Russian artists in the late 19th century excelled in narrative storytelling. Take Konstantin Makovsky's The Kissing Ceremony (at the Feast of Boyar Morozov), for example. Romantic, idealized and nostalgic, it captures one of the most suspenseful scenes in Alexei Tolstoy’s (a second cousin of Leo Tolstoy) 1862

Russia is rich in folktales, but one of my favorites is about a city that disappeared under a small lake when threatened with an attack by Batu Khan and the Golden Horde (the Mongols). There are many layers to this story set in the 13th century but, at its core,

The fire broke out early evening in Oxford Street in the offices above a store, when irate customers complained that the notes they had received at the cash register had turned into blank pieces of paper. Police have not commented on their investigations, which are considered unsolved at this time.

The conversation upstairs did not go well. A nasty exchange. "I thought we made it clear to you last time," said Fagot. "After Evita... You thought we wouldn't come back? You thought we wouldn't notice anything? You don't think that fire

To find out if you are an agnostic, start here (Putin's Kiss) or here (Pictures at an Exhibition) or here (The Poisoning of Litvinenko). YOU ARE AN AGNOSTIC This means you think anything is possible. You think it is possible for contradictions to be explained. Indeed you don&

Like any other country, Russia relives its past myths and they can be bloody, which is why Russia's artists have frequently attacked the culture of violence by showing its ugliness. In the deeply upsetting painting above, Ivan the Terrible embraces his dying son. What isn't shown

The inspiration for Cats is said to be T.S. Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats (1939). Or was it Behemoth in Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita? In this painting you can see Sophia Kramskaya and Mr. Mistoffelees at rest... The inspiration

(play) "In the heart of a Russian, it's always winter," wrote Yuri Kozyrev in Time Magazine. As a courageous photojournalist, Kozyrev has seen the ugly and the violent many times over, from Chechnya to Baghdad. But he's channeling Gogol, Dostoyevsky, Gorky, maybe Tolstoy... Writers

At the hedge fund company they had two things to sort out. First, Christies had a request from Moscow to show Picasso's Angel and one of the potential buyers was thought to be Mrs. Putin. "Well this complicates things. If the Russians are interested I think we

To find out if you are a cynic, start here (Putin's Kiss) or here (Pictures at an Exhibition) or here (The Poisoning of Litvinenko). YOU ARE A CYNIC Do you believe in anything really? Politics maybe. Everyone is a potential enemy in Russia: Litvinenko had many enemies and

Margaritas and Madonnas Evita began life in 1976 as a collection of songs, possibly inspired by Margarita from Bulgakov's The Master & Margarita. There is a chance that the key song back then was "Don't cry for me, Mother Russia," but Lloyd-Webber and Tim

In Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita, Pontius Pilate ambivalently consigns a terrorist, who suspiciously resembles Jesus Christ, to execution. Was the novel an inspiration for the rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar? Or was it inspired by Nikolai Ge's brooding painting Quod Est Veritas? (What is

She was a woman on fire, spotted at King’s Cross station – her halo up-piled black and beehived above her head. The pale-faced man with the video camera and the bad teeth – everyone there had bad teeth – followed her across the platform. A killer. When he got back to the

"I always enjoy London in the rain. Don't see why Russians hate the climate here. Like Russia is any better?" The man turned to the woman next to him. "They were Russian Mafia, you know. I'd rather go with that guy who did

Did you start here? Vrubel's paintings are dark, possessed, hallucinations - this was from 1890 and it is his most famous painting. We live in a fallen world, a world for pessimists. Art fans are drawn to the innovative use of color and the iridescent sheen, as a

Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker occupies an ambiguous place in Russian ballet because, even more than Swan Lake, it has been adopted in the West as a quintessential family ballet, devoid of its original Russian essence, pushed out by sugar and spice and all things nice. The Russians are aware

To find out if you are an optimist, start here (Putin's Kiss) or here (Pictures at an Exhibition) or here (The Poisoning of Litvinenko). YOU ARE AN OPTIMIST You are not a pessimist or a cynic or an agnostic. Eve in the Garden of Eden. You believe in

To find out if you are a pessimist, start here (Putin's Kiss) or here (Pictures at an Exhibition) or here (The Poisoning of Litvinenko). YOU ARE A PESSIMIST You are not an optimist, or a cynic, or an agnostic. You are a believer but you see the worst

The picture below shows the original phantom, the original Angel of Music of the Night, Angel Fernández de Soto, with his white mask-like face. He is the opera ghost and music lover from underground... When he wasn't on public view, his painting hung on the walls of Lloyd-Webber&

The current sparring between London and Moscow (I wrote this originally in 2008 and it's worse now!) is like a fight between two casts in an old opera-house where the English think they are doing Andrew Lloyd-Webber and the Russians want to do something else, something Russian, but

Bare-chested Putin When asked why he kissed the boy, Putin later explained that "He seemed to me very independent, sure of himself and at the same time defenceless so to speak, an innocent boy and a very nice little boy...I tell you honestly, I just wanted to stroke

Did you start here? This painting by Ilya Yefimovich Repin represents the agnostic option. Agnostics generally enjoy the grand sweep of history, even when it has a religious aspect. Agnostics are more likely to become absorbed by the detail in this picture, in the lives of other people, in other

Did you start here? Because this is the cynical option – are they Viking invaders or are they guests? How do you feel about immigration? Or maybe these are Russians arriving in London? Cynicism is governed by self-interest and none of the other paintings has a sense of humor. There are

One of the most ironic Soviet propaganda posters, this one from 1941, during the war effort. "Do not blab" it says. Yet before and after the war that's exactly what everybody did to survive: denounce other people. It went hand in hand with denouncing the West.