Books · Observations · Reportage · Society Pages
Wondering what was so mysteriously Victorian going on in Peredelkino yesterday? Conversations in hammocks, prose readings in garden pavilions, impassioned speeches by gentlemen beneath century-old pines, photographs taken with an antique mirror camera… Let me tell you. Bookmate and the Peredelkino Writers' House presented the first translation of
NB! · Books · Museums · People · Saint Petersburg
Books · Mores · Society
At least Khlestakov, for all his lying, still feared a little, in the midst of it, that they might take him by the scruff and throw him out. The Khlestakovs of today have no such fear and lie in perfect tranquillity. Everyone is calm, everyone is immeasurably vain, and one
Books · Observations · Humour
A Peredelkino leaflet asks: who among us does not know the Lake Poets? Still, in case there are doubters, the poetic fellowship that emerged at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries was called the Lake School after the Lake District in the north-west of England, where the
Archive · Faith · Books
Naturally, I am aware of how well-founded are such aspirations and apostolic enthusiasms. Nothing is so exciting as playing at being a little Buddha: living on one egg and two glasses of water a day and giving the leavings to the poor, chewing over the endless ravings of cosmogonic
Books · Observations · Science
Instant photography appeared in 1923, but books of 1927 already give the word "shapshot" in the sense of "taking instant snapshots". What a swift entry of a neologism into everyday speech. Though originally this required a most cumbersome contraption, in effect a portable photographic laboratory combined
Faith · Art · Books · People
Imagine that you are in a closed room, but there is a dimly lit window through which you begin to guess at the existence of another world. Pavel Florensky, reflecting on what an icon is
Archive · Books · Moscow · Observations · Education · Humour
They really knew how to give presents in those days. A dedicatory inscription to a Delegate of the first district trade-union conference of the union of primary and secondary school workers of the RSFSR, 22 September 1936, from the Krasnogvardeisky District Committee of the city of Moscow. And on
Coming Up · Books · Moscow · Science
On Wednesdays, as is our custom, I share a selection of intellectual events for the coming week. 🧩22 May at 18:00 Presentation of F. Holt's book «When Money Talks: A History of Coins and Numismatics from Antiquity to Pop Culture» at the State Public Historical Library of
Books · Society
A very serious study of the digital book market in Russia has been published by the leading analytical company J’son & Partners Consulting. This is the first independent assessment of the market, so on the whole it is a landmark event for the entire industry. The figures are very
Archive · Art · Books · Paris
"The geometrical dauber and dabbler Picasso has pushed himself to the front of the stage, while talented artists humbly wait to be put on show," wrote the critic Léo Poldès on 19 May 1917 of Diaghilev's new Russian ballet, Parade… The characters of the ballet: the
Archaeology · Books · Moscow · Science · Reportage · Ethnography
A publication unique in Russian historical scholarship has been presented at VDNKh: the Academic History of Yugra in eight volumes. It is the first project of its kind in Russia: a comprehensive study of the region's history, from the era of its settlement 18,000 to 16,000