Faith · Cinema · Society · People · Rome

Today the Rome Film Festival premiered "Francesco", a documentary about Pope Francis I

Today the Rome Film Festival premiered "Francesco", a documentary about Pope Francis I. And in this film words of papal support for same-sex unions were heard. "Homosexuals are children of God and have a right to a family. We must create a civil union law [for

Archive · Books · Museums · Society · People · Saint Petersburg

Pasted-over pages in books at the Akhmatova Museum and her poems about Stalin

In the Akhmatova Museum at the Fountain House there are poetry collections with pages pasted shut. It is reported that Akhmatova herself pasted these pages shut. What is on them? Akhmatova's poems about Stalin. It is believed that Anna Andreyevna was compelled to write them in order to

Architecture · Heritage · Society

Two rather stale but dispiriting items of news: open letters from professional communities in defence of the restoration sector

The first is addressed to the Minister of Culture, Olga Lyubimova, and to the presidential adviser on culture, Vladimir Tolstoy. In it, specialists in the preservation of cultural heritage report (though this is common knowledge anyway) the catastrophic, critical state of the sector, which they describe as "in essence

NB! · Faith · Books · Society · People

The life of this hero of the 17th and 18th centuries can be read about in Marcus Rediker's book "The Fearless Benjamin Lay: The Quaker Dwarf Who Became the First Revolutionary Abolitionist"

Faith · Mores · Society · People

The most remarkable part of Benjamin Lay's biography is his literal adherence to his theoretical ideals: first he left Barbados, where he could not reconcile himself to the condition of the slaves, then he resolved to renounce the fruits of slavery's expl

The most remarkable part of Benjamin Lay's biography is his literal adherence to his theoretical ideals: first he left Barbados, where he could not reconcile himself to the condition of the slaves, then he resolved to renounce the fruits of slavery's exploitation, ceasing entirely to acquire

Faith · Society · People

The Quakers have a hero named Benjamin Lay (1677 - 1759): an Englishman who ended up in Barbados, where he saw his fill of the horrors of slavery and, because of his categorical rejection of the order prevailing on the island, was obliged to move to Penns

If you have ever been a guest in a Quaker house or in some memorial apartment, you will surely have seen the image of this man, extraordinarily widely reproduced and easily remembered: a bandy-legged fellow under 120 centimetres tall, hunchbacked, with arms longer than his legs. Such was Benjamin

Books · Observations · Society · People

Tatyana Savina on Griboyedov, Secret Societies and “Woe from Wit”

Some very interesting reflections on Griboyedov and secret societies: was he a Decembrist, and what can be said of his attitude to the clash between old and new, as reflected in "Woe from Wit"? They come from a series of talks by Tatyana Savina on Alexander Sergeyevich Griboyedov,

Archive · In the Press · Books · Observations · Society

There are quite a few oddities in issue No. 9 of 1830 of Delvig's "Literary Gazette"

There are quite a few oddities in issue No. 9 of 1830 of Delvig's "Literary Gazette". Take, for example, the rhyme in Pushkin's epistle to Yazykov of 1824: "Since time immemorial a sweet bond Unites poets with one another: They are priests of

The East · Museums · Observations · Heritage · Society

The Rijksmuseum and the Museum of World Cultures of the Netherlands Intend to Part with Exhibits Acquired During Colonial Conquests: at the Prompting of the Council for Culture, the Museums Have Declared Their Readiness to Return Illegally Exported Works

The Rijksmuseum and the Museum of World Cultures of the Netherlands intend to part with exhibits acquired during colonial conquests: at the prompting of the Council for Culture, the museums have declared their readiness to return to their homelands works of art, jewels and antiquities that were illegally removed. To

Books · Observations · Society

Virginia Woolf and her work “A Room of One's Own”

Perhaps the history of men's struggle against women's emancipation is more interesting than the story of emancipation itself. Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own

Faith · Observations · Society · Nature

Pope Francis I, addressing TED, urges us to heed what scientists say about climate change and the need to act now to mitigate it

Pope Francis I, addressing TED, urges us to heed what scientists say about climate change and the need to act now to mitigate it. And, as is his custom, he appeals to our hearts, which fail to notice the suffering of the poorest and least protected amid growing inequality and

Art · New York · Society · People

In the 1930s a scandal broke out in the USA over the depiction of sailors in Paul Cadmus's painting The Fleet's In, which became the subject of official proceedings after Rear Admiral Hugh Rodman found the canvas, with its drunken and carousing sailors…

In the 1930s a scandal broke out in the USA over the depiction of sailors in Paul Cadmus's painting The Fleet's In. It became the subject of official proceedings after the retired Admiral Hugh Rodman found the canvas, with its drunken and carousing sailors, insulting to