Archive · Books · Observations · Mores
Nadezhda Yakovlevna Mandelstam has a recollection of how she and her husband chanced upon namesakes in a watchmaker's workshop in Yalta. While writing out a receipt, the watchmaker was stunned to hear his own surname from his customers. He invited the Mandelstams to his home and told them
NB! · Museums · Observations
Art · Monarchies · Observations
Napoleon's younger brother, Louis Bonaparte, in the uniform of a colonel of the 5th Dragoons. Portrait by Charles Jalabert. In the French army, the helmets of dragoon officers were adorned with a turban of leopard skin. I cannot say whether this alludes to the leopard skin fastened to
Faith · Observations · Ethnography · Humour
That's just the sort of people we are. Saint Peter reads on a slip of paper that the departed is a Russian, and at once admits him to heaven. A modern priest reports that a note bearing the so-called prayer of absolution is placed in the hands
Observations · Mores · Humour
There is no more absorbing novel than notes on the history of the fatherland. The wife of Grishka Otrepyev, False Dmitry I, Marina Mnishek, became so convinced that the second resurrected Dmitry was her husband, though in appearance he was not in the least like the first, that she received
Books · Observations
When the English novelist Arnold Bennett (1867-1931) was asked to write an article on the twelve best novels in world literature, he replied that all twelve had been written by Russian authors, and six of them came from the pen of a single man, Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev: "Virgin
NB! · Art · London · Observations · Humour
How all men should look on 8 March. William Bruce Ellis Ranken (1881-1941), Covent Garden, 1930. Happy International Women's Day, to all the lovely, esteemed, priceless, dear girls and women 🌸
Faith · Monarchies · Observations · Mores
I continue to collect stories of incredibly stubborn Russians. Take, for example, our dear priest Foma, who in 1495 took part in the wedding of Ivan III's daughter Elena to the Lithuanian prince Alexander Casimirovich. Ivan III had been particularly insistent that Prince Alexander should not compel the
Art · Observations · Pop Culture · Humour
I can hardly believe anyone paid $12 million for this Churchill painting. Then again, one remembers Andy Warhol, and belief comes at once. Especially given its provenance: painted in January 1943 after a meeting with the US President Franklin Roosevelt in Casablanca, presented to Roosevelt that same year, acquired in
NB! · Faith · The East · Observations
The Pope in Iraq. Sometimes a photograph alone is enough
Books · Observations · Mores · People
In 1919 Marina Tsvetaeva wrote the poem "To You, a Hundred Years Hence", addressed to an admirer from the distant future. Piercing and lyrical at once, sad yet spirited. "Friend! Do not look for me! Another fashion! Not even the old folk remember me." In this
NB! · Moscow · Museums · Observations
Dropped in at the flea market at the Museum of Moscow on Zubovsky Boulevard. Spent only 1,000 roubles. But I have my eye on a few things