NB! · Observations
Section
· 3942 stories
Observations
NB! · Observations · Humour
Don't even think of inviting me unless your party looks like this
Books · Observations · Society
A question to Putin about serfdom and the farming troubles of Konstantin Levin
A question to Putin about the return of serfdom reminded me of my beloved Konstantin Levin, who discovered that the feeding racks were broken and had not been mended since winter. And the threshing machine was broken too, for the muzhiks simply did not like the contraption. And the carpenter
Observations · Science · Education
Thomson's cathode ray tube experiment and the discovery of the electron in 1897
Thomson's tube is a glass vacuum vessel which the English scientist Joseph Thomson used in his experiment on the properties of cathode rays. In my day this was covered in the school physics course, and attention was usually drawn to the fact that the cathode-ray tubes of
Books · Observations · Society
A Karl Marx quotation on past traditions in works on Latin America and Petrarch
"The traditions of all the dead generations weigh like a nightmare on the brains of the living. And just when they seem engaged in revolutionising themselves and things, in creating something that has never yet existed, precisely in such epochs of revolutionary crisis they anxiously conjure up the spirits
Moscow · Museums · Observations · Society
Model of the White Sea Canal in the GULAG Museum and estimates of construction deaths
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
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,
Art · Observations · People
The Goddess Flora by Bartolomeo Veneto and the Debate over Lucrezia Borgia
An anemone, daisies and a buttercup: a charming little posy from the goddess Flora. For a long time it was held that in this painting the artist Bartolomeo Veneto had deified the notorious Lucrezia Borgia, daughter of Pope Alexander VI, though many scholars dispute the view. Whoever she may be,
Aristocracy · Archive · Observations · Mores · People
Pushkin's Closed Funeral Service and Invitations Sold for One Hundred Silver Roubles
Owing to the great unrest, Pushkin's funeral service was held behind closed doors: besides relatives and friends, only select representatives of the nobility and prominent public figures were invited. Entry to the cathedral was by invitation card, and these, as Skalon recalls, very soon turned up on the
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…
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.
Art · Observations · Humour
Marcantonio Raimondi, 1510
Marcantonio Raimondi, 1510. The Judgement of Paris, detail. Édouard Manet, 1863. Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe. Raimondi was known as Raphael's official engraver, and here he reproduces a lost work of the master. In due course the arrangement of the figures in this mise-en-scène would
Archive · Books · Monarchies · Observations · Mores · Humour
Napoleon's letters to Josephine written on campaign and the impression of their emotional tone
"Ah, you naughty girl! How could you write such a letter! How cold it is! My soul is sad! My heart melts, and my imagination simply frightens me. You love me less strongly. A day will come when you will cease to love me altogether." I have been