Books · Observations · Society
Ivan the Terrible and Kurbsky exchanged "letters" that were not a correspondence but a literary duel, staged for the public and meant for the judgement of posterity. Both understood that they would be read far beyond the Lithuanian border. The open letter is a genre with a catch.
Archaeology · Art · Books · Monarchies · Museums · Observations · Heritage · Science · Society
“What is our life? A tale we shall not recall twice, once it has been told,” runs the thought from Byron’s “Don Juan”, and so at the end of every month we reassemble the key publications that can be reread and kept in memory. Archaeology and the origins of
Books · Society
The International Biographers Organisation has named the winner of the 2026 Plutarch Award for the best biography of 2025. It is Gertrude Stein: An Afterlife by Francesca Wade. The jury noted her original approach to Stein's life and work and her contribution to the very understanding of the
Faith · Books · Observations · Science
IMLI RAN has published a two-volume study, "F.M. Dostoevsky's Novel Crime and Punishment: The Current State of Scholarship", edited by T.A. Kasatkina. It is the fourth book in the "current state of scholarship" project on Dostoevsky: before it came The Idiot
Cinema · Books · Heritage · Paris
The French are to make a film about the Louvre robbery. The director is Romain Gavras, and the source is a book by three journalists from Le Parisien, Le Monde and Paris Match, entitled Main Basse sur le Louvre, or “A Hand on the Louvre”, published by Flammarion this week.
Archive · Books · Science · People
The librarian of the Rumyantsev Museum and philosopher of the "Common Task" Nikolai Fyodorov held that humanity is obliged to resurrect literally all its dead ancestors. By what means? By technical effort, or rather by the collective effort of reason. Tolstoy knew him, read him, argued with him,
Coming Up · Art · Books · London
The estimate for the book is £1.5–2 million. The manuscript has spent 700 years in private hands, has never been publicly exhibited and has never been studied academically. It is now the earliest of the three privately owned copies of the cycle among the two hundred or so
Coming Up · Architecture · Books · Museums
"Everything here is in miniature: a little avenue of lime trees, a pond the size of an aquarium, a little garden and park, little trees, but you stroll about a time or two, look closely, and the impression of smallness vanishes." So Anton Chekhov described the Melikhovo estate
In the Press · Books · Society
The Guardian has published a list of the 100 best books ever published in English. The list includes 75 books originally written in English and 25 in translation. There are 5 Russian authors on the list: Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Bulgakov, Grossman and Nabokov, with 8 books between them: 6. "Anna
In the Press · Interviews · Cinema · Books · Society
Prohibitions alone will not do. The best defence is attack. A humanitarian intervention must be followed by a clever humanitarian response. The series «GDR» and «Dear Willy» have already appeared, but that is clearly not enough. Nor do these series touch on our own times. That is why I am
Archive · Art · Books
Portraits of the First Twelve Caesars, and of 63 of Their Wives and Relatives, Engraved from Ancient Coins; Together with Their Lives and Deeds, Gathered from Various Authors. Primorum Caesarum et LXIII Ipsorum Uxorum et Parentum, by Levinus Hulsius. A rare Renaissance numismatic book, published in 1597 and 1599. It
Listings · Moscow · Coming Up · Art · Books · Museums
“Oh, how I feel the accumulated burden of poisoned nights and bitter-sweet days!” wrote Annensky in “The Longing to Return” in 1909, and ever since the burden has gone on accumulating, though the vessels in which it is customarily kept keep changing. This week our rubric on where to