Museums · Society · Paris
The Centre Pompidou gives up one of its two exhibition spaces at the Grand Palais owing to financial difficulties faced by both institutions. While the main building of the Centre Pompidou is closed for renovation, the museum has been using two venues at the Grand Palais; it has now been
Cinema · Observations · Society · Humour
In a Netflix documentary on the Second World War, the Greek resistance to Italy is called "weak", although in fact Greece drove the Italians back into Albania, liberating Northern Epirus. Yes, the worst army of the Second World War attacked the second-worst army and suffered such a
Geography · Observations · Society
And so we find that hostility towards Greece flourishes not only in Turkey but in Albania too. What is more, the anti-Greek discourse in these countries reaches the point of absurdity: one hears time and again the claim, for instance, that Greece never existed at all and was invented
Books · Observations · Society · Pop Culture
I wanted to write about this rather pointless exhibition in Hollywood titled Barbi to Anna Karenina, arguing that Barbie and Anna Karenina could only ever have met in Hollywood. But then I thought: it is only at first glance that Barbie and Anna Karenina have nothing in common. Anna Karenina
Observations · Society · Humour
We have seen flats seized, corporations swallowed and oilfields taken, foreign territories annexed and even presidents abducted, but to my mind the handing of the Nobel Peace Prize to Trump is the most flagrant raider takeover in history. Common sense loses to the new reality by two goals to nil
Observations · Society
A Nobel Laureate Cannot Officially Transfer the Medal or the Status of Laureate to Another Person. Precisely so: under the official rules of the Nobel Prize and the practice of the Nobel Foundation, a laureate has no right to transfer his or her Nobel medal, or the Prize itself, to
Geography · Maps · Observations · Society
In fact, Greenland, which on the map looks commensurate with America, has an area 12 times smaller than that of North America and almost 5 times smaller than that of the United States. The habitable parts of Greenland are the narrow coastal strips free of ice, which make up about
Faith · Society
The world is always governed by the Word of God; neither the Americans nor the Europeans govern it. They may dominate for a short while, God permits it so that they may punish themselves. Saint Paisios of Mount Athos Amen
Architecture · Moscow · Society
A pedestrian bridge is apparently to be built on Bolotnaya Embankment this year. The project has been talked about for a long time, and now it is acquiring some clarity. The bridge will pass beneath the Maly Kamenny Bridge and join the sections of Bolotnaya Embankment divided by Serafimovich Street,
Faith · The East · Society · People
The statement says that Patriarch Bartholomew, guilty of the "dismemberment of Orthodox Ukraine", has now turned his attention to Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia and is acting jointly with British intelligence services to create religious structures under Constantinople's control. Russian intelligence also claims that the Patriarch'
The East · Society
But the very first fruit of Soviet-Iranian rapprochement was the Gilan Soviet Socialist Republic, founded in 1920. The Bolsheviks backed a nationalist movement, and the GSSR was proclaimed in the country, lasting only a year. During the Second World War the USSR and Great Britain occupied Iran to prevent
Archive · Geography · Society · Pop Culture
Moreover, for foreigners in the USSR the ban on photographing military, scientific, industrial, railway, power and transport installations applied equally to sketching them