Books · People

Apollon Maykov on happiness and duty in his 1889 poem “V chem schastye”

What is happiness?.. On life's path To go wherever your duty bids, To know no enemies, to measure no obstacles, To love, to hope and to believe. Literal translation Apollon Maykov, "What Is Happiness", 1889

Art · People

Stalin Reads a Newspaper

Georgy Rublev, 1935

NB! · The East · Monarchies · Moscow · Mores · People

Empress Masako of Japan has visited the Moscow kindergarten she attended as a child, having lived in the city from the age of two because her father, Hisashi Owada, was a diplomat posted to the Soviet Union

Art · Mores · People

The Execution of Beatrice Cenci and the Portrait Now Attributed to Ginevra Cantofoli

Portrait of Beatrice Cenci, a Roman beauty of the very end of the sixteenth century, executed on a charge of murdering her own father. The tragedy in one of the wealthiest families of Italy shocked contemporaries: a daughter, a wife and a son conspire to kill the head of a

Archive · Faith · People · Rome

The Execution of Giordano Bruno at Campo de' Fiori in 1600 in Contemporary Accounts

Before being burned, Giordano Bruno said to his judges: “You pronounce this sentence upon me with greater fear than I receive it”. These words were recorded by Count Ventimiglia, a pupil of Bruno who was present at the burning. Count Ventimiglia reports that before his death Bruno urged him to

Faith · Observations · Society · People

Pope Francis's address to the World Economic Forum makes no mention of God

I have read the address of Pope Francis I to the participants of the 2024 World Economic Forum meeting in Davos. What does Francis mention? International instability, praise for the World Economic Forum, innovative and effective ways of building a better world, the need for social cohesion, an ever more

NB! · Cinema · People · Pop Culture

Alexander Anatolyevich Shirvindt

Alexander Anatolyevich Shirvindt. We remember 💔

NB! · Monarchies · People · Humour

George VI in a Kimono

Aristocracy · Archive · Mores · People · Rome

The duels of Benito Mussolini, including the fights with Chiccotti and Count Calvi

Benito Mussolini Fencing with Swords, Rome, 23 November 1936. In all likelihood, the photograph captures a jocular, exhibition duel, attended by a great many spectators, journalists and even cameras. But Mussolini really was a duellist: at least five of his duels are known, beginning in 1915. It is generally held,

Black-and-white photo of a young woman in a tiara with long dark hair, earrings and rings, resting her hands on a stone bust of an Egyptian pharaoh.

Cinema · People · Pop Culture

Loren, aged 19, played Cleopatra in the 1953 film “Two Nights with Cleopatra”

Sophia Loren as Cleopatra. Yes, Loren did play Cleopatra, in the witty and naive 1953 film Two Nights with Cleopatra. In the photographs the actress is 19

Monarchies · Society · People

Assassination of King George I of Greece in 1913 and the instability that followed

On 18 March 1913 King George I of Greece, who had ruled the country for 50 years, was shot dead. He was killed at the height of the military confrontation with Turkey, from which Greece had, over the years of George's reign, succeeded in winning back substantial territories.

NB! · Monarchies · Moscow · People