Books · Observations · Science · People

I would never die for my beliefs, because I might be wrong

Bertrand Russell

Old Russian icon in which Christ in light robes takes by the hands two kneeling figures in tombs, with saints standing around.

Faith · Observations

Paschal troparion on the Resurrection of Christ in Church Slavonic and Russian

Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and upon those in the tombs bestowing life. Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and to those in the graves granting life!

NB! · Geography · Observations · Science

How Can One See the Great Bear in a Plain Ladle?

A white-bearded monk stands by a cauldron over a fire in a courtyard, with baskets and basins of red eggs nearby and a man standing behind.

Faith · Observations · Ethnography

Greetings on the approaching feast of Easter

Dyeing Eggs on Mount Athos. Wishing everyone a happy approaching bright feast of Easter, without exaggeration the chief feast of the year!

NB! · Observations · Humour

Naming: Pyaterochka

Museums · Observations · Society · Paris

Six months ago I wrote about the warm-up exercises performed in the Louvre before "The Battle of Arbela", and now it has emerged that the Louvre and four major Parisian museums will take part in the events of the Olympic Games

Six months ago I wrote about the warm-up exercises performed in the Louvre before "The Battle of Arbela", and now it has emerged that the Louvre and four major Parisian museums will take part in the events of the Olympic Games. The Louvre, the Orsay, the Orangerie

NB! · Observations · Humour

Look Behind You: Is the Town Not Burning?

A rectangular ceramic dish printed with a calendar for 1887 hangs on a wall with copper-coloured patterned wallpaper.

NB! · Art · Museums · Observations

Ceramic Wall Calendar for 1887 in the Chekhov House Museum

A ceramic wall calendar for 1887 in the form of a rectangular dish. The Chekhov House Museum. The first I have ever seen

Coming Up · Moscow · Museums · Observations · Mores

What to Visit in Moscow Right Now?

What is worth visiting in Moscow right now? The Museum of Moscow has opened a remarkable, very large and capacious exhibition, rich in allusions: “Moskvichka. Women of the Soviet Capital in the 1920s and 1930s”. The museum's team spent a year and a half preparing the project, and

London · Observations · Humour

Let us assume that the horses of the Apocalypse have already galloped through London, or at least two of the four?

Although it is reported in some quarters that there were in fact four frightened horses which bolted from a cavalry rehearsal in the Belgravia area and covered the distance to Shadwell in the east of London, injuring themselves and some of those they met along the way

Moscow · Museums · Observations · People

If, like me, you spent years riding the “Bukashka” along the Garden Ring and, hearing the announcement of the stop “Chekhov House-Museum”, thought: “The Chekhov museum, I really must go in”, then right now, for example, there is a curious exhibition there

Thanks to the exhibition, which has the witty title “I Have No Better Photograph”, I learned that Anton Pavlovich was very fond of being photographed. True, he was not particularly inclined to change his pose. There are dozens of pictures taken many years apart in which he sits literally in

Observations · Education · Society · Humour

A professor whose name may not be mentioned reports that, at a university whose name may not be mentioned, doctoral applicants write a special letter on the history of their vulnerability

A professor whose name may not be mentioned reports that, at a university whose name may not be mentioned, doctoral applicants write a special letter on the history of their vulnerability. A special committee, which did not exist ten years ago, awards them points on a certain scale and then