Kremlin Museums – Palace of the Patriarchs
Exhibition Sovereign Knights, Foreign Orders of Russian Emperors
October, 26th, 2010 – March 9th, 2011
An Exhibition with part of the rich phaleristic collection of the Kremlin Museums (Armoury Chamber), with insignia of Orders and other decorations awarded by foreign powers to the Russian Emperors from czar Peter I, the Great, as well as to other members of the Imperial Romanov Family.
The Exhibition includes 300 pieces, including insignia of orders (collars, badges and stars) executed by some of the most famous goldsmiths in Europe, Imperial portraits, garments and robes of the imperial orders, diplomas of concession, statutes and photographic documentation. Of special interest and an innovation in this type of events is the inclusion of documents related with the ceremonies of investiture of the Russian Czars with foreign orders of chivalry, normally conducted by Special Envoys and Ambassadors Extraordinary.
For historical reasons special attention is paid to the orders and decorations awarded to the last czar Nicholas II, his wife and the Tsarevitch Alexei Nicolaevich, murdered by order of Lenin.
The Kremlin Museum hás been for long promoting the research, study and restoration of many itens of His important phaleristic collection of foreign orders presenting now the results of this work.
Czar Peter I begun the modernization of Russia and the expansion of what was to become the Russian Empire an was thus the first Russian Sovereign to receive foreign orders of knighthood, namely the Danish Order of the Elephant and the Order of the White Eagle, from Poland, after his victory over Sweden.
Czar Alexander I, whose most relevant role in the Allied Victory over Emperor Napoleon I was recently enhanced by Dominic Lieven in an extraordinary book, received the highest European decorations of his time, namely the Legion d’Honneur on the occasion of the treaty of Tilsit in 1807, and after 1813, the Orders of the Garter, the Golden Fleece, Holy Ghost, Saint Stephen of Hungary, Leopold of Austria, Elephant, Black Eagle and the Riband of the Grand Crosses of the Orders of Christ, Avis and St. James, from Portugal, awarded in 1824 by King John VI.
A luxurious Catalogue of the Exhibition was published – Державные кавалеры. Иностранные ордена российских императоров. Sovereign knights. Foreign Orders of Russian Emperors. Каталоги выставок :2010 Авт. текста и сост. Л.М. Гаврилова (ISBN 978-5-88678-209-7). Text in Russian by Doctor L. Gavrilova, Commissary of the Exhibition, with a short summary in English, and some images legends also in English.
A further asset is the list of the foreign orders awarded to Russian Emperors.
It is a pity though that such a valuable work does not have an edition in English or French.
