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Gorky Was Forty Years Younger than Tolstoy
At Yasnaya Polyana the writers were photographed by Sofya Andreyevna in October 1900
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NB! · Cinema · Observations · People
I remember Alexei Batalov not as Gosha from "Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears", but as the tightrope walker Tibul from "The Three Fat Men"
Archaeology · Books · Science · People
Skeleton discovered during repair of damaged floor in the Church of Saints Peter and Paul in Maastricht is believed to be that of d'Artagnan, the real-life officer who inspired Dumas's hero
Beside the skeleton were found a French coin of the late seventeenth century and fragments of a musket ball. DNA has been extracted from the skeleton's teeth and sent for analysis to a laboratory in Munich; the results will be compared with the DNA of known descendants of
Books · People
I have forgotten the weather of childhood, The warm wind, the soft snow
I have forgotten the weather of childhood, The warm wind, the soft snow. On this earth, I suppose, there is no means To give me back my childhood. And so little remains In my poor memory: Cornflower roads In the red sun of childhood days, The smell of the sorrel
Art · Paris · People
One of Monet's paintings from the "Haystacks" series
The first paintings of the series were begun in late September or early October 1890, and Monet went on working on them for about seven months. They made Monet the first painter to produce so many images of one and the same subject, differing in light, weather, atmosphere and perspective.
The East · Interviews · Books · Museums · Heritage · People · Saint Petersburg
My long interview with Mikhail Piotrovsky has been published, timed to the release of his new book "I Am an Arabist" but focused mainly on the modern museum and the cultural environment around it
I met Mikhail Borisovich Piotrovsky after the presentation of his book at the Peredelkino House of Creativity. After several hours with the public, an autograph session and filming, the legendary Piotrovsky nonetheless received me with energy and good humour. I tried not to ask the questions that every journalist has
Observations · Science · People
I don't know about you, but for me Nikolai Ivanovich Vavilov is one of the greatest men of all time
Let us simply remember him with a kind word
Archive · Art · Museums · People
Claude Monet's promissory note of 18 October 1875
Claude Monet's promissory note of 18 October 1875. In the document the artist acknowledges receipt of a loan of 1,000 francs from Gustave Manet, brother of the painter Édouard Manet. To obtain the loan, Monet had to pledge 35 paintings. The artist promises to repay the debt
Archive · Books · Moscow · Mores · People
Tyutcheva is beginning to please me quietly...
Tyutcheva is beginning to please me quietly... Little by little, but she has taken hold of me seriously and wholly So Leo Tolstoy recalls Ekaterina Tyutcheva in his diary. In my alternative historical imagination I sometimes wonder what would have happened had Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy in fact married Ekaterina Tyutcheva,
NB! · Archive · Art · Monarchies · People
Salvador Dalí and Velázquez's portrait of Philip IV at prayer in the Royal Monastery of San Lorenzo de El Escorial in 1964
Archive · Monarchies · Society · People
Decree of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna of 14 December 1742 on the withdrawal from circulation of coins bearing the image of the deposed Ivan Antonovich: part of the systematic obliteration of the memory of the overthrown infant emperor, whom Elizabeth remov
Whereas by the most gracious decree of Her Imperial Majesty, published among the people on 31 December of the past year 1741, it was ordered that coins bearing the portrait of Prince Ivan, in whosoever's hands they may be, be brought for exchange to the mints until the
Coming Up · Archive · Museums · People · Saint Petersburg
Portrait of Leo Tolstoy, taken by Sofya Andreyevna at Yasnaya Polyana on 28 August 1908, his eightieth birthday
A photograph from the exhibition "Sofya Andreyevna Tolstaya, Photographer. The Countess Takes Pictures with a Kodak", which runs until 12 April at the State Museum and Exhibition Centre ROSPHOTO in Saint Petersburg, at 35 Bolshaya Morskaya Street