Archive · Art · Books · Education
F is for Themis and Frankincense
Yot, Yery, the Soft Sign and the Hard Sign are stuck up a tree. From the Russian Alphabet in Painted Pictures on Canvas. Saint Petersburg: Published by M. O. Wolf.
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Faith · Books
Ivan Bunin’s poem “Entry into Jerusalem” on a cripple in the crowd and the ride on a donkey
“Hosanna! Hosanna! Come forth In the name of the Lord!” And with a furious rattle in his chest, With the fire of the netherworld In his glittering, festering eyes, Swelling every vein in his neck, Howling ever more menacingly, The cripple flings himself into the dust On his knees, Having
Archive · Books · Mores · Society
Peasants reading newspapers in the open air in a Russian village, 1932
An Open-Air Reading Room in the Village of Sovetskoye, Nizhny Novgorod Region. The appetite for reading in an ordinary Russian village in 1932
Books · Humour
Alexander Sumarokov and his work “On Fools”
The fool is always sure to thrive, And wise men find in him their solace; But should the fool be rich, The wise man is to him not merely brother, But slave and flatterer, and therein he sins. Alexander Sumarokov, "On Fools"
Books · Society
Of all speculations the most accessible, and therefore the most widespread, is speculation in patriotism; love of the motherland sells most briskly of all, and in every age this has been a commodity in great demand
Viktor Petrovich Astafyev, "Damned and Killed"
Archive · Books · People
Two writers photographed by Sofya Andreyevna at Yasnaya Polyana in October 1900
Gorky Was Forty Years Younger than Tolstoy. At Yasnaya Polyana the writers were photographed by Sofya Andreyevna in October 1900
Faith · The East · Books · Society
A cardinal moved the Mass from the closed Church of the Holy Sepulchre to the Mount of Olives
The Pharisees tried to prevent the Italian cardinal and Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Pierbattista Pizzaballa, from celebrating Palm Sunday at the Holy Sepulchre. Instead of the closed Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the cardinal decided to move the Mass to the Mount of Olives, precisely to the place where Jesus
Books · Observations
A poem in the voice of an animal whose pelt becomes hats and fur coats
Yunna Morits has a poem from 1998. What a marvellous beast I am, all in a golden fleece. My pelt is prized, tomorrow, yesterday, today!.. Descendants walk past in hats made of me. Their beauties, slim and slender, in furs made of me. ...The snow at the close of day
Archaeology · Books · Science · People
Archaeologist Wim Dijkman finds skeleton that may belong to d'Artagnan
Skeleton discovered during repair of damaged floor in the Church of Saints Peter and Paul in Maastricht is believed to be that of d'Artagnan, the real-life officer who inspired Dumas's hero. Beside the skeleton were found a French coin of the late seventeenth century and
Archive · Books · Heritage · New York
17 stolen antiquities returned, including six Chinese-language books by Jesuits
Manhattan District Attorney's Office Returns 17 Items to Italy and the Vatican. On 26 March 2026 a ceremony was held for the handover of 17 stolen antiquities and rare books with a combined value of more than $1.5 million. The items were seized in the course of
Books · People
Varlam Shalamov's poem about childhood and the little that remains in memory
I have forgotten the weather of childhood, The warm wind, the soft snow. On this earth, I suppose, there is no means To give me back my childhood. And so little remains In my poor memory: Cornflower roads In the red sun of childhood days, The smell of the sorrel
Archive · Art · Books · Humour
Emblem of a weeping eye in the English book “Minerva Britanna” of 1612
Woe Is Me, That I Have Seen This. An emblem with a weeping eye, from the English counterpart of the "Emblemata", the 1612 book "Minerva Britanna, or A Garden of Heroical Devises"