NB! · Archaeology · Books · Observations · Mores · Humour
One recalls Agatha Christie's remark about the archaeologist husband, who is so good for a woman because the older she grows, the more interesting she becomes to him. The writer lived to 85, and for 46 of those years she was married to the archaeologist Max Mallowan, who
Books · Observations · Mores · Paris
The French writer Gandon recounts the German occupation of France. Among the hardships and horrors of those years he lists, on a par with the executions, grey bread, moonshine in place of wine, roasted barley in place of coffee, and cakes of buckwheat flour as hard as stone. It reads,
NB! · Books · Observations · Humour
A maestro fresh off the press. Enthusiasts and admirers have a unique opportunity to acquire Ponasenkov's second book, in its 2007 edition, for a mere 115,000 roubles. True, only recently this same book was sitting on Ozon for 419. Nevertheless. My business is to inform.
Archive · Books · Observations · Society
Perhaps not the most intriguing piece of news, but still, to some extent, topical. In the diary of the Dutch poet Willem de Clercq (not to be confused with his exact namesake, the President of South Africa in the 1990s), there is an entry about a sorrowful letter from Beler,
NB! · Books · Monarchies · Moscow · Observations
Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, recommends on her Instagram blog Amor Towles's "A Gentleman in Moscow", a book about the life of Count Rostov, confined by the Bolsheviks in... the Metropol Hotel. Well, for a third recommendation it is an interesting choice. One can hardly refuse Cam,
Archive · In the Press · Books · Mores
The Dark One and the Fair One. One can live by Shakespeare in Mariupol. When the Germans entered the dusty town, nothing in life seemed to have changed, for apples were still apples, and a house was still a house, and the October sun went down into the bay just
Books · Observations · Humour
Leo Tolstoy's complete works run to 90 volumes. Alexey Tolstoy's, to 15. As the saying goes, and who's going to give you more?
Faith · Books · Moscow · Mores · People · Ethnography
“And on the first day of Easter, after that great and joyous night, you go to the Kremlin, and there, in a sheltered spot, in the sun, sit the pilgrim wanderers, resting. They peel crimson-dyed eggs, and the coloured shells lie scattered all around, and somehow this goes so
Cinema · Books · Observations · Pop Culture
The recently released trailer for "Pishcheblok" once again draws attention to Russian television series: it looks intriguing, stylish and atmospheric. The makers have plainly succeeded in recreating the atmosphere of the Soviet era. For those who are not well versed in our contemporary literature, this is an adaptation
Architecture · Books · Observations · Heritage
“A bright spring day was drawing towards evening; small rosy clouds stood high in the clear sky and seemed not to drift past but to sink into the very depths of the blue. Before the open window of a handsome house, in one of the outlying streets of the provincial
NB! · In the Press · Art · Books · Observations
I have received my author's copy of BADLON, the new ultra-fashionable zine, for which I wrote the closing text on an art project devoted to bell-ringing. The magazine can be bought at КМ20 and on their website, at a very handsome price: 3700.
In the Press · Cinema · Books · Pop Culture · Saint Petersburg
The recent, almost viral surge of interest in the occasionally hilarious and thoroughly un-Peter-Jacksonian television adaptation of The Lord of the Rings, as staged by Leningrad television in the 1990s, has raised a question of sorts: is it really so surprising that citizens of the USSR were acquainted