Books · Observations · Mores · People
In 1919 Marina Tsvetaeva wrote the poem "To You, a Hundred Years Hence", addressed to an admirer from the distant future. Piercing and lyrical at once, sad yet spirited. "Friend! Do not look for me! Another fashion! Not even the old folk remember me." In this
Aristocracy · Monarchies · Mores · Saint Petersburg
The wedding of Grand Duke George Mikhailovich and Rebecca Bettarini will take place on 1 October 2021 in Saint Petersburg. It will be the first grand-ducal marriage in Russia in more than a hundred years, since the wedding of Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna in 1917. That was the second
Aristocracy · Books · Mores
Prince Ivan Mikhailovich Dolgorukov recalled how, as a child, he was allowed to go and watch the wedding of Vladimir Poluektov and Ekaterina Argamakova, where he met Katerina Obukhova. The two fell in love on the spot and there and then resolved to become bridegroom and bride, in token whereof
Books · Observations · Mores
Othello gave his young wife a rather modest gift, an embroidered handkerchief that had come to him from his mother, which in the end played a fatal part, being planted on the jealous Moor's comrade as a token of infidelity. With this handkerchief everything is very far from
In the Press · Books · Mores · Ethnography · Humour
What is better to give one's beloved: sperm whale teeth, a leg of lamb, a little gold, or a bouquet of tulips in the old-fashioned way? In the pre-holiday Kommersant Style supplement I have mused on the place of gifts in the annals of world culture.
Archive · Books · Observations · Mores · Rome
Michel de Montaigne's journal for February 1581 mentions a Muscovite ambassador in Rome, dressed in a crimson cloak, a cassock of gold brocade, a nightcap-shaped hat of gold brocade trimmed with fur, and a skufia of silvery linen, who had come to ask Pope Gregory to help
Archive · Books · Mores · Humour
"On Wednesday he called them hangmen, And on Thursday, tempted by their victuals, He was polishing their boots at «Nakanune». That service did not go unrewarded: A count, a landowner and a bourgeois squared, He is now being published by «Gosizdat»" Literal translation Sasha Chorny, A.N. Tolstoy,
NB! · Aristocracy · Archive · Mores · Pop Culture
Lee Radziwill (1933-2019), Janet Lee Bouvier (1907-1989), Jackie Kennedy (1929-1994). Three women of the Bouvier family who in their day shone in the social firmament of the United States
NB! · Monarchies · Observations · Mores
Prince Philip and Elizabeth, after all, lived a wonderfully beautiful life in marriage from 1947. Let us hope that he will manage to recover, and that Philip will remain a while longer beside his Cabbage
NB! · Archive · Art · Observations · Mores
What are the advantages of having a celebrated Impressionist for a father? Besides money and fame, there is, for instance, beauty in every detail of one's surroundings. Here is tiny Jean Monet, the first son of Claude Monet, in a cradle amid quite extraordinary toys and flowers.
Aristocracy · Monarchies · Mores · Society
During the Belgian royal family's visit to the royal crypt, alongside King Philippe and Queen Mathilde and Philippe's parents, the 87-year-old Albert II of Belgium and 83-year-old Queen Paola, Princess Delphine was also spotted: Philippe's half-sister, the very woman
Aristocracy · Faith · Art · Mores · People
Sibylla of Saxe-Lauenburg (1675-1733), Margravine of Baden-Baden, in a masquerade costume as a sorceress. I do not know whether the outfit really came with fire-breathing asps; perhaps there were simply no fire salamanders to be had. In this portrait Sibylla has gathered together the various attributes