NB! · Books · Moscow · Observations

Antiquarian bookshop “Lyudi i veshchi” on fire in Starosadsky Lane, Kitay-gorod

The antiquarian bookshop “Lyudi i veshchi” [People and Things] is on fire in Starosadsky Lane, in Kitay-gorod. I hope there are neither people nor valuable things inside at the moment

Black-and-white photograph of three workers bent over the ground, laying cobblestones in arcs, with piles of stones beside them.

Archive · Moscow · Observations · Paris

Workers laying cobblestones on a Paris street in 1936, a photograph by Fred Stein

Paving in Paris, 1936. Fred Stein. Have you noticed that in Moscow the surface is laid by an altogether different technology?

Geography · London · Moscow · Society

First flights between London and Moscow in May 1959, with a stopover in Copenhagen

The first flight from London to Moscow and from Moscow to London took place in May 1959. The British side assigned a Vickers 806 Viscount, G-AOYS, to the service, the Soviet side a Tu-104A of Aeroflot. The route included a stopover in Copenhagen, and the journey time with

Moscow · Museums · Observations

Homemade car by Soviet engineer Oleg Kucherenko on show at the Museum of Moscow

This Car Looks as if It Is Plotting Something. A splendid home-built automobile with the touching name "Trud" ("Labour"), the work of the Soviet engineer Oleg Kucherenko, is on show at the exhibition "Garage Wanted" at the Museum of Moscow, organised jointly with

NB! · Coming Up · Art · Moscow

At the House on Khlebny (19 Khlebny Lane), the exhibition "Shadows Dance Underwater" by the artists Yakov Khomich, Soslan Sosiev and the InterLNKD collective has opened

At the House on Khlebny (19 Khlebny Lane), the exhibition "Shadows Dance Underwater" by the artists Yakov Khomich, Soslan Sosiev and the InterLNKD collective has opened. It runs until 20 December

Art · Moscow · Observations

Nikolai Sapunov’s Work “Still Life with a Self-Portrait”, 1910–1911

I very much liked this painting at the new exhibition at the In Artibus foundation marking the centenary of Dmitry Vladimirovich Sarabyanov. The work is Nikolay Sapunov's "Still Life with a Self-Portrait", 1910-1911. You have to look very closely to find the self-portrait

NB! · Art · Moscow · Museums

At the Vladey gallery at 14 Neglinnaya Street, an exhibition by Vlad Kulkov / Leonid Tskhe, "The Risk-Taker and the Magus", has opened

Art · Moscow · Museums

Voting to Expel a Kulak from the Kolkhoz

Samuil Adlivankin, 1931, State Tretyakov Gallery collection. Photo from the exhibition The Trial: Franz Kafka and the Art of the 20th Century at the Jewish Museum.

Architecture · Moscow · Education

In 1912 Rerberg built the Elizabeth Girls’ Gymnasium in Bolshoy Kazenny Pereulok

The building of the Elizabeth Girls' Gymnasium at 9 Bolshoy Kazenny Lane was built in 1912. The gymnasium itself had been founded as early as 1880, but it stood at a different address, 11 Maroseyka. The building, designed by the architect Rerberg, author of the Central Telegraph Office and

A folding stool with a black seat stands before a white plinth bearing a sculpture of a fallen warrior in a helmet with a sword, against a red museum wall.

NB! · Moscow · Museums · Observations · Humour

Folding stools for visitors to rest on have appeared in the Pushkin Museum galleries

Mobile chairs for visitors at the Pushkin Museum. So that, having sat down to rest, you need not fret that you have taken someone's workplace

Coming Up · Moscow

Five actresses of a certain age, with very different professional histories and ranges, from Pippi Longstocking and an elderly sow to Nina Zarechnaya, meet at an audition, not yet knowing what to expect from texts quite unsuited to them, unfamiliar…

Matters take an unexpected turn, and the audition goes nothing like what was expected. The ladies share the details of their artistic fates, speak of what was and what never came to pass, of life, love and dreams. "Casting 81/18" at the Taganka Theatre. A kind, light

Books · Moscow · Observations · People

I saw "Living T." at the Theatre of Nations, with Dmitry Lysenkov playing Protasov, more or less

I saw "Living T." at the Theatre of Nations, with Dmitry Lysenkov playing Protasov, more or less. It is ostensibly a staging of Leo Tolstoy's play "The Living Corpse", but the T. is meant to stand for "Living Tolstoy". Accordingly, the protagonist