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

Observations · Society · Nature · Humour

In Kazakhstan, Przewalski's horse, described in 1879, will be called kerkulan and kertagy

Przewalski's Horse Renamed in Kazakhstan. Equus ferus przewalskii, made known to science and described by the Russian traveller and geographer Nikolai Przhevalsky in 1879, is henceforth to be called in Kazakhstan "Przewalski's horse – kerkulan, kertagy". I would suggest coming up with a name for

Books · Society

Russian digital book market reached 14.2 billion roubles in 2023, J’son & Partners estimates

A very serious study of the digital book market in Russia has been published by the leading analytical company J’son & Partners Consulting. This is the first independent assessment of the market, so on the whole it is a landmark event for the entire industry. The figures are very

Cinema · Society · Humour

It is held that from the 1980s onwards Italian cinema found itself in crisis; among the reasons cited is the proliferation of private television channels, which drew the viewer's attention away from the cinemas, and as a consequence…

In 2007, during the Cannes Festival, Quentin Tarantino, a great admirer of Italian cinema of the 1960s and 1970s, described the state of affairs in Italian film as tragic, because the work of recent years strikes him as samey, dreary and soul-destroying: "They are about either boys coming

NB! · Archive · Society · Paris

Victory Day in Paris, 8 May 1945

NB! · Architecture · Moscow · Observations · Society

The bridge to Balchug over the Vodootvodny Canal has still not opened, and almost a year has passed

NB! · Archive · The East · Society · People

Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev with chopsticks at table with Mao Zedong during the Soviet official visit to Beijing in 1959

Archive · Observations · Society

Veterans of the Union, the Northerners, and Veterans of the Confederacy, the Southerners, at the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg in 1913

Had the Battle of Gettysburg ended otherwise, we might today have had two separate states, the Northern States and the Confederacy. The Russian Empire, in the person of Alexander II, supported the Union and the legitimate President Lincoln from the very outset.

NB! · Society · Pop Culture · Humour

Barron Trump and Alexander the Great

Barron Trump and Alexander the Great. What? Yes

Archive · Society · People

Maria Limanskaya of Khaldei's “Brandenburg Madonna” photo turns 100 in Saratov Region

Maria Filippovna Limanskaya, made famous worldwide by Yevgeny Khaldei's photograph "The Brandenburg Madonna", turns 100 this year. The image of Maria Limanskaya has become one of the most recognisable symbols of Victory. In the war Maria Limanskaya was a traffic controller and travelled all the roads

Architecture · Moscow · Observations · Society

The choice of Shirshov and Mikoyan for signs on the House on the Embankment

Opposite the mostly infamous House on the Embankment stand two signs reading "The house where ... lived". One wonders by what principle, out of several dozen outstanding and quite well-known names, it was Academician Shirshov and Mikoyan who were chosen. After all, besides them the house was home