GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Police in Russia have arrested a noted historian for keeping 29 mummies which he reportedly dug up from graveyards and dressed. He has not been identified by police but Russian media have given his name as Anatoly Moskvin, a 45-year-old historian “who was considered the ultimate expert on cemeteries in Nizhny Novgorod”, according to wire service AP (Sydney Morning Herald and Moscow Times), which carries a photo released by police Monday, of one of the dolls in his apartment.
Felix Luna, historian, writer, politician and songwriter, has died in Buenos Aires, 5 November. He was 84. Born in Buenos Aires in 1925 to a well-connected family from La Rioja in Argentina’s poor northwest, he studied law, but soon turned to writing. He won his first prize for a short story in 1957, and wrote more than a score of books.
He was acclaimed as an historian, and explained Argentine history to the Argentines, notably in A brief history of the Argentines, but also in the first person account, Soy Roca, of a divisive 19th century politician and general, Julio Roca. In 1967 he founded the history magazine, Todo es Historia, which is still sold on newsstands around the country.
He entered into a fruitful partnership with composer Ariel Rodriguez in the 1960s, and wrote the words to music like the Misa Criolla, a mass using the idioms and language of folklore in the aftermath of the second Vatican Council, and Mujeres Argentinas, sung by Mercedes Sosa. His haunting tribute to the Swiss-born poetess, Alfonsina Storni, Alfonsina y el mar, is one of his most lasting contributions to popular musical culture.
