Dynastic Rule

Kubachi, a village of jewellers who loved to collect old craftsmanship and display it in their homes. The style of their work was based on these examples and effectively had not changed since the Middle Ages. In the 1920s and 1930s Kubachi was discovered by antiquarians and the Hermitage collection was greatly enriched by their purchases.

1942–43. Virtually the entire Jewish population of the town – some 28,000 individuals – was wiped out,

Museum of Applied Arts, Tashkent, Uzbekistan

On this trip I visited Hitler’s headquarters in Vinnytsia and gathered some stones in memory of having been there. Now it is an important place where everybody goes, but at that time, nobody was visiting it. I managed to go there although virtually nothing was visible on the surface. The retreating Germans had blown up the buildings and flooded them – there was a lot underground. It is one of those places which has left its mark on history. I still have some of those pieces of concrete.’

He sees documents as repositories not of fact but of intentions from which facts may be deduced.

we Orientalists learned a lot about the world in general through travel to Arab countries.

What was interesting and important in all these Oriental travels was that you got to know the Western world through them.

Oleg Peresypkin, who was at the time working with the Soviet Mission to South Yemen (he was later ambassador in Lebanon and Libya, among other places, and Director of the Diplomatic Academy in Moscow).

the first time he had ventured into the political arena.