Yekaterinburg, is the administrative center of Sverdlovsk Oblast, located in the middle of the Eurasian continent, on the border of Europe and Asia. The city was one of Russia’s first industrial cities, prompted at the start of the eighteenth century by decrees from the Tsar requiring the development in Yekaterinburg of metal-working businesses. Following the October Revolution, the family of …

His personal life was made difficult by his conflicts with the authorities who disapproved of his liberal views. He is the greatest of all Russian writers, and major part of his lyrical poetry was written between 1820 and 1830. Some of his poetical masterpieces were composed in the last seven years of his life. By effecting a new synthesis between …

It connects the European rail network at one end with either Vladivostok or the Chinese rail network at the other. A journey on the Trans-Siberian Railway should be on everyone’s bucket list. Take a look at the route map to see where the Trans-Siberian Railway goes. Moscow to Beijing (via Mongolia), is the most interesting Trans-Siberian route to take. The …

ARUNAS ZILYS 1/3 – The unique visions of Zilys, once viewed, are tattooed on your heart indelibly. Symbols and myths swirl about in a mosaic of meaning. They echo, like an ancient dream. Arunas Zilys, Lithuanian painter, creates mysterious paintings of haunting beauty. Some popular Zilys titles (Birdman, Guardian Angel and Offerings), invite you into another world. ARUNAS ZILYS 2/3 …

Emily Dickinson, poet of the interior life. Nothing about her adult appearance or habitation revealed such a militant soul. Only poems, written quietly in a room of her own, often hand-stitched in small volumes, then hidden in a drawer, revealed her true self. She did not live in time but in universals, an sensitive nature reaching out boldly from self-referral …

In the late 1940s, Jackson Pollock developed the technique for which he is best known—drip painting. He placed the canvas on the floor, stating, “this way I can walk around it, work from the four sides and literally be in the painting.” Pollock’s abstract work was hard to decipher, but his rebellious nature and expressions of freedom were clearly evident. …

Capitalism cannibalizing this city, as in the rest of Europe, but the Latvian capital does not hide the scars of a troubled past. Do not be fooled by its austere appearance or its small, quiet streets made of cobblestones. Riga is a cauldron of life and fun, full of quirky local, modern art and contemporary art centers, restaurants, and beautiful …

He, a leading figure in the music of his native Lithuania, is currently head of the Composition Department of the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre. His music now draws on a variety of idioms, from the medieval to jazz. Osvaldas Jonas Balakauskas is a Lithuanian composer of classical music. He has also distinguished himself as an insightful and accurate …

THE MORNING PIERCED Shovelling ashes and chunks of clinker from the fireplace, I found a bloody nail, whose suffering warmed me through the centuries. It’s cold outside. ICE AGE We were cutting logs together, planks from the demolished byre, thick blocks of books, page by page splinters shredded, bark my uncle at the saw, saint anthony, father and myself, merely …