NB! · Books · Moscow · Observations
It was a great pleasure to speak at the Red Square Book Festival! Thank you to everyone who came to listen, thank you to the Russian Military Historical Society for a splendid venue, and thank you to the Dostoevsky bookshop for its support!
Books · Monarchies
A feeble and a crafty ruler, A balding dandy, foe of toil, By chance caressed by glory's favour, Who over us held sway of old. Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin. On Alexander I, in case anyone was wondering
Faith · Books · Observations · Pop Culture
I heard Armstrong's "Let My People Go" on Radio Monte Carlo. It was Paul Robeson, however, who first performed this spiritual, and his voice came, in this connection, to be called divine. How many times have you sung along to these rhythmic bars without a thought
Faith · Books
And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard,
Faith · Books
And there appeared a great wonder in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun; under her feet the moon, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars. She was with child, and cried out in the pangs and torments of birth. And there appeared another wonder in heaven: behold,
Faith · The East · Books
The sixth Angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, saying to the sixth Angel which had the trumpet: Loose the four Angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates. And the four Angels were loosed, which were
Faith · Books
And I saw another mighty Angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire, and he had in his hand a little book open. And he set
Archive · Books · Society · People
After the Gulag he wrote the novel "The Monkey Comes for Its Skull" (1959), the collection of novellas "The Dark Lady. Three Novellas about Shakespeare" (1969), his finest poems, and, finally, the largely autobiographical novels "The Keeper of Antiquities" (1964) and its sequel, "
Coming Up · Books · Museums · Heritage
Ekaterina Tolstaya, at the presentation of the “Tolstoy” theatre festival, which will run from 24 to 27 June, said that for the centenary of the museum at Yasnaya Polyana, besides the restoration of the early eighteenth-century mirrors, the balcony, the blind areas and the threshing barn, two new venues
NB! · Books · Observations · Mores · People
Archive · Books · Heritage · People
First of all, the inscription cut into the cornelian of Pushkin's ring seemed a riddle. The poet, according to numerous accounts, was convinced of a special, almost magical significance in the incomprehensible words, now referring them to the Kabbalah, now to other mystical formulae, and even assuring his
Art · Books · Museums · Heritage · People
Tropinin's portrait of Pushkin and the posthumous portrait by Karl Masur. In both, the poet wears a ring with a red stone on his thumb. Around this ring, one of Pushkin's favourite, a great many legends have clustered ever since it first appeared. They begin with