Alexander Meshcheryakov. Photo by I. Solovyov By the way, modest Soviet citizens used to live in communal labyrinths in the Arbat alleys, but now Russian rich people have settled here. They are closed off from the street with barn locks, so I can’t go into the yard where I spent my childhood. These people consider me a suspicious type. At one time I loved to wander around the local alleys and courtyards.

We are briefly moving away from chronological order in the publication of Mikhail Mikhailov’s memoirs from his future book “How I Was a Scientist” 1 . Now is the long January holidays, and it’s time to remember how scientists celebrated the New Year and other holidays in Soviet times. I don’t want to say that social activities consisted mainly of boring obligations. Yes, almost everything that was connected with ideology evoked melancholy.

Sergey Averintsev (pravenc.ru) The publication of the second volume of the collected works of Sergei Averintsev, dedicated to Byzantium and the Latin West, is a cultural and scientific phenomenon that allows us to once again appreciate how the works of one person shaped an entire direction in the humanities.

December 24: Either on Mars or on Earth Dan Morgan (1925–2011) was born 100 years ago, an English writer and musician, author of the Sixth Perception series, the Twelve Adventurers trilogy (with John Kippax), and the novels CT Man, Unchained, The Richest Corpse in Show Business, Inside, High Destiny, and Concrete Horizon. Dan Morgan played in a jazz band with John Kippax, and in between guitar duels he wrote novels in the “space opera” genre. He created more interesting texts alone.