Faith · Moscow · Observations
A Moscow church invites visitors to recall the Slavonic numeral system. Until the eighteenth century, numbers in Russia were written with letters marked by a stroke, the "titlo", above them, on a scheme similar to the Roman notation. Numbers above 1,000 were written by placing a doubly
Archive · Books · Observations · Mores · People
Nekrasov's biography, and the biographical motifs in his work, are a tricky matter. He often and sharply criticised, abused and ridiculed his father. Though, if one looks into it, his father, the impoverished landowner Alexey Sergeyevich, was not such a dreadful man after all, but merely an average
Books · Observations
Of all that is written, I love only what a man hath written with his blood. Write with blood, and thou wilt find that blood is spirit. It is no easy task to understand unfamiliar blood: I hate the reading idlers. He who knoweth the reader, doeth nothing more for
Observations · Pop Culture · Society Pages
What can one say? As always, it is very beautiful. The finest detail, the most extravagant flights of fancy, handwork of astonishing mastery... And had I not been a friend of the brand and seen their workshops with my own eyes, I should probably not have believed that all these
London · Observations · Society
The Bank of England will use images of wildlife on its new banknotes, fearing division among the public. The statement reads: “The theme must not include images that could be offensive or exclusionary to any groups.” A country’s history becomes offensive only when the events of the past are
Interviews · Books · Observations · Society
It seems to me that we have an enlightened feudalism, multiplied by high technology. Modern feudal lords travel not in carriages but in “six-hundred” Mercedes. And they keep their money not in chests but in Swiss banks. But mentally they are no different from the feudal lords of the
Faith · Observations · People
Today is the start of the third week of Great Lent, and we recall the words of the Serbian Patriarch Pavle on fasting. In the photograph: Patriarch Pavle (Stojčević) at the Ravanica Monastery in 1994. Patriarch Pavle (1914-2009) is, perhaps, the most beloved hierarch of recent times among the
Observations · Mores · Society
8 March is not a day of flowers, spring and tenderness, nor a holiday born of a cloud of face powder and marketing ploys. Behind it stand decades of struggle for what today seems self-evident: the right of women to study, to work, to vote, to dispose of themselves.
Archive · Observations · Society · Saint Petersburg
Dear girls, women, mothers! Happy the holiday of not keeping silent about your rights! Which one may wish for everyone, on any day of the year
Art · Moscow · Observations
The monument is the work of the sculptor Vladimir Ivanov It was in fact put up as long ago as October 2025, but I somehow failed to look about me when I walked past TASS
Moscow · Observations · Society · Humour
Now the directresses of museums, now the directors of theatres. This is not culture but a fairy tale about misplaced personnel. One has the feeling that someone has spread a Monopoly board on the table and, chuckling, is shuffling the character cards from square to square. *with minor amendments The
NB! · Archive · Architecture · Moscow · Observations
I don't know about you, but to me this 1967 photograph, showing the "book" towers going up on Novy Arbat, taken from the Church of the Saviour on Spasopeskovskaya Square, is a very sad sight. They have no business being here; they ought to have been