Archive · Architecture · Moscow · Observations
"In Moscow, near the Kremlin, the Palace of Soviets is being built. It will be the tallest structure on earth, higher than the Egyptian pyramids, the Eiffel Tower and the American skyscrapers. The Supreme Soviet of the USSR, the parliament of the only truly democratic country in the world,
Coming Up · Architecture · Moscow · Museums · Observations · Science
Shall we go to a museum? One of the oldest museum collections in Russia, dating from the time of Peter the Great, is, incidentally, the collection of minerals, which in 1716 became the core of the Mineral Cabinet of the Kunstkamera and in 1836 was formally transformed into a separate
Archive · Architecture · Moscow
In this August 1928 photograph Lenin's Mausoleum is still wooden, though very like the later stone version, also designed by the architect Alexey Shchusev. The drawing is by Isaak Brodsky, from 1924, and flowers still stand by the Mausoleum. Note the crowned double-headed eagles on the Kremlin
Coming Up · Art · Moscow · Museums · Observations
Guidoccio di Giovanni Cozzarelli (1450-1517). The Baptism of Christ. John the Baptist sports an epic hair shirt. Now on show at the Pushkin Museum, at the exhibition of proto-Renaissance masterpieces. The canvas comes from the collection of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts. “Siena at the Dawn
NB! · Architecture · Moscow · Observations
Here and there in Moscow, retro-style address plates have begun to appear on buildings. Take, for example, the sign on the Helikon-Opera building, modelled on a Soviet street sign. It looks very pleasing
Archive · Moscow · Society · People
Stalin in the Kremlin in August 1941, when he learned of the German advance on Kyiv. The photograph was taken by Boris Burkov, editor-in-chief of Komsomolskaya Pravda, and preserved in defiance of an order to destroy the frame as showing the leader in an unflattering light. It is
Architecture · In the Press · Art · Moscow · Museums · Observations · Heritage
Eeckhout's “Musical Party” under flies, the blistered “David and Abigail” of van Diepenbeeck, a hole in Bialynitsky-Birulya's canvas and other sad facts about the collection of the Moscow sanatorium Uzkoye, in the Bitsa Forest, are described in a caustic article in Komsomolskaya Pravda, which for
NB! · Archive · Architecture · Moscow · Observations
It turns out that this luxurious pavilion of Moscow's Arbatskaya metro station, by the architects Polozkov and Zenkevich, still exists; it is merely closed to the gaze of outsiders, standing hemmed in by the General Staff building. Photograph of 1953
Coming Up · Architecture · Art · Moscow · Museums
Francisco Infante's plan for the illumination of Red Square. Among much else, it contains a most intriguing proposal: a dynamic lighting scheme for the Kremlin wall, in which a white light would "march" along the wall itself in step with the honour guard. Regrettably, the idea
Books · Moscow · Museums · Mores
They call the neighbour to the samovar, And Dunya pours the tea; They whisper to her: "Dunya, mind your manners!" Then they bring in the guitar too: And she starts to squeak (good God!): Come to my golden palace! Literal translation Here the guitar is a sign of
NB! · Faith · Art · Moscow · Observations · Humour
Art · Moscow · Observations · Humour
When you learn that from tomorrow Moscow is once again at +30 and above. Well, here is a painting by John Martin, not the science-fiction writer, mind you, but the Romantic painter, dated 1841. It is called Pandemonium. Yes, yes, that very capital of hell in Milton's