Archive · The East · Books · Observations · People

The Case of the Noulens Couple in China and the Fate of Spy Tatyana Moiseenko-Velikaya

The book about the intelligence officer Ruth Werner contains an episode on the exposure of Comintern agents in China. In 1931 the exposures of the Far Eastern Bureau of the Comintern began. Arrested were the "director of internal communications" of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of

In a painted portrait, two men in white garments, turbans, pearl necklaces and earrings sit before a standing figure in red.

NB! · The East · Art · Monarchies · Observations

Madhav Rao II and Minister Nana Farnavis in a portrait with 18th-century jewellery

Madhav Rao II, head of the Hindu Maratha state, who would take his own life at twenty-one, and his moustachioed minister Nana Phadnavis, who stood against the English. Good jewellery for the eighteenth century, especially the earrings

NB! · Faith · Art · Observations · Humour

Whatever Catholics choose to call the banner with the Madonna, oriflamme or gonfalon, I merely wanted to show what a splendid contraption the youth has between his legs: for redistributing the weight of the heavy staff, so to speak

NB! · Faith · Observations

Banners are found among the Orthodox and the Eastern Catholics

Banners are found among the Orthodox and the Eastern Catholics. In the Papal States there was a special office for the bearer of the standard with the arms of the Holy See and of the Pope: the gonfalonier, who among the Italians also carried the standard at the head of

NB! · Observations

Happy Holiday!

NB! · London · Monarchies · Observations · Humour

The lavatory at Kensington Palace, as I understand it, is for heirs to the crown only

NB! · Observations · Humour

The Last Supper, as I Would Have Painted It

NB! · Architecture · Observations

The clock on the bell tower of the Nativity Cathedral in Suzdal, for instance

Framed table “Slavonic Numerals” on a church wall showing letters with a titlo for units, tens and hundreds.

NB! · Faith · Observations · Education

Slavonic Alphabetic Numerals in Russia before the 18th Century

Stepped into church, and was invited to recall Slavonic numeration. Until the eighteenth century, numbers in Russia were written with letters bearing a small stroke, the "titlo", above them, and on a scheme similar to that of Roman notation

Archive · The East · Museums · Observations · Heritage

The fate of Khan Kenesary Kasymov's head between the Kunstkamera, Omsk and Gokhran

Returning to the skull of Sultan Kenesary Kasymov himself, the story of its wanderings through the back rooms of Russian museums has long interested many researchers. The popular opinion is that the head is kept in the Kunstkamera or in the Hermitage itself. It is said that an ashtray was

Museums · Observations · Heritage · Society · People

A historian on Kholmogorov linking Kenesary Khan's head to Kazakhstan's Latin script

Kholmogorov absurdly links the handover of Khan Kenesary's head to Kazakhstan with the Kazakh script's switch to the Latin alphabet. The head, he says, has not been handed over yet, so one may "answer" the Kazakhs' farewell to Cyrillic with a moratorium on

NB! · Observations · Humour

The Person We ❤️ Most

The person we ❤️ most. As though my grandmother had written it