orthodoxicons:

The Ascension of Christ. Icon from Sinai monastery VI century

Вознесение Господне

(via weaveadream)

nocternity:

Tolstoy and his grandchildren.

(Source: mermaidsbones, via ofyourshadow)

(Source: tzarevitch, via ofyourshadow)

The gold reserve of the State Bank of Russia in St. Petersburg. 1905.

(via ofyourshadow)

Moscow circa 1985.
GUM and St. Basil’s Cathedral on Red Square. 

tzarevitch:

Grand Duchesses of Russia Olga and Anastasia reading on board of Imperial Yacht. 

(via ofyourshadow)

lauriejuspeczyk:

Ivan the Terrible and his Son Ivan, 1885

Ugh, I love this painting so much.

Just some background stuff, Ivan the Terrible was the Tsar of Russia for most of the 16th Century. In I think 1581, he caught his daughter-in-law wearing ‘immodest clothing in front of everyone’ and struck her. She was apparently pregnant and she may or may not have had a miscarriage because of it.

Ivan’s son and the girl’s husband, also named Ivan after his father, hears about it and gets into a really heated argument with his father that ends with Ivan the Terrible taking a swing at his son with his pointed staff. It’s said that he immediately fell down and kissed his son’s face, pressing his hands against his left temple to try to stop the bleeding. He famously screamed “May I be damned! I’ve killed my son! I’ve killed my son!” His son briefly regained consciousness and his last words were “I die as a devoted son and most humble servant.”

I love all the details. I love the pointed staff lying on the ground and the signs of a fight with the tossed over chair, disturbed carpet, and the door wide open. I love the single tear on Ivan’s face and their position on the floor. This is a really gorgeous but raw depiction of one of the darkest moments in an incredible man’s life. I wish there were more historical paintings like this.

(via womyneye)

(Source: jawnhawtson)

fuckyeahhistorycrushes:

This is Varlam Shalamov (1907-1982) journalist, poet, writer, and survivor of Stalin’s Soviet work-camps. Shalamov was sent to a work camp (twice) for his ‘counterrevolutionary’/Trotskyist ideas: mainly the distribution of letters written by Lenin warning against Stalin’s dictatorial attitude. He wrote his accounts of the conditions inside the work-camps entitled ‘The Kolyma Tales’. He was quite handsome too, of course, with his deep-set, light eyes.

“We realized that life, even the worst life, consists of an alternation of joys and sorrows, successes and failures, and there was no need to fear the failures more than the successes.”

(via greatsunrises)

fuckyouverymuch:

We are big fans of Pussy Riot.

(via fuckyeahfeminists)