Archive · The East · Cinema · People
Parajanov met Mgoyan in Tbilisi. The young man had no connection with cinema whatever, but the director saw in him the hero of Lermontov's oriental tale, all the more so as he expected no psychological game, wanting instead to see plastic expressiveness and the ability to be a
Faith · People
Saint Seraphim of Sarov. No external circumstances, neither war, nor persecution, nor closed churches, can take from the believer what matters most. Easter was celebrated in the camps and in the catacombs, and the closure of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre by the Pharisees will not stand in the
NB! · Books · Observations · People
"Why do you think, Rozanov, that you have understood more of Egypt than all the Egyptologists?" "Because I am astonished. And they, you see, are never astonished by anything."
Geography · Science · Society · People
Sevastyan Waldner received a musical education and played the violin, but he entered history as the inventor of a monorail train that was half a century ahead of its time. In 1931 he began work on the aero-train: two streamlined gondolas on a triangular truss, 300 passengers, a projected
Books · People
I have forgotten the word I meant to say. The blind swallow will return to the palace of shadows On clipped wings, to play with the transparent ones. In oblivion the night song is sung. And on the lips, like black ice, there burns And torments the memory. The word
NB! · Books · People · Humour
Shklovsky probably invented the claim that Tsvetaeva said Pasternak looked at once like an Arab and like his horse. But who are we to judge the maestro?
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 · Moscow · Mores · People
Nikolay Alexeyevich Nekrasov Nekrasov wrote these lines when he was quite young, at 33, while living at a dacha in Petrovsky Park near Moscow together with Botkin. Shortly before his death the poet would recall this verse and, dictating to his sister, would say: It was Fate's pleasure
NB! · Archive · Mores · People
Archive · Geography · People
Photograph by Yevgeny Khaldei
Aristocracy · Art · People
The Milanese ruler of the Torriani family had brought several Lombard cities under his sway from 1265, but in January 1277 he was defeated in battle by the hostile forces of the Visconti. Napoleone and his relatives were taken prisoner by Archbishop Ottone Visconti. Confined in an iron cage hung
Art · Society · People
An interesting episode from the early history of copyright is connected with these frescoes of the Montauto Chapel, or Chapel of San Girolamo, painted in the 1560s by the young artist Alessandro Allori. Having completed the decoration, Allori confessed that he had borrowed the images for it from Michelangelo, who