History
It’s remarkable to me how many of these themes continue to affect Russia, 150 years later. from De Rebus Antiquis Et Novis: Since 1827, The Third Section of His Imperial Majesty’s Own Chancellery produced special reports for the tsar, describing the moral and political situation in the Russian society. Four years ago, a large share [...]
Continue reading about 150 years ago — Report of Russian secret police
This is from EnglishRussia, a great website. I am touched by these pictures, which are a mixing of historic and contemporary photos. A companion post is here. Vienna. 1945/2010. Soviet soldiers at the Imperial Palace Hofburg: Moscow is getting ready for defense. 1941/2009. Gorky and Tverskaya Streets: Berlin 1945/2010. A disabled tank “Tiger” in Tiergarten [...]
Here are some haunting and beautiful pictures of old estate houses in Russia. Many are far in the country where very few people now go. What treasures they are –
In the spring of 1947, ann American journalist from Life magazine visited Stalingrad (now Volgagrad). The city was the location of one of the greatest and most destructive battles in WWII. You’ll see pictures of the city four years after that battle, including several of German prisoners of war.
Here’s a good explanation about Russian Christmas and why it is celebrated on January 7 – Russian Christmas Thirteen days after Western Christmas, on January 7th, the Russian Orthodox Church celebrates its Christmas, in accordance with the old Julian calendar. It’s a day of both solemn ritual and joyous celebration After the 1917 Revolution, Christmas [...]
Here are some great pictures of Russia before the Revolution –
Over 100 years ago, Burton Holmes (1870-1958) traveled to Russia. Holmes was an American traveler, photographer and filmmaker, who coined the term “travelogue”. Travel stories, slide shows and motion pictures were all in existence before Holmes began making his travel films, but he was the first person to put these elements together into documentary travel [...]
I recently ran across a book published in 1912 entitled ‘Undiscovered Russia’, by Stephen Graham, an English traveler. The quotes by Merezhkovsky are particularly noteworthy. It’s very interesting to read in light of the tidal wave of revolution that was to break upon Russia just after this was written – PREFACE Russian life is not [...]
Here is a series of videos with Christopher Hitchens and Robert Service discussing Trotsky, whose actions 100 years ago continue to affect millions (if not billions) of people around the world. I hesitate to put Hitchens on our site, yet there is value in hearing other points of view. I’ve read quite a few of [...]
