Architecture · Moscow · Heritage · Society

1954 station building at Leninskaya platform in Domodedovo put up for sale on Avito

Apparently, the platform from which Lenin's funeral train departed in 1924 is being sold for half a billion roubles. A railway station has been put up for sale on Avito. Leninskaya (Gerasimovo) platform on the Paveletsky line of the Moscow Railway, in the Domodedovo urban district of Moscow

Books · Society · People

I do not call for the replacement of the state by a library – though the thought has visited me more than once — but I have no doubt that, were we to choose our rulers on the basis of their reading experience rather than their political programmes, there

I do not call for the replacement of the state by a library – though the thought has visited me more than once — but I have no doubt that, were we to choose our rulers on the basis of their reading experience rather than their political programmes, there would be less

Books · Society

"The whole course of events in the February-March revolution shows clearly that the British and French embassies, with their agents and 'connections', who had long been making the most desperate efforts to prevent 'separate' agreements and a separate peac

Vladimir Ilyich Lenin on the role of the British and the French in the revolutionary events in the Russian Empire. V. Lenin. Complete Works. Volume XXXI

Archive · Heritage · Society

German mining of Pushkin's grave and the clearing of mines from the Pushkin Reserve

A wooden plaque with a warning inscription: "The grave of A.S. Pushkin is mined. Entry forbidden. Senior Lieutenant Starcheus." The Germans occupied the Pushkin Reserve for three years, from 12 July 1941 to 12 July 1944. The fascists were driven out of Pushkinskiye Gory by units of

Art · Mores · Society

Presidential portraits in the Oval Office and Trump's choice of Andrew Jackson

There is a tradition in the USA of presidents staging a demonstrative dialogue with their predecessors by invoking their historical images or the trends characteristic of their era. Every new president rearranges the Oval Office and adds a few details, down to changing the colour of the carpet, but chiefly,

Architecture · The East · Geography · Society

The Aswan Dam on the Nile, built in Egypt by the USSR, is itself a monument to Egyptian-Soviet friendship, yet once the hydroelectric complex was finished a separate monument was also erected to commemorate the warm relations between the two countries

Attempts to dam the Nile had been made for a long time, but the efforts of the early twentieth century came to nothing. The truly epoch-making undertaking was the Soviet construction in Egypt. The colossal dam raised by builders from the USSR was dubbed a modern pyramid, though in

NB! · Archive · The East · Art · Society

Poster Celebrating Egyptian-Soviet Friendship, Commemorating the Construction of the Aswan Dam

The East · Art · Books · Society

Nizami describes Alexander the Great's visit to a land without rulers or gold

If any of us is in want, great or small, and we know of it, we share all we have with him. We hold it a law that no one should ever be acquainted with loss. In our possessions we are equal to one another. Riches have been dealt out

NB! · London · Observations · Society · Humour

The Royal Arms Vanish from the British Prime Minister's Lectern

The royal arms have vanished from the lectern of the British Prime Minister. What might this mean?

Science · Society

Russian Academy of Sciences to create board of trustees and invite Putin to chair it

The general meeting of the Russian Academy of Sciences has resolved to establish a Board of Trustees of the RAS. The academicians will send Vladimir Putin an invitation to head it. Academician Nikolay Makarov remarks that the academy has never before had a board of trustees, but that it should

Archaeology · Heritage · New York · Society

Fifth return of stolen Gandhara antiquities to Pakistan from the United States

Associated Press reports that this week, at a ceremony in the Manhattan District Attorney's office in New York, US authorities returned to Pakistan 133 stolen works of art with an estimated value of more than 13 million dollars. This is already the fifth handover of stolen antiquities of

Books · Mores · Society

At least Khlestakov, for all his lying, still feared a little, in the midst of it, that they might take him by the scruff and throw him out

At least Khlestakov, for all his lying, still feared a little, in the midst of it, that they might take him by the scruff and throw him out. The Khlestakovs of today have no such fear and lie in perfect tranquillity. Everyone is calm, everyone is immeasurably vain, and one