Your Ads Privacy ChoicesIMDb evacuation has been announced for two more settlements in the Belgorod region of Russia according to the Belgorod region Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov during a meeting of the Operational Headquarters on Tuesday it was decided to close the entrances to the villages of Petrovka and Solovyovka as well as to begin the resettlement of residents and provide them with new housing Gladkov added that residents of Petrovka have complained about regular shelling Russian military forces continuously shelled Kharkiv with missiles and guided bombs from the territory of the region Some bombs and missiles fail to reach Ukrainian territory and instead land within Russia. As a result, settlements in the Russian region regularly experience shelling and destruction. several military raids by the Russian Volunteer Corps which fights against the regime of President Vladimir Putin have been recorded in the border area of Belgorod in both the past and current years In September, a freight train derailed on the Stary Oskol - Valuiki railway line in Belgorod due to a mine explosion The operation was conducted by Ukraine's Defense Intelligence and the Special Operations Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine The Russian army has also mined all the dams in Belgorod to carry out terrorist acts and diversions The rationalist in me knows that coincidences are inevitable But I can’t deny there is something strange and magical in them some of which had a distinctly supernatural feel and record dreams if they are especially vivid or strange but I logged one in which my mother’s oldest friend made an appearance to tell me that she (Rose) had just died it occurred to me that I didn’t know whether Rose was still alive She’d had a major stroke about 10 years ago and had gone on to suffer a series of minor strokes descending into a sorry state of physical incapacity and dementia I mentioned the dream to my partner over breakfast We were staying in the Midlands at the time in the house where I’d spent my later childhood years drifting inexorably through the advanced stages of Alzheimer’s We’d just sold the property we’d been living in and there would be a few weeks’ delay in getting access to our future home so the old house was a convenient place to stay in the meantime I gave no further thought to my strange dream until we returned from the supermarket to find that a note had been pushed through the letterbox I handed the note to my partner and reminded her of my dream I can’t recall the last time Rose had entered my thoughts turning up in a dream with news of her own death and her disembodied spirit felt the need to tell me and found its way into my dream Perhaps she had first tried to contact Doreen but for one reason or another – the impenetrable wreckage of a damaged brain Here’s another interpretation: the whole chain of events occurred by sheer coincidence a chance concatenation of happenings with no deeper significance There’s nothing at all supernatural about it triggers magical thoughts that are equally deep-rooted which he defined as “a lawful recurrence of the same or similar things or events … in time and space” The biography of the actor Anthony Hopkins contains a striking example of a serendipitous coincidence When he first heard he’d been cast to play a part in the film The Girl from Petrovka (1974) Hopkins went in search of a copy of the book on which it was based He combed the bookshops of London in vain and he spotted a copy of The Girl from Petrovka lying on a bench at Leicester Square station He recounted the story to Feifer when they met on location and it transpired that the book Hopkins had stumbled upon was the very one that the author had mislaid in another part of London – an advance copy full of red-ink amendments and marginal notes he’d made in preparation for a US edition View image in fullscreenThe vision thing … a solar eclipse Photograph: Chiwi Giambirtone/ReutersHollywood provides another choice example of seriality L Frank Baum was a prolific children’s author best-known for The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900) He didn’t live to see his novel turned into the iconic musical fantasy film yet he reputedly had a remarkable coincidental connection with the movie The actor Frank Morgan played five roles in The Wizard of Oz (1939) He makes his first appearance in the sepia-toned opening sequences as Professor Marvel the coat he was wearing was considered too pristine for an itinerant magician So the wardrobe department was sent on a thrift-shop mission to find something more suitable and returned with a whole closetful of possibilities a Prince Albert frock coat with a worn velvet collar Only later was it apparently discovered that sewn into the jacket was a label bearing the inscription: “Made by Hermann Bros Baum had died 20 years before the film was released but the coat’s provenance was allegedly authenticated by his widow who accepted it as a gift when the film was completed Some coincidences seem to contain an element of humour as if engineered by a capricious spirit purely for its own amusement Not long after first moving to Bath in 2016 misjudged the height of the kerb on the other side Soon after moving back to Bath on a more permanent basis I noticed a stylish mahogany chair in the window of a charity shop on London Road I thought I’d have no trouble lugging the chair back to my flat half a mile away but it turned out to be heavier than I expected and awkward to carry As I was crossing the road where I’d had my fall crashed to the ground and splintered its right arm While some coincidences seem playful, others feel inherently macabre. In 2007, the Guardian journalist John Harris set out on “an intermittent rock-grave odyssey” visiting the last resting places of revered UK rock musicians he went to the tiny village of Rushock in Worcestershire to gather thoughts at the headstone of the Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham who died at the age of 32 on 25 September 1980 after consuming a prodigious quantity of alcohol A Guardian photographer had visited the grave a few days earlier to get a picture to accompany the piece “an icy morning that gave the churchyard the look of a scene from The Omen” fitting with one of the key motifs of that film the photographer was “spooked by the appearance of an unaccompanied black dog which urinates on the gravestone and then disappears” Black Dog (1971) happens to be the title of one of the most iconic songs in the Led Zeppelin catalogue If we picture a continuum of coincidences from the trivial to the extraordinary both the Hopkins and the Baum examples would surely be located towards the strange and unusual end My “broken arms” coincidence tends towards the trivial Other still more mundane examples are commonplace You get chatting to a stranger on a train and discover you have an acquaintance in common You read an unusual word in a magazine and but the weirder ones can induce a strong sense of the uncanny The world momentarily seems full of strange forces Perhaps schizotypal individuals are also more powerfully affected by coincidence Someone scoring high on measures of schizotypy would perhaps be more spooked by a death dream than I (a low scorer) was I have set naturalism and the supernatural in binary opposition, but perhaps there is a third way. Let’s call it the supranatural stance. This was the position adopted, in different ways, by Kammerer, and by the Swiss psychologist Carl Jung Arthur Koestler’s The Roots of Coincidence (1972) introduced Kammerer’s work to the English-speaking world and was influential in reviving interest in Jung’s ideas Kammerer began recording coincidences in 1900 and number 9 was both his seat number and the number of his cloakroom ticket The following day he went to another concert and his seat and cloakroom ticket numbers were both 21 describing his book as “original and by no means absurd” It took shape over several decades through a confluence of ideas streaming in from philosophy from the wellsprings of magical thinking that bubbled in the depths of Jung’s own prodigiously creative and are not merely a random coming-together of unrelated events They are connected acausally by virtue of their meaning Synchronicity was the “acausal connecting principle” View image in fullscreenThe theory of synchronicity. Photograph: cyano66/Getty Images/iStockphotoAccording to the physicist and historian of science Arthur I Miller’s book Deciphering the Cosmic Number: The Strange Friendship of Wolfgang Pauli and Carl Jung (2009) Jung considered this to be one of the best ideas he ever had Einstein was on several occasions a dinner guest at the Jung family home in Zurich Jung traces a direct link between those dinners with Einstein and his dialogue with the Nobel prize-winning physicist Wolfgang Pauli a dialogue that brought the concept of synchronicity to fruition Jung’s collaboration with Pauli was an unlikely coalition: Jung a psychonaut whose deep excursions into his own unconscious mind he deemed the most significant experiences of his life; and Pauli the hardcore theoretical physicist who was influential in reshaping our understanding of the physical world at its subatomic foundations Following his mother’s suicide and a brief Even as he was producing his most important work in physics he was succumbing to bouts of heavy drinking and getting into fights by which subatomic particles may correlate instantaneously From their discussions emerged the Pauli-Jung conjecture a form of double-aspect theory of mind and matter which viewed the mental and the physical as different aspects of a deeper underlying reality Jung was the first to bring coincidences into the frame of psychological inquiry and made use of them in his analytic practice He offers an anecdote about a golden beetle as an illustration of synchronicity at work in the clinic A young woman is recounting a dream in which she was given a golden scarab when Jung hears a gentle tapping at the window behind him and turns to see a flying insect knocking against the windowpane He opens the window and catches the creature as it flies into the room “the nearest analogy to a golden scarab that one finds in our latitudes” The incident proved to be a transformative moment in the woman’s therapy been “an extraordinarily difficult case” on account of her hyper-rationality and “something quite irrational was needed” to break her defences The coincidence of the dream and the insect’s intrusion was the key to therapeutic progress Jung adds that the scarab is “a classic example of a rebirth symbol” with roots in Egyptian mythology acausal factors intersecting with the causal nexus of the universe Jung’s acausal connecting principle was enmeshed with the psyche specifically with the archetypes of the collective unconscious Jung’s archetypes are primordial structures of the mind common to all human beings in which the mental and physical are integrated and where the archetypes are instrumental in shaping both mind and matter There is more than a grain of plausibility in the suggestion that archetypal structures have an influence in shaping thought and behaviour the idea of synchronicity received little support from the wider scientific community They construct a model of the world by continually attempting to match incoming “bottom-up” sensory data with “top-down” anticipations and predictions Raw sensory data serve to refine the brain’s best guesses as to what’s happening rather than building the world afresh with each passing moment is constantly on the lookout for coincidence reliably exposes the flaws of our intuitions It asks what is the likelihood that two people will share a birthday in randomly selected groups Most people are surprised to learn that a gathering of only 23 people is required for the chances of two of them sharing a birthday to exceed 50% I’d been meaning for some time to try a simple empirical exercise involving “deathdays” to mirror the birthday problem When I found myself again staying briefly at my parents’ old house I decided I would use Bonham’s grave as the starting point for my research for no reason other than the vague pull of that black dog story festooned as it is with drumsticks and cymbals left as offerings by the many pilgrims who make their way to the shrine from around the world The grave lies in the shade of a spreading there’s a row of three other graves – so just four graves in total (there is also a small sandcastle-like monument at the base of the tree trunk which I discounted for lack of name and dates) The plan was to conduct a self-terminating search I would inspect the other graves in the row and then the rows behind and in front working my way methodically around the graveyard until I found any two matching dates of death but my mission ended almost as soon as it had begun I needed to go no further than the four graves (with five occupants) in Bonham’s row The occupants of the two on the right shared 29 September as their date of death (21 years apart) I wish I could report that the mysterious black dog made an appearance Turning to the probability of dream coincidences suppose for the sake of argument that the probability of a dream coincidentally matching real-world events is 1 in 10,000 and that only one dream per night is remembered The probability of a “matching” dream on any given night is 0.0001 (ie meaning that the probability of a “non-matching” dream is 0.9999 The probability of two consecutive nights with non-matching dreams is 0.9999 x 0.9999 The probability of having non-matching dreams every night for a whole year is 0.9999 multiplied by itself 365 times this means that there is a 3.6% chance of any given person having a dream that matches or “predicts” real-world events over the course of a year the odds of having a matching/precognitive dream would be greater than even View image in fullscreenA golden scarab beetle (Plusiotis resplendens) the woman in the death dream I experienced and the chances of a 90-year-old woman in the UK dying before her 91st birthday are around one in six the likelihood that Rose would die before her 91st birthday was probably much greater than that But why should I dream about her in the first place I hadn’t been consciously thinking about Rose there would have been many implicit reminders visiting my ailing mother more often than usual at her care home would have me thinking about death at both conscious and unconscious levels and perhaps (unconsciously) about her friendship with Rose any outrageous thing is likely to happen.” Every week there are many lottery jackpot winners around the globe each with odds of winning at many millions to one against several people have won national and state lottery jackpots on more than one occasion but coincidences give me a glimpse of what the supernaturalist sees One final coincidence story: it was a warm afternoon in mid-June My partner had walked out on me just the week before and I thought a good way to deal with self-pity would be to launch into a new project I would do some research into the psychology of coincidence I settled in an armchair surrounded by books and articles on the subject including Koestler’s The Roots of Coincidence I’d been reading his account of Jung’s golden scarab story I set Koestler aside and went to the kitchen a rose chafer like the one that had made its way through the window of Jung’s consulting room It must have flown in through the wide-open balcony door I quickly took a picture in case the insect took flight again and then nudged it on to my palm to return it to the wild but it simply rolled on to its back and lay motionless but later that evening called with unsettling news My brain by now was in magical thinking mode and I said I couldn’t help but link Zoe’s death to the appearance There was something else at the back of my mind all that king Midas touched turned to gold but rose chafers are quite common in the south of England; they are active in warm weather; the balcony opens out on a water meadow (a typical rose chafer habitat); et cetera And it has since been suggested to me that the beetle was quite likely “playing dead” rather than truly dead after I’d thrown it back out on to the meadow there was a “rebirth” of the kind these creatures are said to symbolise This article was originally published on aeon.co Follow the Long Read on Twitter at @gdnlongread, listen to our podcasts here and sign up to the long read weekly email here and his drinking habit was heading towards a dangerous height He decided that the cure was to throw himself into his work and try to set his sights on more expansive roles His stage work had been revered but onscreen back-to-back stuffy spy roles in serious John le Carré-inspired action films were not only middling but they were also driving him towards a typecast fate Soon the offer to audition for a comedy came his way The film was The Girl from Petrovka and Hopkins was set to support the two lead talents in the tale of comically star-crossed lovers As the synopsis states: “A beautiful Russian ballerina (Goldie Hawn) falls in love with an American news correspondent (Hal Halbrook) and does everything it can to break them up.” If Hopkins was going to use this as a career launchpad he needed to knuckle down into his research he set out to acquire the novel of the same name by the American journalist George Feifer on which the script was based The book had been published in the US the previous year Hopkins set out to pick up a copy from a bookstore on London’s Charing Cross Road only to be informed by the shopkeeper that the book was not yet available in the UK and mulled over how best to order a copy from the US in time for his audition As he sat down on a bench and awaited his train he noticed the pages of an abandoned bound manuscript fluttering in the breeze alongside him found that he was flicking through the pages of The Girl from Petrovka This was a gally edition complete with editorial annotations for the UK market not only did Hopkins manage to get a copy of the book he essentially found a personalised print – the first person to see this UK-tailored edition no less – with extra contextualising information ventured off to his audition and landed the role Hopkins travelled to Vienna to begin filming the feature Feifer was there to write an article about what it is like to see your novel being brought cinematically to life The rather retiring Feifer found the film set environment to be rather overwhelming and the typically personable actor put him at ease Feifer explained that he was the writer behind the tale and Hopkins jokingly complained about the issues he had finding a copy of his book in the UK market Feifer apologised and said that it was his fault for the lengthy delay between US and UK publications When he had been in London editing the manuscript he begrudgingly lent a friend his annotated gally This rather carefree buddy slung the manuscript into the backseat of his car and parked up on Hyde Park Square his car was stolen… and the gally along with it raced towards his dressing room and returned with the manuscript he found on that fateful bench a few months ago “Might this copy have some personal meaning to you?” Feifer recalls Hopkins asking as he thrust a familiar-looking wad of paper his way Hopkins wouldn’t be at the centre of a quantum theory if Feifer had simply replied the car thieves must have stolen Feifer’s friend’s vehicle driven three miles through London and then ditched the incriminating book at the train station… just a few moments before Hopkins had been informed that the book wasn’t available in the UK and his hopes of launching his career in Hollywood were dashed Alas, this quirk of fate ensured that Hopkins’ career in Hollywood would take off The Girl from Petrovka was a small hit despite critical criticism and Hopkins’ natural charisma shone through to mainstream producers Roles came thick and fast after that and the Welsh star left London behind and headed to Los Angeles that only a few years earlier looked to be doggedly ill-fated when The Sunday Times asked for submissions from readers about extraordinary coincidences in their life Feifer saw this as a chance to retell his mystical tale The scholarly writer Arthur Koestler subsequently came across this piece and it set his mind racing The academic author began to question whether the universe really is chaos and he began working on the Hopkins-inspired thesis of The Roots of Coincidence Koestler discusses the concepts of synchronicity a term coined by Carl Jung “to describe circumstances that appear meaningfully related yet lack a causal connection.” As it happens Koestler’s book caused enough of a stir to kick up a synchronicity of its own The Saturday Review decided to publish a profile on him The journalist they enlisted to write the piece – apparently by chance without knowing the connection – was none other than Feifer that book actually set off a string of further coincidences in this unending tale of twists Koestler’s novel inspired Sting of The Police to name their final album Synchronicity when Sting was looking for inspiration as he ventured into acting who should he turn to but Hopkins (at least kind of) As he told People Magazine regarding his preparation for Gentlemen Don’t Eat Poets: “First I thought that I could just watch an Anthony Hopkins film because he makes such a good butler,” says Sting I hired the guy who taught Anthony how to buttle.” a British casting agent was looking to hire a star for a film that follows an author on a promotional tour of her book 84 Charing Cross Road This was the address of the very bookstore that Hopkins had been turned away from or decade earlier when the role of the bookstore owner was offered to him One of the oldest streets in Moscow — Petrovka — runs from Theater Square to the Hermitage Garden Petrovka received its name in honor of the Vysoko-Petrovsky Monastery for men back in the XVII century The fact is that there was a road along the street from the Trinity Gate of the Kremlin towards the village of Vysokoye which was located on the high bank of the Neglinnaya River Cannon and blacksmith slobodas adjoined the street and tablecloth workers (weavers) also settled here manor houses of the nobility started to appear on Petrovka And in the XIX century it became one of the main shopping streets of the city: clothes and luxury goods were sold here The writer Pyotr Boborykin called Petrovka ‘Moscow Paris’ The first traffic light in Moscow was installed here — at the intersection with Kuznetsky Most Street The Art Nouveau arcade appeared on Petrovka in 1906 It was built at the expense of Vera Firsanova the owner of 23 houses and famous Sandunov baths The same architects who built the baths for Firsanova — Sergey Kalugin and Boris Freudenberg — worked on the project of the building The construction of the passage cost one and a half million rubles — a colossal amount at that time The three-storey building runs from Petrovka to Neglinnaya Street and has two facades which are decorated with columns and figures of lions on the facades there are mascarons (stucco molding in the form of women's heads) and images of katsudei — the rod of the god Mercury Both lines of the passage are covered with semi-cylindrical metal arches with glazing which adds more light to the interior space The same design was used earlier in the construction of the Upper Shopping malls (now GUM is located there) More than 50 pavilions of Russian and foreign brands were located in the passage Some merchants were suppliers to the Imperial Court People went to the passage for corsets and umbrellas from Matilda Barish and an industrial exhibition of the Supreme Council of the National Economy a ‘Worker’ bas-relief by sculptor Matvey Manizer was mounted in the facade wall from the Petrovka side which is described in the ‘Twelve Chairs’ book by Ilya Ilf and Evgeny Petrov In the 1930s there was a ‘Dirizhablstroy’ trust where the famous Italian design engineer Umberto Nobile worked The manor in the classicism style was built in 1799 according to the project of Matvey Kazakov The house belonged to the Ural manufacturer Mikhail Gubin A distinctive feature of the manor was the front entrance which Kazakov placed on the side of the rear facade It is believed that this was done so that the noise of carriages and balls would not interfere with the monks of the Vysoko-Petrovsky Monastery on which the windows of the great hall looked It is believed that it was restored according to the project of Osip Bove The center of the main facade is decorated with a portico with Corinthian columns The side buildings are marked with ionic pilasters and bas-reliefs on a blue background They depict women in ancient Greek tunics and putti (little boys) Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov's choral singing classes were located here Dmitry Karelin's photo studio also worked here — Anton Chekhov was photographed in it Today the building houses the Moscow Museum of Modern Art The palaty (type of old Russian residential stone building) were built in 1690 on the site of the Naryshkin manor This is one of the oldest buildings in Moscow Today you can see a preserved fragment of the underground part of the palaty’s wall — it is placed under glass donated his lands to the Vysoko-Petrovsky Monastery for the construction of brethren's cells The palaty architecture corresponded to the general idea of the monastery ensemble The two-storey elongated red brick building in the Naryshkin Baroque style has long been considered the longest in Moscow The monks' cells were located on the upper floors of the building the ground floor was adapted for retail premises for which nine large window openings were made in the facade almost all the premises of the building were rented out so a three-storey building was attached to the northern facade for the monastic brethren residence the first floor of the former monastic brethren building was occupied by apartments communal apartments were organized there and shops were opened the palaty were restored according to the project of Dmitry Dedushenko The window openings facing Petrovka were built in Dedushenko was engaged in recreating the original appearance of this landmark building the building has housed the State Literary Museum and only in 1994 it was handed over to the Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church At the intersection of Petrovka with Kuznetsky Most Street there is a house built in a rare Viennese Art Nouveau style for Moscow The tenement building was built in 1900 according to the project of the architect Illarion Ivanov-Shitz on the place of a wooden building Some of the premises were rented out to trading firms and the others were occupied by apartments the ‘Muir and Meriliz’ furniture store a bookstore of Ilya Glazunov and other enterprises worked in the building The facades of the building are decorated with moldings in the form of plant ornaments and lion heads a frieze with a Greek meander ornament runs along the perimeter of the house The corner part of the building is accentuated by a bay window which at the level of the first floor is made in the form of a semi-rotunda with columns It is crowned by a balcony on the second floor decorated with mascarons (stucco in the form of women's heads) the building housed the Tekstilimport Trust and later the Ministry of the River Fleet of the RSFSR Eldar Ryazanov's movie ‘Office Romance’ was filmed in the house — according to the plot a Statistical Institution was located here most of the building is occupied by the Federal Agency for Maritime and River Transport house 7 (corner of Petrovka and Kuznetsky Most Streets) A two-storey house decorated with figurines in the form of putti runs between Petrovka and Neglinnaya Street The history of the building dates back to the XVIII century — it was built for the French merchant Duclos The building was built in the classicism style and had a high terrace that protected the Neglinka River from flooding Then the facade was decorated with an eight-columned Corinthian portico which changed its name at different times: ‘Leipzig the building was rebuilt according to the project of August Weber: it was decorated with high attic (decorative walls above the cornice) with stucco and putti figures the house was called ‘the house with putti’ the last time according to the project of Leonid Vesnin and Sergey Titov the ‘Moskovsky Rabochiy’ publishing house which published the ‘Oktyabr’ magazine Mikhail Sholokhov brought his manuscript of the ‘The Quiet Don’ novel here the first two books were published in the magazine in parts The aim of the project is to reconstruct demographic processes and settlement structures in the late Bronze Age up to the transition to the Iron Age - what is known as the post-Sintashta-Petrovka period Artefacts discovered so far have shown that the southern Trans-Ural region at the dividing line between Europe and Asia on the northern edge of the Eurasian Steppe constitutes a unique cultural landscape such as burial mounds ("kurgans") and settlements show that this was a centre of economic development and sociocultural processes that already began in the third millennium BC After the decline of fortified settlements the housing structure changed and "open" settlements with terraced houses without fortifications emerged Russian research dates these settlements to the middle of the second millennium BC During the research phase that lasted from 2008 to 2014 Professor Rüdiger Krause devoted himself above all to the fortified settlements of the Sintashta-Petrovka period (around 2000 BC) Characteristic for this culture were early chariots intensive copper mining and substantial bronze production Attention has now shifted to various other archaeological sites of the Bronze and Iron Ages in the microregion at the confluence of the Yandyrka and Akmulla rivers and the upper end of the Karagaily-Ayat valley How was the landscape used as the economic foundation for livestock farming The intention is to study the demographic processes underlying all this in the course of the project using not only palaeogenetic techniques but also archaeological excavations interpretation of the material culture and archaeobotany Who were the people responsible for the shift at that time from a settled form of existence to a nomadic way of life Where did they originate from and how did they come to arrive in the Urals Archaeology and palaeogenetics will work hand in hand in the search for answers to these questions One of the aims of this collaboration is to analyse population genetics using state-of-the-art genome analysis methods The team led by Professor Joachim Burger at the University of Mainz is specialised in the analysis of genomes from archaeological skeletons the palaeogenetics experts from Mainz will examine the question of to what extent genetic influences from Europe or the central Asian steppe coincide with the cultural transformation to be observed in the Trans-Ural region Was it foreigners who introduced the change Or did regional cultural developments take place here How have demography and population structure changed over the millennia the researchers from Mainz will use high-resolution sequencing to study the genomes from the project's archaeological sites and analyse them with statistical methods they have developed themselves in order to unearth as much detailed information as possible about the people of the Bronze and Iron Ages A report on the first phase of the research project can be read (in German) in Forschung Frankfurt 32-36: "Innovationwen vor 4000 Jahren in der Eurasischen Steppe Streitwagenfahrer und Metallurgen in befestigten Siedlungen" by R Further information: Professor Rüdiger Krause, Institute of Archaeological Sciences, Prehistory and Early History, Westend Campus, Norbert-Wollheim-Platz 1, Tel.: +49(0)69-798-32120; https://www.uni-frankfurt.de/61564916/LOEWE-Schwerpunkt Professor Joachim Burger, Palaeogenetics Group, Institute of Organismic and Molecular Evolution (iomE), Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Anselm-Franz-von-Bentzel-Weg 7, 55128 Mainz, Tel.: +49(0)6131-39-20981; http://palaeogenetics-mainz.de Image material can be downloaded from: http://www.uni-frankfurt.de/75784479 are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system Copyright © 2025 by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) It was 35 degrees Celsius outside. A hazy mirage shimmered over the hot summer soil in Petrovka a village in the northern Kyrgyzstan region of Chui.  A sharp bout of torrential rain had soaked the fields a day before a recent Eurasianet visit The only evidence the downpour had happened were the two wet tents in which 35-year-old Daniyar Pazilov had been living with his family for the last four months.  Pazilov stood guard and looked on hopefully and his 34-year-old brother along with him One tent is just branches and plastic sheeting Pazilov’s wife cooks the meals in one giant pot over a fire the inconvenience of this hardscrabble camp paid off Pazilov made $11,000 off his watermelon crop assured by the owner that nothing could go wrong.  Farmers like him have mounted protest pickets to urge the government to help […] They’re coming out all crooked because of the lack of water,” he told Eurasianet watermelons at the bazaar can weigh anywhere between 10 and 15 kilograms which is composed of a trio of canals radiating across northern Kyrgyzstan Water is doled out among villages by the State Water Resources Agency Authorities set aside 600 liters a second for the 50 square kilometers of fields in Petrovka This is how it works in practice: The 20 or so farmers cultivating the area muster each morning at a water distribution point They are entitled to as much water as they managed getting water to their fields entails opening the corresponding channels by hand.  Conversation among the group is in a blend of Kyrgyz the farmers grow increasingly agitated as they wheedle for more water and complain about how they suspect somebody of appropriating their share Pazilov said he had been turning up every morning He was able to get a hold of three water coupons But he says water was only delivered to his field once He blames foul play by representatives of the Water Users Association for this situation about one kilometer from the water distribution point the 20-liter allocation has usually dwindled to a weak trickle enough to moisten a couple of rows.   trickery abounds as farmers try to get access to precious water Pazilov willingly admits he is no angel on this front He paid under the table last year to get more but now he has no money to pay such inducements.  Pazilov's wife has got a job harvesting watermelons on someone else's plot the family will have to rely on the pensions their parents receive and wait till the next planting season.  Water shortages have inspired all kinds of dark rumors One has it that the authorities have been secretly selling water to Kazakhstan which has also endured a severe drought this year Kyrgyzstan has under a 2000 agreement been sending 42 percent of the water that flows through the BChK to Kazakhstan in return for the latter underwriting the cost of maintaining irrigation infrastructure The suggestion is that the amounts being diverted are greater that what has been agreed Akylbek Sulaimanov, the head of the Water Resources Department at the Agriculture Ministry, commented on these allegations back in June that Kyrgyzstan is giving Kazakhstan less than it should Sulaimanov instead blame farmers for insisting on sowing moisture-loving crops.  He may have had people like Kanat Tokurov in mind has a decade of farming experience under his belt The crops should go toward feeding his 100 or so heads of livestock.  Tokurov denies that he was ever warned his crops could be hit by drought his maize should have stood almost two meters tall and been ready for picking it stood at around one quarter of that height Standing next to the cans of chemicals that he poured into soil in the hope of retaining moisture Tokurov said he may be forced to sell his livestock or spend more money to save them.  I will have to give it all up and buy feed from other people,” he said who served briefly as an agriculture minister in the months after last year’s political tumult told Eurasianet that the aging irrigation network loses up to 400 million cubic meters of waters per year from the Great Chui Canal management of the channels that deliver water over the last stretch should be modernized to avoid corrupt practices and fiddling that causes so many bitter arguments among farmers.  “The water distribution locks need to be digitized so they are not having to be manually opened and closed,” said Toktogaziyev the canals need to be sealed with concrete so the water does not seep away through the soil.” an agro-industrial holding company with fields not far from those small-time farmers in Petrovka has coped with the drought by investing in sprinklers People toiling on their diminutive patches of field can only look on with envy But Toktogaziyev argues that the small farmers could get their hands on the same equipment if they formed cooperatives “This would make it possible for initiatives not to be top-down so that farmers would be in a better position to ask something of the government,” he said Danil Usmanov is a photo and video journalist based in Bishkek Ayzirek Imanaliyeva is a journalist based in Bishkek Sign up for Eurasianet's free weekly newsletter. Support Eurasianet: Help keep our journalism open to all The statue of Felix Dzerzhinsky outside Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service Earlier this week, a monument to “Iron” Felix Dzerzhinsky, founder of the Soviet secret police, was unveiled outside the HQ of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) in Moscow The press coverage contained the now standard laments about Russia embracing repression drifting further from the West and glorifying a Soviet past The rehabilitation of Russia’s secret police began almost immediately after Putin was first elected, 23 years ago. It was around then that Yuri Andropov, a spy chief-turned-Soviet leader, received a plaque on the Lubyanka building I once took the metro there to get a photo of it but you had to walk up the steps to get close However, it turned out that the monument in question was a modest bust that had been removed after the failed pro-communist coup of August 1991 It was behind iron railings and was not easy to see from the street especially as it coincided with the campaign to rehabilitate Stalin as a great military leader A year later, Vladimir Sorokin published his eerily prescient novel Day of the Oprichnik a dark satire in which a future Tsar beholden to China defends his corrupt nationalist regime through a reign of terror enforced by his “oprichniks” The Oprichnina is the name of Russia’s original secret police a special bodyguard founded by Ivan the Terrible 500 years ago to torture and kill his enemies as required In Sorokin’s novel the oprichniks express themselves in a pathetically pompous tone and when I read extracts from the speech made at the unveiling of the Dzerzhinsky monument it sounded like a passage straight from the novel:  It’s surprising that the authorities settled for erecting a reduced version of the old Dzerzhinsky monument in a southern suburb when they could have restored the original to its rightful place between the Lubyanka and the Children’s World toy shop The optimistic take would be that placing a giant secret policeman in the centre of the capital is a Rubicon the Putin regime is as yet unwilling to cross whereas in Soviet times there was only one big statue of Iron Felix in Moscow Daniel Kalder is an author based in Texas. Previously, he spent ten years living in the former Soviet bloc. His latest book, Dictator Literature, is published by Oneworld. He also writes on Substack: Thus Spake Daniel Kalder Δdocument.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value" Δdocument.getElementById( "ak_js_2" ).setAttribute( "value" Please click here to view our media pack for more information on advertising and partnership opportunities with UnHerd Looking to access paid articles across multiple policy topics Interested in policy insights for EU professional organisations Ukraine had withdrawn from its libraries about 19 million copies of books by last November that came either from the Soviet era or were in Russian a senior lawmaker said on Monday (6 February) A man looks at second-hand books as he visits Petrovka book market in Kiev Petrovka book market is the largest book market in Kyiv It is a popular place for local citizens looking for books in any languages and various literary genre deputy head of the Ukrainian parliament's committee on humanitarian and information policy "Some Ukrainian-language books from the Soviet era are also written off," Kravchuk said according to a statement published on the website of the Verkhovna Rada It was not immediately clear what happened to the withdrawn books After Russia moved to annex Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in 2014 Kyiv increasingly restricted the use of Russian books The process of the so-called "de-russification" sped up when Russia invaded the country nearly a year ago Ukraine’s parliament on Sunday (19 June) voted through two laws which will place severe restrictions on Russian books and music as Kyiv seeks to break many remaining cultural ties between the two countries following Moscow’s invasion the ratio of books in Russian and Ukrainian languages in our libraries is just very regretful," Kravchuk said "So now we are talking about the fact that it is necessary to renew funds and purchase books in the Ukrainian language as soon as possible." Ukrainian is the sole official language of the country About a half of the population speaks mostly or only Ukrainian and some 30% speak mostly or only Russian according to a 2019 survey by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology Both Russian and Ukrainian are East Slavic languages Russians unfamiliar with Ukrainian have difficulties understanding it Russian plays still a large role in business And it is still very widely spoken in many cities although the use of Russian has been increasingly restricted Legislation obliges businesses and other institutions to use Ukrainian Russian invaders’ goal being the destruction of the Ukrainian nation they confiscate books and destroy school textbooks on the history of Ukraine being most interested in books on the history of Maidans and the history of Ukrainian liberation struggles celebrated his 100th birthday in style Sunday Even the former California governor sent a message congratulating Mr When I get back from all my work in Europe I will be calling you to celebrate!"-Arnold Schwarzenegger the couple had two more children in tow: Jenny Hope McLaren both of whom were born at the hospital in St The couple's grandchildren include Janessa Vella Nick built his family a home in Calistoga and over the years Beyond the natural beauty of the Napa Valley that surrounded Nick and his family as well as the beauty of a family who loves him there is a chapter Nick still needs to close That is why his son George started a fundraising campaign so that Nick can attend the 80th Liberation Anniversary ceremonies in and across Dachau and Munich in April 2025 "My father, Nickoliay Xoprenko was born Sept. 7, 1924, in Petrovka, Dunbas, in Ukraine," George wrote on the GoFundMe page, Holocaust Survivor Needs Your Help. "He was tortured and incarcerated in multiple Holocaust camps during the 1933 Holodomor famine implemented by Stalin was during WWII under Adolf Hitler's regime where Nick worked at an ammunition factory at Wolfratshausen wearing only the clothes on his back for 11 months was when Nick was falsely accused of sabotage while working at the BMW factory and thrown into Dachau Concentration Camp for three months before being transported to Allach "He was incarcerated for a further two and a half years enduring many terrible and unspeakable atrocities the 32,000 Dachau prisoners became survivors when American soldiers arrived to liberate all of the precious human beings at the camp." These "great and extraordinary men and women have now sadly dwindled to very few," George wrote Nick Hope — he changed his last name to Hope in 1974—has been asked to return with his family members to the Dachau Camp to attend the 80th Liberation Anniversary ceremonies in and across Dachau and Munich "My kind and humble father has forgiven all those who have caused him harm who would brutally beat him," George wrote "Nick would like to share his story of forgiveness and hope to everyone who wishes to listen .. But Nick worries about his house that requires tens of thousands of dollars in repairs let alone the expense to attend this honorary event in Germany." is to "raise enough money to ensure his father can travel comfortably and safely covering his insurance and medical expenses as he compassionately shares his testimony with others through a documentary being written of his incredible life story." By Friday night, more than $6,300 had been donated toward the family's $20,000 fundraising goal. See the campaign page here See more about Nick Hope's life in a three-part series by CBS Sacramento Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts. a recipient of the TIME award at the 2015 Eddie Adams Workshop visited a Russian Mennonite Sunday school in Darmstadt She remembers the pattern of the cushioned benches and the soundproof children rooms where mothers would sit with their little ones during church service she returned to a similar chapel with a camera and the idea for what would become a two-year project capturing these families in Russia The series, Brothers and Sisters, was among the finalists of the 2015 LensCulture Portrait Awards It captures quiet scenes of daily life that shed light on the nuances of Mennonite culture: a young girl slumps into a chair with her doll waiting for lunch; a mother of eight brings her daughter a homemade skirt; a congregation of women donning colorful clothes with braided hair stand and sing at a youth festival The images explore Sperling’s relationship with members of the community and the barriers fears and hopes they carry for one another Russian Mennonites are descendants of German-Dutch Anabaptists who established colonies in the south west of the Russian Empire While they resided in Russia after the split from Germany the nearly 200,000 Russian Mennonites today are German by tradition usually have big families with up to 10 children and spend a lot of time preparing food together for huge family gatherings on public holidays or birthday anniversaries Volleyball is the most popular sport in the Russian Mennonite Community Their history is important to them and they have the saying “if two Russian Mennonites meet for the first time and talk longer than ten minutes they will find out how they are related to each other instantly.” As a descendant with four sisters who are active members (two of which she photographed) the project was very personal for Sperling who spent six weeks with a childless Russian Mennonite couple in Solnzevka and Petrovka where she began to capture their daily life She found the community to be very welcoming and soon the whole village knew who she was and what she was doing Sperling’s work focuses on families, communities, social phenomenons and isolated places. In August, she followed an Italian family in the small village Melissano in the region of Salento, during the Bitume Photofest Art Residency She captured intimacy within a family that lives together in a house with three generations she is photographing a transgender woman in Singapore who is in her early stages of transitioning documenting the societal and personal struggles she faces Her work has commonality: they are personally linked to her “Mainly because it will help me give my best,” she says “But also because they are able to tell the viewer a secret they did not know before.” Mika Sperling is a documentary photographer based in Germany Rachel Lowry is a writer and contributor for TIME LightBox Follow her on Twitter and Instagram @rachelllowry and yet at the deepest level we wish that it didn't,' said Sam Leith actor Anthony Hopkins agreed to appear in a screen adaptation of George Feifer's novel The Girl from Petrovka Hopkins searched in vain for a copy of the book - but then happened to find one lying on a bench in a railway waiting room The dictionary definition of coincidence is 'a striking occurrence by mere chance of two or more events at one time' and there can be no doubt that Hopkins' experience was a case of what we would describe as pure coincidence It's the sort of anecdote that's invariably followed by the line 'What are the chances of that?' we do so as if it were some sort of a force as if it's something out there in the world that hangs around certain people and affects their marriage prospects intervening in human affairs to bring about some outcome or other those who really believe in the existence of coincidence and lucky chances seek to control their occurrence by buying lucky heather lining up gonks on their desks in exam rooms and hanging lucky horseshoes the right way up Yet the world doesn't have a probability field in the same way it has a magnetic or a gravitational field When we hear that something is a 60:40 chance we might imagine a 60-strong army engaged in a battle with a 40-strong army.. All the numbers do is describe the frequency of outcomes You're surprised when you win the lottery: a squillion-to-one chance But when a person you've never heard of wins the lottery Yet seeing design where there isn't any doesn't necessarily make us stupid Ian Fleming has a brilliant line: 'Once is happenstance three times is enemy action.' That line doesn't just give you a prospectus for the way in which a spy writer might use the workings of chance as the clock springs of a plot; it also pinpoints why our relationship with chance is as it is One of the ways we have survived and evolved over the years is by having brains that comb through the chaos of the outside world and find patterns in it we instinctively start learning to pick out human faces and the significant sounds of speech; we test and retest patterns of experience looking for meaning looking for relationships of cause and effect Our brains are so good at finding patterns they don't know when to stop butterflies in Rorschach ink blots and the likeness of the Blessed Virgin on irregularly burned bits of toast We become certain that our horoscopes tell us something And we gamble even when the maths tells us in black and white that it's a fool's game what makes gambling a waste of time is also what makes it a central human activity with the importance of chance in our lives For me to be sitting here typing this - and for you to be sitting wherever you are reading it - is only possible at the tail end of a succession of such astonishingly long shots that our brains struggle to comprehend them And that's before we get to the chances of each of our parents having met and taken a fancy to each other; of their parents meeting; and so on back to the beginning of the universe winning the lottery would merely be the icing on the cake: the only slightly improbable coda to a mind-bogglingly improbable sequence of events It is because of that staggering list of improbabilities that many people take the view that something else is going on here: that God or a greater being must have taken an interest Others retort that a situation this improbable was bound to arise  -  it just happens to have been this one that did The language we use about coincidence is suffused with something more than the dispassionate observation of phenomena occurring at random and yet at the deepest level we wish that it didn't: that where we came from and where we are going are part of some sort of plan An outcome is only 'lucky' if it's the one that you happen to want If my wife falls under a bus the day after I take out a life insurance policy on her I might think I've been lucky  -  but my wife isn't something intrinsically amazing; it's something we think is amazing when we bump into an old friend on the street Yet every day you'll walk past dozens of strangers you've strolled past two five times or more before  -  but you don't recognise them Randomness becomes significant depending on where you're standing  -  on what you win and lose So it shouldn't be a surprise that it's in the working of chance that we see  -  though it's so obvious it's seldom noticed  -  the profoundest difference between the world we live in and the works of art that supposedly represent it Clearly everything that affects us in life is governed by chance; but chance is the one thing that you can't have at all in fiction the author has decided everything that happens It wonders what would happen if you had a machine that really did affect probability as if it were a force  -  like a sort of probability magnet It would provide for a non-stop supply of deus ex machina A series of absurdly improbable things would happen But would these be proof that such a machine was working Some time ago it was agreed my book would come out on April 4 the local hospital gave us the due date for our second child: April 4 'The Coincidence Engine' by Sam Leith is published tomorrow by Bloomsbury We are no longer accepting comments on this article The Mail on Sunday & Metro Media Group is opening a new store in Saudi Arabia as well as two new stores in Moscow The retail chain’s new store in Saudi Arabia is located in the Centria Mall in the country’s capital city of Riyadh and is the brand’s first location in Saudi Arabia The two new stores in Russia’s capital are a new flagship on Petrovka Street and an intimate new store in Vremena Goda Mall The three new retail outlets bring the number of the chain’s stores to 33 The store in Saudi Arabia is not the brand’s first in the Middle East It also has stores in Bahrain; Kuwait City De Beers Diamond Jewellers was launched in 2001 as a joint venture between De Beers and the luxury behemoth LVHM. In 2017, De Beers bought out LVMH and it now owns 100 percent of the retail chain its stores are mostly concentrated in Asia The company scaled back most of the stores it opened in the United States Fla.; Houston; on Madison Avenue in New York City; and in a Saks Fifth Avenue in New York City The new stores “reflect the heritage of De Beers and showcase a varied array of its timeless jewelry creations in an atmosphere of welcoming elegance and warmth,” according to a statement issued by the retail chain “Every aspect of the stores has been carefully considered and tailored to guide the jewelry devotee around unique High Jewelry pieces including the Talisman and the Enchanted Lotus and wondrous Bridal diamond creations.” Saudi Arabia; all images courtesy of De Beers Diamond Jewellers) including two prestigious Neal Awards for his blog in 2007 and 2011 and the American Gem Society's Triple Zero Award for industry service He can be reached at rbates - at - jckonline.com 2025 © RX USA. Use of this website is subject to terms of use. View upcoming auction estimates and receive personalized email alerts for the artists you follow The Moscow Museum of Modern Art with the support of the a-s-t-r-a gallery present Dry Urtica, an exhibition by artist Jolie Alien Her first solo museum exhibition includes the artworks of the past years Alien’s art juxtaposes the contemporary culture symbols with personal myth the occurrence of fragments of inscriptions and expressiveness The original idea for the exhibition at MMOMA was based on the concept of the Garden of Eden in Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy The garden became the starting point and the collective image of the entire project At some point it itself began to create semantic connections it took over the spaces of the exhibition halls It started a dialogue with the works and went far beyond the connotations of «paradise» One way or another the gardens are present in the exposition space weaving their disobedient branches into the very history of the museum building the house of Gubin’s house — once a city homestead — used to be surrounded by a garden The ghost of that history is embodied in the metal frame erected in the large exhibit hall Alien turns to the sensory experience and to the experience of today’s reality The fleeting nature of time and the human desire to capture it with technical devices are the key themes of the last hall The artist questions statistical control techniques and gives us a blunt scale of ordered marks designed to determine physical deviations or conformity to regulated norms The resulting bias becomes part of the statement It is a significant feature of the individuality of any garden and its inhabitants Italian fashion house Prada Group is planning to make an independent entrance onto the Russian market and has already leased two locations in Moscow to house its boutiques Prada has rented the locations from Aras Agalarov's Crocus Group will be on the intersection of Ulitsa Bolshaya Dmitrovka and Stoleshnikov Pereulok Prada will also occupy 600 square meters in Crocus City Mall The stores are expected to open in fall 2011 Prada will have 1,371 square meters used now as a Crocus boutique with numerous brands Prada Group's Miu Miu brand will also open a store in the 400 square meters now occupied at the mall by Ungaro which has decided to reduce its retail operations has rented the space to Prada for 10 years will continue to work in the building and will actually be expanded through additional space on the rooftop Prada's representative office in Russia will open soon the fashion house's exclusive distributor in Russia has been Mercury which is controlled by Leonid Fridlyand and Leonid Strunin A Mercury spokesperson said last week that under a joint agreement between the companies "Mercury and Prada are not commenting on the situation." that in the first half of next year Mercury will represent Prada's brands in Russia Mercury presented Prada collections for Spring/Summer 2011 Prada's press office in Milan did not immediately respond to a request for comment Rental rates on Stoleshnikov Pereulok are the most expensive in Moscow typically reaching $2,000 to $4,000 per square meter per year director of commercial and regional property at Penny Lane Realty Only the very top brands can afford to rent at those prices Sales by luxury brands are continuing to rise steadily but at the moment it's still possible to find space in the most popular places Other luxury brands are now likely to begin operating directly in Russia which has become one of the key markets globally Christian Dior and Swatch Group already have independent retail operations in the country luxury companies have been interested in new space Swatch Group announced that it was opening the first multibrand Tourbillon boutique in Russia while Podium Market will occupy nearly one-third of the retail space in the Moskva Hotel starting next year Chanel is planning to open a 1,000-square-meter boutique in the Zhenevsky Dom complex on Ulitsa Petrovka sources at several of the company's partners told Vedomosti Moscow was tied in ninth place with Milan and Tokyo among the most attractive cities for luxury brands according to a ranking compiled by CB Richard Ellis Russia's Prosecutor General's Office has designated The Moscow Times as an "undesirable" organization criminalizing our work and putting our staff at risk of prosecution This follows our earlier unjust labeling as a "foreign agent." These actions are direct attempts to silence independent journalism in Russia The authorities claim our work "discredits the decisions of the Russian leadership." We see things differently: we strive to provide accurate We, the journalists of The Moscow Times, refuse to be silenced. But to continue our work, we need your help please support us monthly starting from just $2 and every contribution makes a significant impact independent journalism in the face of repression The Moscow Museum of Modern Art together with the Contemporary Art Gallery 11.12 and Mardjani Foundation presents «Dvoegorsk» — a solo exhibition by Rinat Voligamsi The retrospective will bring together pieces created over the last ten years including the «Snow» (2011-2013) and «Unofficial Album» (2006) series Voligamsi’s photorealistic paintings are brought together into a chronicle of daily life in a fictitious town called Dvoegorsk the likes of which were ubiquitous in the USSR and still can be found in contemporary Russia The town is believed to be situated somewhere near a military base; its main utopian construction is Minus-Mausoleum Covered with snow and surrounded by barracks it leads underground to Dante’s circles of torment Drawing on his childhood memories and illustrations typical of Soviet newspapers and posters Rinat Voligamsi’s imagery reconsiders the utopias of both the Soviet past and today’s realities Following in the footsteps of the representatives of Sots Art Voligamsi addresses a subject defined by the exhibition curator Valentin Diaconov as the «correspondence between a realistic image or a photograph and the reality it depicts.» By dissecting the attributes of military service the artist calls into question Russia’s national pride predicated on military force Dvoegorsk’s iron structures and stars have rusted; its ammunition depots are filled up with snow; an eerie crooked roof silhouette cuts the skyline «A curious child takes a toy to pieces to see how it functions and winter scenery in order to understand how the country that roughly occupies one sixth of the world’s land area is governed,» Diaconov explained hyperrealistic and symbolic in details — reveal themselves over time the realism of the seemingly familiar images dissipates bringing to mind the stories of Kharms — a writer greatly favored by Voligamsi The Moscow Museum of Modern Art presents On Transparency: Optical Media, the first full-scale and extensive display of the works of Alexander Grigoriev a hallmark artist for the soviet kinetic art and its creative experiments Among them are paintings and graphic sheets collages and objects from the collection of Roman Babichev as well as selected works from the collection of the Moscow Museum of Modern Art The origins of Grigoriev’s work can be traced to the second half of the 1960s when he joined the Dvizhene (Movement) group the circle of artists that played a key role in the development of the movement Arisen on the wave of the general liberalization of the 1950s and yet in line with the inherent inclination towards scientism the Dvizhene (Movement) group retained the impulse of life-building and the expectations of the Khrushchev Thaw period its members associated the images of the future with the development of science and technology expanding the possibilities of understanding the world Within the framework of collective practice Grigoriev was engaged in designing both architecture for city events and cyber environments spectacular futurological theatrical and gaming spaces he participated in the development and staging of kinetic games After the breakup of the group in the 1970s the artist continues to engage in constructive-kinetic design exploring the expressive possibilities of the picture space and the psychophysiological features of visual perception Being mainly engaged in the development of polyphonic systems of geometric ornament which connects his works with the classical Western Op-art Grigoriev focuses on a detailed examination of the critical laws of visual effect The limits and response possibilities of the human eye and its relation to cognitive functions form the central object of his interest Transparent media are the elements of the eye that transmit and refract light rays and organize the systems of vision available to us this is a material texture that allows one to transmit information serving as a mediator between different particles of the physical world A kaleidoscope of their dynamic and continuous movement unfolds within the walls of this exhibition highlighting the crucial stages of the artist’s practice and the fundamental principles of eye texture The New Tretyakov Gallery at Krymsky Val is about to open a new chapter in its operation The Barcelona museum's latest revamp has added 2,000 sq A protagonist in search of identity transforms an anonymous house into a personal and unique space through sculptural works that enrich gardens with more than enough attractions to keep you busy Moscow is filled with cool bars for a tipple or two and a chat Hidden in one of the maze-like courtyards on Ulitsa Petrovka Voda is a magnet for Moscow's so-called “creative class.” The décor is minimalist and you'll probably have to stand Call ahead to reserve a spot; you can't just pop in unannounced There's no menu: You tell the bartender your preferences and get one of the pink-colored cocktails that are the Voda specialty So show a little initiative and receive a little attitude - and a tasty cocktail  Russian for “little box,” Korobok is located in the basement of the Tehnikum a restaurant famous for its “auteur” cuisine Don’t be discouraged by the sign on the curtain saying “Staff Only.” Behind it is a dimly lit and cozy interior with a huge lamp and the bartender can mix up what you like 7/5 Bolshaya Dmitrovka Ulitsa, Bldg. 2. Metro Okhotny Ryad. korobokmoscow.ru/index_en.html You might be confused when you open the door to this quiet spot in central Moscow because it looks like an antique shop but people come here for the unique atmosphere and great cocktails you name it — LAMBIC won’t just hand you a menu and leave you in the lurch Their expert sommelier and waitstaff are always on hand to advise you on labels and the perfect dishes to go with every drink It turns out that beer is a much richer and more complex drink than you knew If you’re struggling to choose between beer and wine At this elegant manor-house restaurant in the heart of Moscow visitors can begin their day with a late noon-to-6 p.m breakfast of tvorog in white chocolate with cherry marmalade and a glass of Prosecco stay for a lunch of crab burgers and Speyside Oak Aged Blond Ale and come back again for dinner — perhaps a dozen oysters and a Pinot Grigio Corvesso Beer & Brut has just the dish to go with it Chainaya is one of a few Moscow cocktail bars that occasionally make it onto the international lists for best bars Designed like a Chinese tea house (hence the name) Call ahead to make sure you’re expected behind an unmarked door in one of the courtyards facing the Belorusskaya train station Mendeleev is a bar in the basement of the small Chinese cafe Lucky Noodles antique furniture and customized cocktails are what people come here for On any night there are plenty of Moscow’s expats here We, the journalists of The Moscow Times, refuse to be silenced. But to continue our work, we need your help. Your support, no matter how small, makes a world of difference. If you can, please support us monthly starting from just $2. It's quick to set up, and every contribution makes a significant impact. By supporting The Moscow Times, you're defending open, independent journalism in the face of repression. Thank you for standing with us. the brand’s first location in Saudi Arabia and two new stores in Moscow: a beautiful flagship on Petrovka Street and an intimate new store in Vremena Goda Mall “We are thrilled to offer our passionate and peerless diamond mastery to our discerning clients of Saudi and Russia with the opening of three new stores located respectively in Ryiadh in Moscow on Petrovka and at the Vremena Goda Galleries De Beers Diamond Jewellers is established as the most trusted and desirable diamond jewellery brand and we continuously strive to delight our loyal clients around the world,” explains François Delage De Beers Diamond Jewellers Riyadh is located on the Ground Floor of Centria Mall The new Russia flagship store on Petrovka Street and the Vremena Goda Mall store were opened with Diamond Jewellery Group LLC These new stores reflect the heritage of De Beers and showcase a varied array of its timeless jewellery creations in an atmosphere of welcoming elegance and warmth Every aspect of the stores has been carefully considered and tailored to guide the jewellery devotee around unique High Jewellery pieces De Beers is proud to offer peerlessly beautiful diamond jewellery The experts at the De Beers Institute of Diamonds select each diamond individually and choose only those with perfect facet angles and alignment with selection standards that go above and beyond the Four Cs When purchasing a round brilliant diamond at De Beers customers are invited to peer into the heart of their diamond for themselves with the De Beers Iris this in-store demonstrator allows customers to visualise the perfect light reflection and discover exactly why De Beers diamonds are incomparably beautiful Discover this heritage and expertise at the Home of Diamonds since 1888 Follow DiamondWorld on Instagram: @diamondworldnetFollow DiamondWorld on Twitter: @diamondworldnetFollow DiamondWorld on Facebook: @diamondworldnet The Carré d'artistes Moscow Gallery opened in Moscow in the fall of 2015 It is located in the historical center of Moscow in the Smirnov apartment house on Petrovka — an architectural monument of the early XX century the project of which was developed by the famous architect Gustav Gelrich The gallery specializes in modern abstract art The gallery mainly cooperates with authors from Russia and France Carré d'artistes Moscow presents Daniel Reimann as well as the Soviet and Russian nonconformist artist Sergei Alferov a participant in the famous Bulldozer Exhibition of 1974 Carré d'artistes Moscow regularly opens new exhibitions and brings European artists to Moscow thanks to which international cultural communication and networking within the global professional community are carried out Artists represented at Cosmoscow 2023: Daniel Reimann The Welsh actor got his start in the theatre under the watchful eye of Sir Laurence Olivier way back in the 1960s and recently earned his third Oscar He is the kind of Shakespearean actor who makes Hollywood A-listers tremble – a performer who worked at his craft on the most pompous and traditional stage possible and came away with a bag of tools rather than a nebulous charismatic vibe over which he had little control Since making his debut at the National Theatre so when he calls out a fellow actor for being unprofessional it’s safe to assume that he knows what he’s talking about He isn’t the kind of thespian whose life is paraded through the tabloids or who seeks cover stories wherever he can get them He is refreshingly straightforward in interviews but not particularly loquacious There was at least one female co-star who got him so riled up that he was willing to go out on a limb and be catty (all in the name of actorly integrity around the time he starred in The Lindbergh Kidnapping Case he spoke about the craft of acting and one person who apparently didn’t bother with it “What I’m speaking about is discipline,” he said. “It always comes back to that. I don’t care how you get prepared even if it’s standing on your head in the morning The most pure thing that an actor can do is be prepared “Any actor who doesn’t and gets paid an enormous amount of money like Goldie Hawn did when I was working with her on The Girl from Petrovka came to the set two hours late and doesn’t know her lines off the set,’ and gotten another actress.” It seems that at such an early point in his career Hopkins was willing to be a little more confrontational and talkative in interviews The Girl from Petrovka was released in 1974 and followed an American journalist who falls in love with an undocumented Russian ballerina (Hawn) while on assignment in the Soviet Union star-turning stint on the sketch comedy show Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In and had won the Academy Award for ‘Best Supporting Actress’ for her role in the comedy Cactus Flower in 1970 gifted with perfect comic timing and the sort of charm that lights up a screen and actors like [Marilyn] Monroe or Hawn have brought an appalling reputation to the whole profession,” he said ‘The only thing you owe the public is a good performance.'” Whether Hopkins would have admitted it or not Hawn has certainly done her fair share of that in her lifetime It occupied a building on Sretenka Street, while artist Vladimir Favorsky made a ceiling painting at the showroom and decorated the façade with a sgraffito frieze. The exhibition presents a manu propria original façade sketch depicting a mother with a child, an ancient Muse and contemporary women, such as athletes, workers and students, which has not been exhibited anywhere before. There is also a unique documentary film shot in the Fashion House with a fashion show coverage — from sweatsuits to elegant maxi dresses. It was the Fashion House that opened doors for ordinary women to feast their eyes on the latest styles and gave feedback to fashion designers. The exhibition at the Moscow Museum displays a catwalk extending into the hall as an allusion to the long-ago fashion shows, while female visitors can go along to feel like at a real runway show and take a picture. The Moscow Fashion Center opened during the Great Patriotic War in April 1944 to cooperate with all garment factories in Moscow rather than with individual groups. In 1955, it led regional and republican fashion houses and was renamed the All-Union Fashion Center (ODMO) to become the flagman fashion house embracing virtually all USSR regions and republics, the ODMO-led fashion house network surviving until the 1990 s. They published fashion books as reporting, and two of them are presented at the exhibition with a piece of fabric attached under each picture. Although there is an opinion that ODMO designers were anonymous, this is not the case as the books did hide their names. The prestigious Fashion Magazine stood alone among fashion-related editions. Although it did not belong to the All-Union Fashion Center, its editorial team located in the same building collaborated with ODMO artists and fashion designers and from time to time they also published some patterns; however, their fashions were sometimes too complicated for home sewing. The magazine exhibits demonstrate how its design was changing over time. When preparing the exhibition, the curator decided to check in practice what things needlewomen could sew using these patterns. The results of the experiment — dresses and ensembles that have been specially sewn for the exhibition — can be seen on the dress forms; although vintage, today they look quite vivid and fashionable. The occupiers carried out fire attacks on 17 settlements, killing and wounding civilians. Russian military carried out seven fire attacks on Avdiivka. Also affected were Bakhmut, Kramatorsk Kurakhovo, Velyka Novosilka, Ocheretyne, Severnoe, villages Kamenka, Vesele, Vodyanoe, Severnoe, Lastochkino, Tonenke, Maksymilyanivka, Georgiivka, Karlivka, Petrovka. The occupiers hit civilians with Grad, Hurricane, artillery, mortars and rockets. 4 residential buildings, a gas station and a car dealership were damaged. Four missile strikes on Kramatorsk were recorded. Russian shells hit the infrastructure. According to preliminary data, people were not injured. From the “Grad” SSR, Russian troops attacked the village of Georgievka of the Marin community, killed a man. Civilians in Kurakhove and Petrovka village of Toretska hromada were killed by artillery shelling. The shelling does not stop in Bakhmut. As a result of enemy attacks, civilians were killed and injured, two private houses were damaged. We have wounded in Maksymilyanivka and Avdiyivka. Police and SBU opened criminal proceedings under Article 438 (violation of laws and customs of war) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. With the help of the police, 92 more people were evacuated, since the beginning of the mandatory evacuation more than 30,800 people, among them 4646 - children, 1882 - people with disabilities. We use cookies to provide you with better navigation on our website. For more information, go to the "Privacy Policy" link. By continuing to use our site, you automatically agree to the use of these technologies. Daily news, insight and opinion from the world of restaurants 11-Aug-2023 Last updated on 11-Aug-2023 at 10:35 GMT The group is understood to be taking on the former 28-50 Wine Workshop & Kitchen site at 96 Draycott Avenue for the new restaurant. The Izakaya restaurant will serve a menu that is split into two sections, with the first devoted to fresh sushi and rolls and the second using a Josper grill. All dishes will be served as small plates for sharing. “We’re really looking forward to welcoming Cutfish Sushi Bistro to South Kensington. Draycott Avenue is an enviable location and the restaurant will be in good company with nearby stores including Chanel and The Conran Shop,” says David Rawlinson, founder of Restaurant Property, which completed on the sale of the Draycott Avenue site. “We’re so pleased to have sold this premium location to this cutting edge new concept restaurant.” Cutfish Sushi Bistro was founded by restaurateur Alexander Oganezov and operates four restaurants in Moscow in Bolshoi Kozikhinsky 17, Lesnaya 5, Petrovka 12/1, and Presnenskaya Embankment 6/2. Whet your appetite with beers from the European UnionPaid for and content provided by European Union Staffing costs rising — how smart hiring solutions are helping UK restaurantsPaid for and content provided by YoungOnes Lost Revenue from Downtime: How It Cripples Your Delivery App Visibility and SalesPaid for and content provided by Deliverect The enemy fired shells at 13 settlements: the cities of Avdiyivka Destroyed and damaged 11 civilian objects — 6 residential buildings Russian troops launched an airstrike on Petrovka with a missile “R-37" There was no information about the victims Two aircraft bombs FAB-250 were dropped by the Russian army on Toretsk the administration building and the workshop of the enterprise were damaged we have wounded in Maksimovka and Novomarkovo Police and SBU opened criminal proceedings under Article 438 (violation of laws and customs of war) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine We use cookies to provide you with better navigation on our website you automatically agree to the use of these technologies Residential buildings in Moscow boast an inimitable history and especially places close to the centre of the city There are many examples such as the house on 2ndTroitsky Pereulok built by the staff architect of the Trinity Lavra of St Sergius A house on Petrovsky Pereulok was where Anatoly Mariengof and Sergei Yesenin lived What puts these dwellings in the same category is a Moscow restoration programme which will soon give them a new lease of life Blocks of flats that are architecturally and historically interesting are being done up and this includes the facades cellars plus utility services of the buildings a government expert review panel has endorsed 87 related structural repair jobs The Structural Repairs Fund (SRF) is planning to submit a total of 147 facilities before the end of the year Mos.ru took a walk around the city centre with Georgy Makeyev winner of the Best Moscow Guide competition and visited several houses slated for a soon-to-start overhaul located near the Church of the Life-Giving Trinity on former Troitskaya Sloboda this locality has been owned by the Trinity Lavra of St Sergius This house was the work of Alexander Latkov after the Great Patriotic War (WWII) two storeys and lifts were added to the structure What distinguishes the house on 2nd Troitsky Pereulok is that it was rebuilt a whole lot of times.  It seriously needs a lot of work carried out on it as it’s been neglected and is plagued with things like leaking pipes and various other critical problems It should have been done up a long time ago Things like the plumbing and electrical wiring inside such memorial buildings are often quite a puzzle in their own right that needs to be unraveled Engineers have to understand their general pattern and make-up and know the right way to go about dealing with all the hurdles The technology and methods to be used during structural repairs on a house of architectural and historic interest are determined by a project plans drawn up  in strict conformity with the Subject of Protection document that states clearly what parts of the structure and décor must not be altered if they should interfere with the Subject of Protection plan Plastic windows for example are not allowed in memorial structures or the use a colour gamut in entrance halls other than the original tones as specified in the Subject of Protection plan Any restoration job is coordinated with the Moscow’s Department of Cultural Heritage which guarantees the safe-keeping and integrity of a house and its Subject of Protection if there are minutes of the general meeting held with the owners who should give their consent to this or that kind of work being carried out   It is also necessary to get permission from the Department of Cultural Heritage “The Structural Repairs Fund is paying close attention to residential buildings of architectural and historical interest We really want to do them up very carefully indeed so that they preserve their original appearance for decades to come,” Sergei Krasnov Second on the list is on the Boulevard Ring where the towers and walls of the White City (Bely Gorod) had once been located.  The plot of land inside the walls was called “white,” because it was not liable to be taxed (unlike the “black” land of artisans and traders) and was owned by royals The White City wall was dismantled after it lost its importance as a military fortification and boulevards were laid out on its site Under an executive order issued by Emperor Paul I hotels were built at the entrance to the city 30/7 Petrovka Street is one of these former hotels Only five of these have survived in the city Almost all the buildings in this category were designed by the architect The house being prepared for structural repairs was originally a two-storey affair The ground floor houses shops and restaurants fish establishments flourished in the area there are three fish restaurants at the intersection of Strastnoy and Petrovsky boulevards The first and second floors house flats and offices “It is hard to tell at first sight that the house has living quarters The entrance hall is on the side,” Sergei Krasnov specifies a whole lot of revenue houses were built on Petrovsky Pereulok for Moscow entrepreneur Alexei Bakhrushin “A revenue house is the same as a block of flats the only difference being that flats were rented and could not be bought Vladimir Gilyarovsky or Feodor Chaliapin never owned flats in revenue houses They rented them,” Georgy Makeyev says the most fine-looking fireplaces and the richest stucco moulding were on the first and second floors of a revenue house The flats on higher floors were more modest and cramped Sergei Yesenin was his lodger between 1918 and 1923  There is a memorial plaque to this effect on the façade of the building A structural repairs project for the house is yet to be finalised According to surveyors it might be  some eight or nine months before the job can get going The SRF will soon submit the project plans to the government expert review panel The next destination is 19 Petrovka Street a revenue house built for merchant Korovin in the 19th century currently the Red October confectionery factory there is a confectionary shop in its place while the space under today’s supermarket was once a beauty parlor known in its day as Master Ivan Andreyev’s barbershop The centrally located cultural heritage sites have few remaining residential flats for it is more beneficial to use the areas for commercial purposes it is certain to be included in the structural repairs programme It may seem that 19 Petrovka Street does not need any repairs for its façade is in apple-pie condition and the cellar need some serious work done on them A structural repairs project is yet to be drawn up and experts are only just beginning to compile all the documents The neighbouring building (20/1 Petrovka Street) at the intersection of Petrovka and Petrovskiye Liniyi Street awaits renovation as well This part of the city has always been one of the most expensive neighbourhoods in Moscow once lived there and Moscow’s first car showroom was opened in the same location A structural repairs project for the house has been made and approved by the government expert review panel  All kinds of work aside from electrical repairs will be done after the winter period Quite a complicated job to get permission to start on the work  an overhaul of a house of this sort will take only slightly longer than an ordinary block of flats replacing water pipes and other utilities at a block of flats or a memorial building takes the same amount of time there are specific kinds of work that require a more meticulous approach If a historical façade boasts rich décor Neither will proprietors have to pay much for the repairs Moscow has imposed a single minimal contribution for structural repairs which is the same for blocks of flats and cultural heritage sites The amount of payment depends on the area of the premises regardless of whether they are residential or commercial The city shoulders the additional cost of renovation at historical buildings More than 8,000 blocks of flats have been done up under the structural repairs programme in Moscow with another 4,500 buildings to be put in order within the next three years The interactive map will indicate exactly where repairs are about to start.  Buildings on legs and ship-like buildings: Moscow’s most unusual residential structures Different demographic and social factors have resulted in the abandoning of many traditional orchards in Bulgaria over the past years depriving us from precious sorts of fruit trees The Culinary Secrets of Nature 3 campaign will take place in April 2016 as part of the initiative for preservation of traditional fruit tree sorts The goal is the restoration of the now vanishing Petrovka Aivania and Buhavitsa sorts of apple trees the Friends of the Vratsa Balkan Club and a chain of restaurants offering traditional cuisine from the area – these are the initiators Thus money will be collected for the cause WWF’s Raina Popova comments more on the subject: “When one goes to the grocery store for apples Only the village yards of our grandparents now host these apple sorts aiming at the preservation of biodiversity and the popularization of those sorts but even a few saplings planted in front of the block of flats could support the biodiversity.” A model orchard will be developed on the territory of the natural park with the purpose of the Bulgarian sorts’ preservation The garden will be maintained by volunteers so far but the WWF hopes that one day it will turn into a genetic bank what makes it so important to consume local fruit sorts “We grow up within the same climate as the fruit trees around which automatically means we are most suitable for each other in terms of body and immunity The goal of the initiative is to reach more people as consumers are the ones who dictate the rules He grows traditional and less known sorts of apples and cherries in the village of Dragovishtitsa but admits that Bulgarian fruiters do face difficulties: “Taste is not looked for these days – people want a minimum of 25 mm in diameter for the cherries Plants should have been opened for the purchase and processing of those fruits last year people here produced more than a ton of cherries each but the purchase centers refused to buy them and closed The cherries were good for nothing in less than a couple of days They laugh at us in terms of attitude and prices I see the solution in the broader advertising of our production There should be competition and not a single buyer We can’t compete with the neighboring countries as cherries ripen earlier there and the subsidies are much bigger,” Georgi Ivanov says in conclusion According to Bulgarian Orthodox tradition it is customary on major Christian feast days to make a voluntary offering known as kurban this involves the distribution of food among Christians Only on the Day of Bravery and Holiday of the Bulgarian Army (May 6) we will provide our visitors with the opportunity to enter three of perhaps the most interesting machines from our outdoor exhibition Dozens of enthusiasts and nature lovers will kick off the 44th edition of the Move and Win campaign with a spring hike to Bozhur Hut The meeting point will be the Vladishki Bridge in Veliko Tarnovo we will provide our visitors with the opportunity to enter three. english@bnr.bg Victor Yushkovsky and Oleg Vishnyakov broke Two sources in the real estate market, close to the businessmen’s, and Director of a large real estate development company told about it to LIGA.net The owners of one of the most closed groups in Ukraine — ADS — decided to break Four of the nine Kiev assets — Shopping Center and Hotel Cosmopolitan and the building Petrovka Megamarket — passed into the Oleg Vishnyakov control The remaining five assets — Shopping Center Terminal in Brovary Megastore buildings on the Gorky and Surikov streets and building on the highway Odessa fourth kilometer — to senior partner Victor Yuskovsky He also will oversee the work of the Megamarket foodchain and Butterfly Cinemas The ADS group is one of the largest development companies in Kiev Victor Yushkovsky was governed by its business The Company was a pioneer in many directions of commercial real estate and retail — the co-owner of the RetailNet Consulting Company Oleksandr Lanetsky says they first opened format Cash&Carry and also the first multihall cinema with the quality sound Butterfly at Petrovka” In 2009 first aquapark was opened in Brovary — SEC Terminal ADS preferred to develop for their own money and almost never borrowed unlike other developers “The development pace is lower at us than for many competitors — one of the company managers said to LIGA.net the magazine Forbes Ukraine estimated the group ADS annual income from rental real estate in UAH 220-260 mln Outlet Center Manufaktura square of about 25,000 sq Inspection of State architectural-building control stopped working in July 2013 in connection with the understatement of the construction category with a V to III The conflict was resolved within a few weeks The first information about the readiness of the partners to diverge appeared on the market a year and a half ago The head of the large food discounters chain told to LIGA.net that they were willing to sell own development objects and Megamarket chain “Not all supermarkets has good places as now the Megastore is focused on clients with incomes above average,” — says Director of the trade chain suppliers Ukrainian Association Aleksey Doroshenko Discounters are popular the last three years among the population Why would the Megastore founders decided to divide Different views on the development of business could be the reason when one insists on the dynamic development and the other takes the opposite point of view — Atlas Advisors Company partner Aleksey Raschupkin said “We are talking about a civilized divorce in this case this is a positive moment,” — he says Prices for commercial property are low now and the business itself is sold with a multiplier of 6-7 — the co-owner of the real estate development Company XXI Century Oleg Salmin adds so the assets have fallen in price over the last three years three times” The market can win back losses in the next few years AUCHAN looks to buy the Caravan hypermarkets chain store Please enable JS and disable any ad blocker