history
Notes: 92
Byron's Line: "Butchered to Make a Roman Holiday"
The line "Butchered to make a Roman holiday" from Byron's "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage" became a symbol of gladiatorial combat. In its Russian…
"We Are Peaceful People, But Our Armored Train Stands Ready on a Side Track"
The story of the famous line "We are peaceful people, but our armored train stands ready on a side track," from a 1935 song by Svetlov and Dunaevsky…
"The Ballad of the Nails" by Nikolai Tikhonov
"The Ballad of the Nails" is a landmark poem by Nikolai Tikhonov, written in 1919 at the height of the Russian Civil War. It celebrates the heroism…
Terror as a Tool of Revolutionary Power
Lenin's 1922 letter instructing the justice ministry to legally formalize terror rather than pretend to abolish it — the real historical source…
"There's No Sun for Me"
Valery Roslavsky was quoting lines from Vladimir Mayakovsky's poem "Lilichka! Instead of a Letter." The image shows Lilya Brik, who posed for the…
Gorky's Phrase: "A Thing Stronger Than Goethe's Faust"
Stalin praised Maxim Gorky's fairy tale "The Girl and Death," declaring that "this thing is stronger than Goethe's Faust." His words became the…
Academic Painters: Tradition and Canon in Art
European academicism in painting: its origins in the royal art academies, its golden age, and its eventual eclipse by Realism and Impressionism.
Alexander Dmitriyevich Tsyurupa: the "Fainting from Hunger" Legend
Alexander Dmitrievich Tsyurupa (1870–1928) was a prominent Bolshevik who held key posts in the Soviet state.
Arms of the Roman Legionary: History and Use
How Roman weaponry evolved over eleven centuries, borrowing the gladius from the Celtiberians and building the first true mass-production war machine.
August 17: the day Russia defaulted on its debt
The events of "Black Monday," August 17, 1998, when Russia defaulted on its domestic debt and the ruble collapsed.
Basic Military Training (NVP) in the USSR
A detailed reference article on Basic Military Training (NVP) in the USSR: its history, goals, curriculum, field camps, the role of DOSAAF, its…
Blockfuhrer
The Blockfuhrer (German Blockfuhrer) was an official in the system of Nazi concentration camps, one of the key links in the machinery of mass killing…
Bogdykhans: China's Ming and Qing emperors in Russian usage
Bogdykhan, the old Russian term for China's Ming and Qing emperors, and why Roman calls provincial 1990s bosses that.
Carl von Clausewitz. Carl Philipp Gottlieb von Clausewitz
Carl von Clausewitz, the Prussian military theorist and author of On War, famous for defining war as the continuation of politics by other means.
Colts and Smith & Wessons: Legendary American Gun Brands
The two gunmaking dynasties behind Roman's daydream of swapping out every pager in the room for a Wild West six-shooter.
Contemporaries of Romulus
The novel's phrase alludes to Pushkin's "Eugene Onegin" ("from Romulus down to our own day"); who Romulus's contemporaries actually were.
Cooperative Restaurants in the USSR: a Breath of Freedom at the Twilight of an Era
The 1988 law that legalized private enterprise and spawned Moscow's first cooperative restaurants — a revelation for a country raised on state…
Cro-Magnons and troglodytes: from anthropology to insult
Why calling a bodybuilder a 'Cro-Magnon' or a 'troglodyte' was 1990s intelligentsia shorthand for brawn without brains.
Dante Alighieri (1265-1321)
Dante Alighieri (full name Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri) was born in Florence in the last third of May, 1265. His fate became tragically…
Dersu Uzala: the real taiga guide behind Roman's bitter joke about "the local Dersu Uzala"
The real Dersu Uzala, the Nanai/Udege hunter and guide who befriended explorer Vladimir Arsenyev and became the subject of Akira Kurosawa's…
Doctor Loder: the German physician behind Roman's "natural Doctor Loder" quip
The life of Justus Christian Loder, the German anatomist whose name may be the root of the Russian word for "slacker."
Dominus and Individual
The Latin "dominus" (master, status, power over others) versus "individuum" (an independent, indivisible unit of identity).
The Moai of Easter Island: History and Mystery
Easter Island and the enigmatic moai statues: the story of their discovery, the mysteries of an ancient civilization, the birdman cult, the…
"Eureka!": the Story of a Legendary Discovery and Archimedes's Legacy
The phrase "Eureka!" (Ancient Greek heureka — "I have found it!") went down in history as a symbol of sudden insight. According to legend, Archimedes…
The Bolshevik Expropriations: "Loot the Looters!"
A historical background note on Bolshevik expropriations of 1905-1910: the 1907 Tiflis bank robbery, the activities of Kamo and Leonid Krasin, the…
Fanny Kaplan: the Attempt on Lenin's Life
The would-be assassin of Lenin, and the darkly ironic joke buried in "running late like Fanny Kaplan for the works."
The Ration-Coupon System in 1980s USSR: the Return of Shortages
In the 1980s, the Soviet Union saw the return of a card-based system of distributing goods — a phenomenon many considered a relic of wartime.
Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling (1775-1854)
Friedrich Schelling was one of the greatest German idealist philosophers, a figure of Romantic philosophy. Born into the family of a Protestant…
Gold Embroiderers and Gold-Thread Embroidery
Gold-thread embroidery (also known as gold embroidery) is an ancient technique of hand embroidery using gilded metal and silver threads. The value of…
Grenadiers: from Elite Bomb-Throwers to a Symbol of Martial Valor
Grenadiers (from the French grenadiers, where grenade means "grenade") were elite units of infantry and cavalry, originally created to storm enemy…
Harpsichord
The harpsichord is a stringed keyboard instrument of the Baroque era, in which sound is produced by plucking the strings. Its golden age ran from the…
Kama Itil
Note to the chapter: Yurik, the Ideal Manager
Landsknechts (German: Landsknechte), Elite German Mercenaries of the Renaissance
The flamboyant, brutally effective German mercenaries of the Renaissance — Zhorik's jokey nickname of choice for his own office staff.
Life turned out great
"Life turned out great" is a joke from the early 1990s and a poster from the mid-90s
Master: the word behind "the Master passed it along"
The many meanings of the word "master" in Russian and English, and the crucial connotation of dominance the English word carries that the Russian one…
Minesweeper
The Windows 3.1 puzzle game that, in 1993, doubled as unofficial mouse-training software for a country only just discovering the graphical desktop.
'Minimum minimorum': 1990s tax-dodging slang
The 1990s business-slang term for paying taxes at the bare minimum, and the prison-slang word for 'a tenth' behind it.
MMM and the Era of Financial Pyramids in 1990s Russia
The MMM company was founded in 1989 by three co-founders: brothers Sergei and Vyacheslav Mavrodi, and Olga Melnikova (Vyacheslav's first wife). The…
Moscow Music Peace Festival
The 1989 Luzhniki "Rock for Peace" festival — Bon Jovi, Scorpions, and Ozzy Osbourne playing to a billion-strong TV audience, the shirt Roman is…
Nordic Corpse: From Archaeology to Cinema
The "Nordic corpse": Viking burial rites and the cult Soviet phrase "Nordic character, composed" from Seventeen Moments of Spring.
Gorgias's Three Theses: "Nothing Exists"
A detailed analysis of the famous theses of the ancient Greek sophist Gorgias on non-being, unknowability, and the inexpressibility of truth. The…
Pat and Patachon: the Comic Duo Who Conquered Silent Film
The Danish silent-film comedy duo Pat and Patachon (Fyrtårnet og Bivognen), international cinema's first "tall-and-thin, short-and-fat" double act.
The Soviet Pioneer Camp
The Soviet Pioneer camp was an educational and recreational institution for children aged 7 to 15 -- its history, types, organization, and role in…
Pope Urban II: the pontiff whose Clermont sermon launches Roman's dream campaign
The life and papacy of Urban II, initiator of the Crusades, from his Cluniac reforms to his fateful 1095 sermon at Clermont.
"I, of Course, Despise My Fatherland from Head to Toe": the Context of Pushkin's Famous Line
The line "I certainly despise my fatherland from head to toe — but it irks me if a foreigner shares this feeling with me," from a private letter by…
RCA Colortrak 2000: the television standing in for a fireplace in Roman's new house
The RCA Colortrak 2000, a symbol of vanished American technological supremacy that read as "elite" in 1990s Russia even as it was being junked back…
Russia 1993-1998: from Constitutional Crisis to Default
A detailed analysis of Russia's development from 1993 to 1998: the constitutional crisis, economic reforms, privatization, and the default of August…
The Apparatus of FSB-Seconded Officers
The practice of attaching retired and active intelligence-service officers to civilian enterprises and organizations has deep roots in the Soviet…
Sharp Corporation: the TV brand playing Roman's own murder
The history of Sharp Corporation, from a Tokyo metalworker's ever-sharp pencil to a pioneer of Japanese radio, television, and display technology.
Shields and Swords of Ancient Rome
The scutum, parma, clipeus, and caetra of Roman soldiers and gladiators, and the gladius, spatha, and sica that armed them.
Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum: the Latin maxim behind the "parabellum" pistol
The Roman military maxim "if you want peace, prepare for war" -- its origins in Vegetius and Epaminondas, and its link to the Luger "Parabellum"…
Sic Transit Gloria Mundi: "Thus Passes the Glory of the World"
The Latin catchphrase "Sic transit gloria mundi" translates as "Thus passes the glory of the world" and is one of the best-known philosophical…
Sycophant: Historical and Modern Context
The Ancient Greek sycophant, a professional informer and blackmailer whose name evolved into the modern word for a flatterer.
The "Democrats": Soviet slang for the Eastern Bloc, and what it revealed about the USSR itself
Why Soviet citizens called Eastern Bloc neighbors 'the Democrats' — and what that word's slow curdling into resentment revealed about the USSR itself.
The Report "On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences"
Khrushchev's 1956 "Secret Speech" denouncing Stalin — the moment Zhorik points to as the real start of a perestroika that, in his telling, still…
The GKChP: an Attempted Coup in the USSR
The failed August 1991 putsch by Soviet hardliners — the event that broke the USSR's central authority for good and set the stage for the world Roman…
The Pied Piper of Hamelin and "the Children of Hamelin"
According to a legend that presumably arose in the 13th century, a tragic story took place in the town of Hamelin (in modern Lower Saxony, Germany)…
The Chiton and the Chlamys: Don't Get Them Confused
Ancient Greek clothing included the chiton, himation, and chlamys, combining simplicity and elegance. These garments influenced Roman fashion…
The Condottieri
The condottieri (from the Italian condottiere, literally "leader") were mercenary military commanders in Italy from the 14th to 16th centuries…
The Faceted Glass
The faceted glass is one of the most recognizable symbols of the Soviet era, firmly tied to 20th-century Russian culture, daily life, and aesthetics…
The Farewell Komsomol Song
"The Farewell Komsomol Song," also known by its opening line "The order has come: he goes west...", is one of the most poignant songs of the Soviet…
The First Crusade: the massacre and plunder behind Roman's desert dream
The real history of the First Crusade (1096-1099) — Pope Urban II's call to arms, the doomed People's Crusade, the sack of Jerusalem, and its…
The Former State Duma Deputy: from Literary Image to Historical Reality
The history of deputies of Imperial Russia's tsarist State Dumas, and the fate of the character Kisa Vorobyaninov from the novel "The Twelve Chairs"…
The Grain
An old apothecary's unit of weight, once used to measure medicine and precious metal — and the source of the idiom "not one grain of understanding."
The Guillotine
The guillotine and the "little sheep": from the French Revolution to popular slang.
The Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit - the Third Person of the Holy Trinity, of equal honor and one in essence with God the Father and the Son.
Russia's 1993 Currency Reform
The real, chaotic Russian banknote exchange, a strict thirty-dollar limit per person, that hits at almost exactly the moment this chapter takes place.
The Lyudmila Department Store
A Soviet-era Moscow department store by Kursky Station, part of the "Mosodezhda" retail network — now vanished, but a fixture of an older…
The May 1993 Demonstration: a Bloody May Day in an Era of Change
How a traditional May Day march turned into a bloody clash between riot police and a crowd that included the very same pro-democracy intelligentsia…
The Most Important of the Arts: Cinema and the Circus
"Of all the arts, for us the cinema is the most important" is a famous line attributed to Lenin, which became one of the key ideological slogans of…
The Okean Store Chain: the seafood chain behind "half-dead like a carp in the tank"
The Soviet Okean seafood-store chain and the real "Fish Case" corruption scandal that brought down its top officials in the early 1980s.
The Pale Horse: the Four Horsemen vision that overtakes Roman mid-shower
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse from Revelation 6 — their colors, symbolism, and the centuries of theological interpretation surrounding them.
The Parabellum Pistol (Luger P08)
The Parabellum pistol (Luger P08) is a legendary firearm developed by Georg Luger in 1898. Known for its high accuracy, comfortable ergonomics, and…
The Partisan: the ceremonial polearm behind "gray eyes like two blades"
The history of the partisan (protazan), the ornate ceremonial polearm carried by royal bodyguards and honor guards from the 16th to 18th centuries.
The Protests in Moscow: The Constitutional Crisis, October 2, 1993
By the end of September 1993 the constitutional crisis in Russia had reached its climax. After Decree No. 1400 dissolving the Supreme Soviet was…
The Quadriga
The quadriga was an ancient Roman two-wheeled chariot drawn by four horses, a symbol of triumph and mastery. It was used in ceremonial processions…
"The Revolt of the Masses" by Jose Ortega y Gasset
José Ortega y Gasset's 1930 treatise on mass society, and its bleak vision of an "average man" who takes control of public life without the culture…
The Shelling of the White House: The Constitutional Crisis, October 4, 1993
On the night of October 3-4 Yeltsin declared a state of emergency in Moscow. On the morning of October 4 the storming of the House of Soviets (the…
The Socialist Revolutionaries (SRs)
The Russian Empire's largest revolutionary party and its Combat Organization, notorious for political assassinations — and one of the past lives…
The Spanish Boot: Origin and Description
The Spanish boot, a medieval leg-crushing torture device, and its place among other instruments of judicial torture.
The Stakhanovite Movement and Alexei Stakhanov
The Stakhanovite movement in the USSR: the story of miner Alexei Stakhanov, who set a record in 1935. The methods of the Stakhanovites, the…
The New Year's storming of Grozny, 1994-95
The New Year's 1994-95 storming of Grozny, the First Chechen War's most disastrous battle, and why so many of its veterans ended up in corporate…
"The Buguruslan Tachanka, All Four Wheels": a Song Line
The Civil War-era cavalry song Roman hums, relocated as a joke to a real, unglamorous oil town in the Orenburg region.
The V&A: the museum Prince Albert built to fix British design
The Victoria and Albert Museum: born from Prince Albert's alarm at British design after the Great Exhibition of 1851.
Voucher Auctions in Russia, 1993-1995
The mass-privatization mechanism that let a handful of insiders quietly buy out entire factories while most ordinary citizens, confused or simply…
"Money Begets Money": a Quote from Thomas Fuller
The seventeenth-century English clergyman and aphorist behind the line Zhorik quotes about money only ever coming from money.
Trekhgorka and ZIL: Moscow's Largest Industrial Enterprises
Trekhgornaya Manufaktura is Moscow's oldest textile enterprise, founded in 1799 by the merchant Vasily Prokhorov. ZIL was the first automobile…
The Constitutional Crisis in the Russian Federation, 1992–1993
The constitutional crisis grew out of fundamental disagreements between two political camps over the country's path forward. Boris Yeltsin and his…
Tyrannosaurus Rex, or T-Rex
Tyrannosaurus Rex was one of the most famous predators of the Late Cretaceous period. It lived in North America, reaching 12-14 meters in length, up…
"All Is Vanity of Vanities": Ecclesiastes on Chasing After the Wind
The phrase “vanity and a chasing after the wind” from the Book of Ecclesiastes expresses the idea of the fleeting and meaningless nature of earthly…
VOKhR: Non-Departmental Security Under the Internal Affairs Agencies
Vnevedomstvennaya okhrana (VOKhR, non-departmental security guard) — specialized units under the internal affairs agencies, created to guard state…
Yeomen: the social class of the crusader dreaming of a peer's daughter
Who the yeomen of medieval England were, their fame as longbow archers, and why a yeoman's son could never marry a peer's daughter.