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Regular version of the site

Library Night at HSE: Shakespeare, Museums and Quests

Almost 40 teams took part in the ‘Through the pages of Basmania’ quest, organized by the Higher School of Economics as part of an annual citywide event, Library Night. Event participants also staged passages from Romeo and Juliet and attended lectures about theatre at HSE library.

How are libraries and theatre connected? What do finance and religious education have in common? Where was the first Moscow public library opened? These were some of the questions participants of the historical quest ‘Through the pages of Basmania’ had to answer. The event was organised by HSE in cooperation with Basmanny district museum ‘Basmania’ and Moscow central libraries.

‘Through the pages of Basmania’
39

teams

1 – 5

people per team

5

best teams received gifts from HSE

57

minutes was the best team time (the participants travelled the route by bicycle)

> 3

hours it takes to walk the longest quest route by foot

Yulia Solovyova, Quest participant ‘Everything made sense, and I really liked it’

— Quest tasks always fall into one of two extremes: it’s either something super interesting but completely impossible to solve with no hint to start with, or it’s something too simple, and therefore unexciting. In this quest everything turned out to be great.

The quest, which was open to anyone interested in participating, started at 20 Myasnitskaya ulitsa and ended at 3 Krivokolenny pereulok.

The landmarks of the route included:

 The Russian State Public Historical Library;

 The House of the Russian poet Osip Mandelstam;

 Milutinsky Park;

 Vasily Zhukovsky Library;

 Fyodor Dostoevsky Library.

Another quest was held in the HSE library on Staraya Basmannaya and was dedicated to theatre and William Shakespeare. The participants attended an interactive lecture about theatre, a master class on public speaking and staged a passage from the tragedy Romeo and Juliet.

Library Night is an annual Russia-wide event dedicated to books and reading. This year it was held for the seventh time. On the holiday, Moscow libraries, bookstores, museums and cultural centres are open to visitors until late night, and sometimes all night. Those who like reading attend lectures, master classes, and take part in flash mobs and competitions.

See also:

‘We Cannot Understand the Modern Ideological Confrontation without the Accusations that Emerged during the Lausanne Process’

Rainer Matos Franco, from Mexico, defended his PhD thesis with honours at HSE University this June. In his dissertation, Rainer Matos Franco examines the history of anticommunism in Europe during the 1920s. The HSE News Service spoke with Rainer and his academic supervisor, Tatiana Borisova, about the significance of the Lausanne Process for the Cold War and contemporary history, the opportunities provided by HSE University for international PhD candidates, and the challenges of working with a vast database of historical sources.

How the Telephone Conquered the World. Episode Ten: 'Number, Please?'

The history of the invention of telephony reads like a captivating detective novel, but even more intriguing are the events that contributed to the worldwide adoption of this technology. In this series of columns on IQ.HSE, Anton Basov, HSE Faculty of Computer Science editor, discusses how telephones have become an integral part of our everyday life. The final episode of the series recounts how men were unable to cope with telephone operator jobs and were replaced by tall and polite young women. However, as telephone networks expanded, the role of the intermediary became unproductive, eventually rendering the switchboard operator profession obsolete due to automation—not the first nor the last time such a thing has happened. As for Alexander Graham Bell, he used the earnings from inventing the telephone to promote science, educate people about the world around us, and pursue new inventions.

How the Telephone Conquered the World. Episode Nine: Big Connections

The history of the invention of telephony reads like a captivating detective novel, but even more intriguing are the events that contributed to the worldwide adoption of this technology. In this series of columns on IQ.HSE, Anton Basov, HSE Faculty of Computer Science editor, discusses how telephones have become an integral part of our everyday life. The ninth episode of the series explores the development of the first long-distance, interstate, and transatlantic telephone lines, which suddenly made people thousands of kilometres away feel as close as if they were in the same room together.

How the Telephone Conquered the World. Episode Eight: The Russian Field of Experiments

The history of the invention of telephony reads like a captivating detective novel, but even more intriguing are the events that contributed to the worldwide adoption of this technology. In this series of columns on IQ.HSE, Anton Basov, HSE Faculty of Computer Science editor, discusses how telephones have become an integral part of our everyday life. The eighth episode of the series recounts how Russia first adapted the telephone for military and logistical purposes, created a shell company headed by a nominal executive for reselling the rights to Western competitors, and intensively developed communication infrastructure in the country's two capitals, making such progress that Vladimir Lenin insisted on capturing and maintaining control of telephone exchanges at all costs.

How the Telephone Conquered the World. Episode Seven: German Efficiency

The history of the invention of telephony reads like a captivating detective novel, but even more intriguing are the events that contributed to the worldwide adoption of this technology. In this series of columns on IQ.HSE, Anton Basov, HSE Faculty of Computer Science editor, discusses how telephones have become an integral part of our everyday life. The seventh episode in the series recounts the story of German bureaucrats, who proved to be the most astute in Europe by ensuring effective telephony first for themselves and subsequently for all major cities in Germany. However, even there, the government's dominant role over the free market slowed down the adoption of the new technology.

How the Telephone Conquered the World. Episode Six: The Telephone's Misadventures in France

The history of the invention of telephony reads like a captivating detective novel, but even more intriguing are the events that contributed to the worldwide adoption of this technology. In this series of columns on IQ.HSE, Anton Basov, HSE Faculty of Computer Science editor, discusses how telephones have become an integral part of our everyday life. The sixth episode of the series recounts events in France when the private owner of the telephone network was compelled to sell it to the government at a knockdown price, and the impact it had on the development of communications in the country. Spoiler alert: the impact, naturally, was detrimental.

How the Telephone Conquered the World. Episode Five: From the US Free Market to Conservative Britain

In this series of columns on IQ.HSE, Anton Basov, HSE Faculty of Computer Science editor, discusses how telephones have become an integral part of our everyday life. The fifth episode of the series chronicles the early experiences of the telegraph and telephone in Great Britain, shedding light on the challenges they faced, and explores the adverse impact of excessive government regulation and nationalisation on the evolution of telecommunications.

Peacocks, Pepper, and Petrol: The Early History of Imports from Asia

Petroleum for equine care, wood oil for lighting, sandalwood for Easter celebrations, and lemons and olives for entertaining unexpected guests. Russian monasteries often used these and other eastern goods in the period leading up to and during the reign of Peter the Great. Analysing their account books leads to a revision of the traditional assumptions about the primary consumers of oriental goods in Russia. These consumers, in addition to the royal and aristocratic circles, included monastery estates, as discussed in the paper ‘“Three altyns worth of petroleum…”: Oriental goods in Russia at the second half of the 17th and early 18th century’ by historian Arthur Mustafin of HSE University. Based on his paper, IQ.HSE explores the types of goods that were shipped from the East to Russia in the latter half of the 17th to the early 18th century, including the routes and purposes of these shipments.

How the Telephone Conquered the World. Episode Four: David the Start-up Versus the Corporate Goliath

The history of the invention of telephony reads like a captivating detective novel, but even more intriguing are the events that contributed to the worldwide adoption of this technology. In this series of columns on IQ.HSE, Anton Basov, HSE Faculty of Computer Science editor, discusses how telephones have become an integral part of our everyday life. The fourth episode of the series recounts the story of the fledgling start-up's confrontation with hordes of patent trolls and its subsequent victory in a full-blown corporate war against the largest telecommunications company of the late 19th century.

‘In Search of the Key to the Past’: Students of HSE Art and Design School in Nizhny Novgorod Develop Collection of Souvenirs

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