Monarchies · Science · Mores · Humour
In 1783, when the Montgolfier brothers launched the first hot-air balloon, France succumbed to collective madness. The question arose at once: might one put people in it? People were, at first, thought too great a risk, and a duck, a cockerel and a sheep were placed in the basket
Geography · Science · Society · People
Waldner's Aero-Train: The Soviet Train of the Future That Never Went Anywhere. 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
The East · Books · Observations · Science
My warmest thanks to the staff of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences for making freely available to all the books written by the institute's researchers throughout its existence up to 2023. In essence, this is a colossal library of the finest Russian-
NB! · Science · Society
Archaeology · Archive · Museums · Science
Researchers discover that the ancient Egyptians used an equivalent of correction fluid to fix mistakes on papyri. While preparing a papyrus some 3,300 years old for the exhibition "Made in Ancient Egypt" at the Fitzwilliam Museum in England, staff noticed that the painted figure of a jackal
Archive · Faith · Art · Science · Rome
Every few years, news of yet another newly discovered work by Michelangelo sweeps the world's press. Headlines shriek of sensation, specialists wince, time passes, and nobody remembers what all the fuss was about. William Wallace, the foremost living authority on the great Florentine, has calculated that since 2000
Archive · Geography · Maps · Science · Nature
Photographs taken by Maxim Dmitriev in the 1900s near the source of the Volga. The officially recognised source of the Volga is a marshy area on the Valdai Hills in the Tver Region, near the village of Volgoverkhovye. It is a small spring at an altitude of about 228 metres
NB! · Science · Education · Society · Humour
Observations · Science · Education · Society
The first precedents date from the end of 2025, when a member of staff at Yaroslavl Pedagogical University was fined 20,000 roubles for references to such educational organisations in a scholarly publication. At the beginning of 2026 a female employee of the Yaroslavl State Theatre Institute received a similar
Observations · Science · Society
Perhaps this is merely the opinion of a man wearied by endless examinations in philosophy. But one would like, at long last, to demolish the noxious machinery of the Hegelian interpretation of history. Or at the very least to separate all existing political ideologies from his concept of the Absolute
In the Press · Science · Society
February reminds us that the coldest time of year is always followed by renewal, and we recall the key publications of the last winter month. A of the most interesting posts of the past 28 days:. 📌 A living sea. Kazakhstan has solved the environmental problem of the North Aral 📌 “Ministerial
Archive · Observations · Science
If you wish to reflect on the development of the Russian Empire towards the end of its existence, imagine that by the 1900s Russia already had a submarine of its own and, in all likelihood, more than one. In the photograph, presumably of 1901, is Russia's first electrically