Books · Observations · Society · People
The cult of Maxim Gorky in the USSR is astonishing
Explicable, it seems, by his part in organising the pay of the Bolsheviks from 1902
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Art · Books · Moscow · Museums
The Delightful Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol by Sergei Konenkov, 1917
Tretyakov Gallery collection
Art · Books · Mores · New York
In Marcel Duchamp's last work, Étant donnés, made in secret between 1946 and 1966, a naked woman lies sprawled in a field
In Marcel Duchamp's last work, Étant donnés, made in secret between 1946 and 1966, a naked woman lies sprawled in a field. According to Francis Naumann, the leading Duchamp specialist, the figure was modelled on the Brazilian sculptor Maria Martins. In his book published in 2026, Impossible: The
NB! · Archive · Books · Society
Statute on Zemstvo Institutions, with All Relevant Enactments and with Judicial and Governmental Clarifications
Statute on Zemstvo Institutions, with All Relevant Enactments and with Judicial and Governmental Clarifications. Author: Mysh
Listings · Moscow · Coming Up · Books · Society · Saint Petersburg
Moscow – Leningrad: Something Different
The Seventies are arranged in a rather unusual way in Soviet culture. The Thaw was over, the euphoria had evaporated, and it became clear to certain people that print runs in the millions and vast auditoriums no longer loomed on the horizon, while large exhibitions would be of whatever format
NB! · Archive · Books · People
Tatiana Nikitichna Tolstaya as a Child
NB! · Archive · Architecture · Books · Education · Saint Petersburg
The Ceremonial Hall of the Academy of Arts Library
The ceremonial hall of the Academy of Arts library. Saint Petersburg, 1900s
Books · Observations · Science
"It Was Forever Until It Was No More"
There was such a good book, if you remember, by the Russian and American anthropologist Alexei Yurchak
NB! · Books · Observations · Humour
In Case You Didn't Know, Larisa Ogudalova Invented Cringe
In case you didn't know, Larisa Ogudalova invented cringe. Or rather, Alexander Nikolayevich Ostrovsky did.
The East · Art · Books · Mores · Ethnography
Iranian Women of the Qajar Era in Japanese Woodcuts from the Book by the Engineer and Topographer Naoyuki Furukawa, Describing Japan's First Diplomatic Contact with Iran in 1880 and 1881
Iranian women of the Qajar era in Japanese woodcuts from the book by the engineer and topographer Naoyuki Furukawa, describing Japan's first diplomatic contact with Iran in 1880 and 1881. The mission was carried out under the leadership of Yoshida Masaharu. Besides recounting the incidents of the journey,
Archive · Books · Mores · People · Saint Petersburg
In a photograph of the 1910s taken in Saint Petersburg by the master of reportage Iosif Otsup, Alexandr Kuprin sits second from the left at a laid table
The archivists of Pushkin House have provisionally titled this negative a novelist's feast in the company of friends. The identities of the other participants cannot be established with certainty, given the writer's vast circle of acquaintance: he fell in with celebrated poets, hacks from the boulevard
Archaeology · Archive · The East · Books
The Babylonian poem "The Poor Man of Nippur", composed around 701 BC and devoted to the duty of hospitality and to vengeance for an undeserved insult
The Babylonian poem "The Poor Man of Nippur", composed around 701 BC and devoted to the duty of hospitality and to vengeance for an undeserved insult. A poor man from the city of Nippur gives up his last possession and brings a goat as a gift to the