Aristocracy · Architecture · Moscow · Observations · Nature
When I wrote that Arkhangelskoye has nothing in common with Versailles, I was slightly mistaken. Prince Nikolai Borisovich Yusupov, great-grandson of the first baptised Yusupov, Abdul-Murza (Dmitry Seyushevich in baptism), who was himself a great-grandson of the founder of the line, the ruling sultan of the Nogai
Aristocracy · Architecture · Moscow · Museums · Observations
Arkhangelskoye was one of the first museum-estates in the country, and this year the museum marks its centenary. It must be said that both the parks and the palace building are in excellent condition. On several occasions, however, I have heard the estate of the Princes Yusupov called the
NB! · Art · Monarchies · Moscow · Museums · Observations
Coming Up · Art · Moscow · Museums · Saint Petersburg
For those too idle to hunt out items for their own cultural programme, a small selection of events for the coming week. An exhibition by the practising National Geographic photojournalist Gerd Ludwig, “The Long Shadow of Chernobyl”. He is the only foreign photojournalist to have received permission to photograph in
Aristocracy · Art · Monarchies · Moscow · Heritage
The most emblematic Chaumet jewel connected with Russia is the sun tiara created for Nicholas II's niece Irina Alexandrovna Romanova, acknowledged as one of the most beautiful princesses in Europe. In 1914 Irina married Felix Yusupov. The tiara was a gift from Princess Zinaida Yusupova, who had assembled
Archive · Art · Moscow · Museums
Group portrait of the heroine airwomen of the 46th Guards Taman Night Bomber Aviation Regiment, Order of the Red Banner and Order of Suvorov, by the artist Sergey Bocharov, 1985. The painting was acquired by the Central House of Aviation and Cosmonautics of DOSAAF, where it remains on display to
Moscow · Museums · Observations · Society
The GULAG Museum has a model of the structures of the White Sea Canal. Besides the questions "what for?" and "at what price?", one finds oneself wondering HOW. How could so colossal a construction be built in such conditions, and at the cost of what sacrifices?
Moscow · Museums · Observations · Society
The exhibition of the Museum of the History of the Gulag makes a very powerful impression. It really is, perhaps, one of the best museums, in Moscow at least. Take, for example, the stand with pronouncements by the leaders of the Soviet state on repression and on the people. Kirov,
Faith · Moscow · Heritage · Society
Hard to imagine, but concentration camps were scattered all over Moscow. The young Soviet state needed as many prisons as it could get, so concentration camps took over the buildings of former monasteries and churches, from the Novospassky to the Ivanovsky in the very centre of the capital, where barbed
Archive · Moscow · Society · People
In 1920 Alexandra Tolstaya, daughter of Leo Tolstoy, was arrested on a charge of involvement in a counter-revolutionary organisation and sentenced to three years' confinement in a concentration camp at the Novospassky Monastery in Moscow. She wrote: “My father, whose views I share, openly denounced the Tsarist government
Art · Moscow · Museums · Observations · Society Pages
I was very lucky on Monday, the museum day, to find myself at the colossal Repin exhibition and, avoiding queues and crowds, to see 300 works gathered over 3 floors from 21 Russian and 7 foreign museums and 7 private collections: nothing like it has been seen for 25 years.
Books · Moscow · Museums · Heritage · Society
In this modest house in Peredelkino, at 3 Serafimovich Street, Chukovsky lived from 1938 to 1969. A few years after Chukovsky's death, in 1974, Lydia Korneyevna was expelled from the Writers' Union, and the Litfond decided to evict the family from the dacha. Legal wrangling dragged on