In 1920 Alexandra Tolstaya, daughter of Leo Tolstoy, was arrested on a charge of involvement in a counter-revolutionary organisation and sentenced to three years' confinement in a concentration camp at the Novospassky Monastery in Moscow

She wrote: “My father, whose views I share, openly denounced the tsarist government and yet remained free even then. <...> I do not conceal that I am not a supporter of Bolshevism; I stated my view openly and plainly at the trial, but I have never spoken out, and never shall speak out, against the Soviet government, have never engaged in politics and have belonged to no party. <...> Vladimir Ilyich! If I am harmful to Russia, send me abroad. If I am harmful there too, then, since you recognise the right of one man to take the life of another, shoot me as a harmful member of the Soviet republic. But do not force me to drag out the existence of a parasite, locked within four walls with prostitutes, thieves and bandits…”

In 1921 Tolstaya was released under an amnesty and continued her work on her father's legacy; in 1931 she left for the United States.

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At the close of the Strugatskys' "Roadside Picnic" the Golden Sphere is asked for this: "Happiness for everybody, free, and let nobody go away unsatisfied!" I do not promise to leave no one aggrieved, but the digest really does come free

At the close of the Strugatskys' "Roadside Picnic" the Golden Sphere is asked for this: "Happiness for everybody, free, and let nobody go away unsatisfied!" I do not promise to leave no one aggrieved, but the digest really does come free. So, here is the

Frederic Leighton

Frederic Leighton. “Daedalus and Icarus”, 1869 Daedalus warns his son not to climb too high: the heat of the sun may melt the wax, but Icarus is already gazing into the distance, and the lamentations of a foolish old man interest him not in the least

In 1920 Alexandra Tolstaya, daughter of Leo Tolstoy, was arrested on a charge of involvement in a counter-revolutionary organisation and sentenced to three years' confinement in a concentration camp at the Novospassky Monastery in Moscow

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At the close of the Strugatskys' "Roadside Picnic" the Golden Sphere is asked for this: "Happiness for everybody, free, and let nobody go away unsatisfied!" I do not promise to leave no one aggrieved, but the digest really does come free

Frederic Leighton

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Characters from Gogol's "Petersburg Tales" on the pedestal of the monument to Nikolai Gogol on Nikitsky Boulevard, photograph of the 1960s