Aristocracy · Archive · Books · Paris · People

First edition of Felix Yusupov's autobiography inscribed "For Jean Cocteau. From Felix Yusupov" found in the Library of the History of Paris

A first edition of Felix Yusupov's autobiography, inscribed "For Jean Cocteau. From Felix Yusupov", has been found in the Library of the History of Paris. Sent in by a reader

NB! · Society · People

The story of Hero of the Soviet Union Dmitry Ovcharenko (1919-1945), who single-handedly took on 50 German soldiers and officers and, with the help of grenades and an axe, killed 21 soldiers and 2 officers: some he simply beheaded

Cinema · Observations · Paris · People · Saint Petersburg

The actor Sergei Dreiden (Dontsov) has died today. I remember him from two roles: in Kirill Serebrennikov's recent "Petrov's Flu" and in Yury Mamin's good old "Window to Paris"

Though not, in my view, the best known of films, "Window to Paris" is one of the important, truly Russian pictures. Very delicate and funny, tragic, absurd and bitterly truthful. A prim old lady hides a magical secret in her room in a grimy, noisy communal flat: on

NB! · Observations · Science · People

Einstein Was a Genius After All

NB! · Archive · London · Monarchies · People

George V at his coronation in 1911

NB! · Art · Monarchies · People · Humour

Napoleon, speeding across the snowy plains of Poland, wears the face of a man who has just had a terrible row with his parents but must still ride home with them in the same sleigh from the Casa Bonita restaurant

Books · Moscow · Museums · Observations · People

Vitaly Vulf Library with a memorial study in Banny Lane, Moscow

Since 2011, the Vitaly Wolf Library has been housed at 4, Bannyi Lane, building 2, in Moscow. The library also serves as a cultural centre, with an assembly hall where concerts and cultural events of various kinds are held. There is also a memorial study of Vitaly Yakovlevich, with his

NB! · Books · Society · People

Maria Hartung, eldest daughter of Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin, died of hunger at the age of 86 on 7 March 1919, never having received the pension granted to her shortly before in view of her extremely wretched circumstances and want

Monarchies · Observations · Mores · Society · People

African origin of King Offa is inferred from a coin with an Arabic inscription

Offa (757-796), a Black King of Anglo-Saxon England? This time it is the dynasty of the first kings of the Angles that has been subjected to blackwashing. In particular, the most powerful ruler of Scandinavia and northern Germany, the son of Wermund and grandson of Wihtlæg, a descendant

Archive · Monarchies · People

Kutuzov's final days, reconciliation with Alexander I and the funeral procession

On 28 April 1813 Mikhail Kutuzov died of a cold in Bunzlau, aged 68. It is held that before his death the great Kutuzov was at last reconciled with his perpetual adversary, Tsar Alexander I. The constant quarrels between Alexander I and Kutuzov had begun as long ago as 1805,

NB! · Art · People

One of the greatest German still-life masters, Sebastian Stoskopff (1597-1657), specialised in depicting glass goblets and beakers

NB! · Museums · Society · People

The Chaika in which Boris Yeltsin, First Secretary of the Sverdlovsk Regional Committee of the CPSU, was driven

The Chaika in which Boris Yeltsin, First Secretary of the Sverdlovsk Regional Committee of the CPSU, was driven. Yekaterinburg, Yeltsin Center