The Russian Revolutions in 1917 ended Russian involvement in WWI, but precipitated a civil war that dragged in outside powers and lasted for years as the Bolshevik forces sought to enforce control over all the former territories of the Russian Empire. The chaos allowed all manner of smaller movements and independent warlords to flourish for a time, and among them was the brutal so called “Bloody” or “Mad” Baron Roman von Ungern-Sternberg.
One of the great questions of antiquity is what ancient knowledge might have been lost with the destruction of the famed Great Library of Alexandria. We can only guess at the answer, but the question itself reveals a fundamental misunderstanding of the library- what it was, where it was, why its was, and what happened to it.
In the US alone souvenir shops sold more than 21 billion dollars of merchandise in 2022. It is human nature to try and preserve memories, and one of the many ways we do that is to purchase keepsakes, mementos, or souvenirs - that remind us of where we’ve been. And evidence of that human instinct goes way back, well before anyone “exited through the gift shop”.