Black-and-white photograph of a two-storey building with a pediment on a snowy square, with two passers-by near the fence.

Archive · Architecture · Moscow · Heritage

Yury Pankratov on the demolition of the historic Sobachya Ploshchadka buildings during the construction of Kalinin Avenue in the 1960s

Sweeping away the mouldy vulgarity of Houses that huddle hunchbacked, Work proceeds at full throttle In the district of the Arbat... Yury Pankratov on the demolition of the old buildings of the historic Sobachya Ploshchadka complex in the 1960s, when Kalinin Avenue, now Novy Arbat, was driven through

NB! · Archive · Moscow · Observations · People

When I want to think of something pleasant, I remember pancakes, or photographs of Sophia Loren in Moscow

Archive · Moscow · Mores · Society · People

Lyudmila Petrushevskaya on childhood in the Second House of Soviets and the Veger family's fate

“I am an old Muscovite and from birth I lived in the Metropol. In the Second House of Soviets. Where lived those members of the Comintern who had fled arrest in their own countries, and who by the time of my birth had already been shot or were serving their

Art · Moscow · Museums · Observations · Humour

This Is What People Look Like When They Try to Break into a Private Account Under Fake Names

While Urs Fischer, the Muses of Montparnasse and the exhibition design of the Tretyakov Gallery and the Historical Museum drive the lovers of internet battles out of their minds, the A.S. Pushkin State Museum is quietly hosting "Poets and Muses", and the display is adorned with these

Books · Moscow · Observations · Society Pages · Humour

In Yury Trifonov's immortal novella “The Exchange” there were two design bureaux, No. 2 and No. 3: the Threes played five-minute blitz chess, the Twos played ping-pong

In Yury Trifonov's immortal novella “The Exchange” there were two design bureaux, No. 2 and No. 3: the Threes played five-minute blitz chess, the Twos played ping-pong. Of course, a more obvious example of the passion for “small tennis” is the duels between the institute staff

Art · Moscow · Museums · Observations

Tatyana Mavrina exhibition “Ode to Joy” ends at the Tretyakov Gallery Engineering Building

The Tretyakov Gallery's Engineering Building has closed a large and very rich exhibition of Tatyana Mavrina (1900-1996), a pupil of Falk, better known to the public for her numerous illustrations, above all of Pushkin and of Russian fairy tales. But besides illustrations, Mavrina, who studied at Vkhutemas,

A twelve-metre aluminium sculpture of stacked, irregular lumps on a square, with a mobile crane and a lift beside it.

NB! · Architecture · Art · Moscow · Observations

Urs Fischer’s sculpture “Big Clay” installed at the GES-2 building on Bolotnaya Embankment

Beside the VAC Foundation for contemporary art, that is, by the GES-2 building on Bolotnaya Embankment, the installation of a work by Urs Fischer has been completed. It looks striking. We shall see how long this 12-metre aluminium surprise remains standing, and yes, I am aware that the

Art · Moscow · Museums · Observations

A cosy niche exhibition of eighteenth-century graphic art, steeped in the spirit of the Enlightenment, at Tsaritsyno

A cosy niche exhibition of eighteenth-century graphic art, steeped in the spirit of the Enlightenment, is on at Tsaritsyno. Many of the works are being shown for the first time. The graphic art of the period is an interesting thing, and not the most obvious one to collect: firstly,

A painting from 1937–1939 in a frame on a dark museum wall: workers assemble a large metal tank in a factory hall.

NB! · Coming Up · Moscow · Museums · Observations

Exhibition marking the centenary of the GOELRO plan at the Museum of Moscow

It is a hundred years since our country was blessed with electricity, GOELRO-style. The exhibition is about just that. Everyone to the Museum of Moscow

Concrete frame and steel beams of a building under construction, part of the facade covered by green netting, with a blue fence in the foreground.

NB! · Architecture · Moscow · Museums · Observations

Construction of the New Tretyakov Gallery Building as Seen by the Author

The new Tretyakov Gallery building. I trust history will not remember it

NB! · Faith · Moscow · Observations

A Very Sad Piece of Visual Evidence from the Exhibition at the Sretensky Monastery

Coming Up · Art · Moscow · Observations

Outdoor exhibition in memory of poet Alexander Yeremenko runs in Peredelkino until November

This weekend I am hunting with great interest for works by contemporary artists in the park of the Peredelkino Creative Retreat. The outdoor exhibition "To the Right Lies the White Forest" is dedicated to the memory of the metarealist poet Alexander Yeryomenko, who died only recently. He did