman grew tired and, her business done, Lay down to doze by the very roadside. A merry puppy came up to the old woman, Seized her by the skirt and tore her
Books · Observations
Of all that is written, I love only what a man hath written with his blood. Write with blood, and thou wilt find that blood is spirit. It is no easy task to understand unfamiliar blood: I hate the reading idlers. He who knoweth the reader, doeth nothing more for
Archive · Cinema · Books · Heritage
Between 1912 and 1929 some 11,000 silent feature films were released in the United States. Only a small part of them has survived to the present day. The chief cause of the losses was deliberate destruction. Before home cinema and television, films were considered useless once their run was
Interviews · Books · Observations · Society
It seems to me that we have an enlightened feudalism, multiplied by high technology. Modern feudal lords travel not in carriages but in “six-hundred” Mercedes. And they keep their money not in chests but in Swiss banks. But mentally they are no different from the feudal lords of the
NB! · Archive · Books