In 1882, Karl Marx visited Algiers. Because of the heat, he had his hair cut and beard trimmed. But please don't ask me to tell that story about him getting drunk afterwards and waking up two days later with a camel tattooed on his bum. It's bad for my image as a serious historian. 🐫
The Confession, written by Bakunin in solitary confinement in the Peter & Paul Fortress, 1851. From his arrival in Berlin in 1840 to his arrest by the Saxon police in May 1849 for his part in the Dresden uprising. And Penal Servitude and Exile (about Bakunin), Moscow, 1926.
April 2025, JD Vance shakes hands with Pope Francis - the Pope dies. April 2026, JD Vance shakes hands with Viktor Orban - Orban is voted out of office after 16 years in power. Who's next? 🤔
Moon mission complete.
Priecīgus Lieldienas svētkus!
Lidojošā Varde (The Flying Frog) is my secret headquarters in Riga. When I die a brass plaque will be screwed to the wall inscribed: "An old anarchist who loved Latvia schemed schemes here." Ja jūs to redzat, paceliet glāzi, laipnie biedri.
Photos: 2008, 2019, 2025
Oh dear, Peter Mandelson has been arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office - and on #PinocchioDay too! 🧐
"The little Baltic nations", as seen in the USA in 1939, on the eve of the first Soviet occupation.
When I came into the anarchist movement in 1972 (no computers then, kids!), Avrich was THE ONLY source of information about Russian Anarchism. Not much has changed since then. Hats off!
freedomnews.org.uk/2026/02/16/r... @freedompress.bsky.social
#OtD 9 Feb 2007 Alejandro Finisterre, anarchist poet and inventor of the Spanish table football (foosball) died in Zamora, Spain. He invented the game following injury during the Spanish Civil War so injured children could still play football workingclasshistory.com/2018/07/29/s...
"The Queens", Crouch End Broadway, London N8 - I often used to have a liquid lunch there during the 1970s (I worked around the corner); also a popular watering hole of Stuart Christie and Albert Meltzer (photo, 1968).
Hitler's pet Otto Skorzeny always kept an ace up his sleeve - The Strange Case of a Nazi Who Became an Israeli Hitman www.motl.org/the-strange-...
So, Fiadh - what is it like to be three years old today?
Fiadh: Well, as Dolly Parton teaches us, "It's hard to be a diamond in a rhinestone world.” But I'm doing my best! 🥳
Sometimes even the weather has a sense of humour.
The 1953 North Sea flood. 🌧️
Still searching for the lost chord.
Ferdinand Porsche presents Adolf Hitler with a Volkswagen convertible for his 50th birthday.
All Adolf really wanted was the Nobel Peace Prize. 🧐
Who set fire to the Cat House?
And how was the murder of a Latvian anarchist connected to a dark secret that stretches back to the Kremlin?
Fact and fiction collide in my next book, The Cat House - nothing is real and everything is possible.
eng.lsm.lv/article/soci...
So, pitched the idea of Fish n' Chip flavoured chocolates to business adviser Fiadh, but she reckoned it was too much of a niche market. Ah well, back to the drawing board! 🧐
I loved Andy Pandy and his pals, Teddy and Looby Loo, when I was a kid in the 1950s. The 13 episodes for "Watch With Mother" on the BBC opened the door to a raft of shows: The Flowerpot Men, The Woodentops and Rag, Tag and Bobtail. The greatest puppet shows ever! www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEfn...
New header photo:
Jāņu svinēšana, 1910.gadā
Celebrating the midsummer solstice in traditional pagan style, 1910. #Latvia #Baltics
Yikes! 🤣
I've always treated the 1980s as a sort of "what did the Romans ever do for us" era. But I'm revising my opinion that 80s music is rubbish. "Situation" by Yazoo (Vince Clarke and Alison Moyet, 1982), live in Berlin, February 2015, is now my favourite tune of the week. www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEBJ...
Laying flowers at the Lenin monument, Riga, 1960. (Lenin was taken away in 1991).
John, I'm only dancing". Elizabeth Taylor and David Bowie (Terry O’Neill, 1974).
