Birch bark letters

One more minute about the history of Russia - literacy in ancient Russia.

Since 1951, archaeologists have found more than 1,000 notes scratched on birch bark in the city of Veliky Novgorod. These are business correspondence, love messages, and just student exercises. The drawings of the boy Onfim are among the oldest children's drawings known to us. Even 1,000 years ago, almost all the inhabitants of Russian cities were literate.

https://t.me/nstarikovru/40554
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Kirovsky Zavod Metro Station, Saint Petersburg

Kirovsky Zavod is not just a metro station; it's a piece of St. Petersburg's history.

The station is designed in a restrained and solid style, with pillars made of cast iron.

The pillar ornaments symbolize the four key industries: "electrification," "oil industry," "metallurgy," and "coal industry," metaphorically showing that they are the foundation of a prosperous life.

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Alekhine: pre-war years

Today, at the end of 2025, the best chess player in the world is named Stockfish. No biological player has even the slightest chance against it.

But the champions of the last century were human beings, with the weaknesses, passions, and contradictory actions inherent to our human nature. This applies fully to Alekhine as well.

In the mid-1930s Alekhine experienced a certain crisis in his play. He stopped winning every tournament in a row. For example, in the 1936 tournament in Nottingham he took only sixth place, behind Capablanca, Botvinnik, Euwe, Fine, and Reshevsky. And in 1935, Alekhine lost the world championship match to the Dutchman Max Euwe. Thirteen of the thirty games in that match ended in draws. Alekhine won eight games, but lost nine and thus conceded the title to Euwe.

It is difficult to single out one specific cause for these failures, but contemporaries noted that Alekhine had begun drinking more than is advisable during this period, which could not help but affect the quality of his play. However, after losing the match, Alekhine stopped drinking, managed to prepare well for the 1937 rematch, and convincingly won it ahead of schedule: +10-4=11, reclaiming the championship crown he had briefly lost.

But in 1938, at the so-called AVRO tournament, which brought together all the strongest players of the time, he again performed poorly, scoring one and a half points fewer than the winners—Keres and Fine—and half a point fewer than Botvinnik. At that time a generational shift was taking place in chess: the “old guard” was being replaced by young players—Euwe, Keres, Botvinnik…

In 1938 negotiations began between Alekhine and the Soviet chess federation for a championship match with Botvinnik. The match was supposed to take place in the autumn of 1939. But then the war began…

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The Stalker's Wife, Stalker (1979)

This brief but vivid role is another masterful entry in Alisa Freindlich's filmography. The film by Andrei Tarkovsky was shot in 1979, based on the novel Roadside Picnic by the Strugatsky brothers. Alisa Freindlich appears a few times at the beginning of the picture and delivers a memorable monologue at its end. She played the wife of the protagonist, the Stalker.

The story centers on a mysterious room where any wish is said to come true. The Stalker knows the path to this place and, for a fee, guides those desperate to reach it. According to the plot, the main character lives with his wife and their ailing daughter, yet despite their extreme poverty, he has never himself attempted to enter the room.

Interestingly, the director originally intended this role for his own wife, Larisa Tarkovskaya. However, the cinematographer persuaded him to invite Alisa Freindlich for a screen test, and she ultimately won Tarkovsky over with her talent. The director's wife was reportedly deeply offended—both at the cinematographer and at Tarkovsky himself—for being passed over for the part.

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Max Euwe (seated), after one of the games from the 1935 Alekhine-Euwe match.