The State Hermitage Museum: Exhibitions

The Perfect Victory. Dedication to the 300th Anniversary of the Battle of Poltava
29 May 2009 - 20 September 2009

29 May 2009, a new exhibition dedicated to the anniversary of the Battle of Poltava opened in the Great (Nicholas) Hall (Hall N 191) of the Winter Palace. The exhibition was organized by the State Hermitage together with the State Historical and Cultural Museum-Preserve "The Moscow Kremlin" with the participation of St Petersburg, Moscow (Russia) and Stockholm (Sweden) museums. The exhibition will tell about the events that preceded the battle and that caused it, about the battle itself and its consequences.

Over 300 exhibits are presented; among them there are memorabilia of combatants, clothing items, ammunition and armament of the Russian and of the Swedish armies, banners, portraits and battle paintings, graphic works.

The Battle of Poltava that took place July 8th (27 June old calendar) 1709 became a decisive battle that determined the outcome of the Great Northern War (1700 - 1721). The Russian Army under the command of Peter I inflicted a resounding defeat to the Swedish Army lead by King Karl XII. The remains of the Swedish army retreated from Poltava and soon capitulated near Perevolochnaya; thereby, the destruction of the army of Karl XII that encroached on the territory of Russia in 1708 was completed. The king himself together with his few escorts fled to Bessarabia under the shelter of the Turkish sultan.

In "The Detailed Report..." that tells about the battle between the Russian and the Swedish armies the victory is called ‘the perfect victory’. This report translated into German, French and English was spread through Europe in the summer of 1709 produced an impression of a bombshell. The formidable Swedish Army ceased to exist; at the same time a new great power, Russia, made a solid statement for itself.

The first section of the exhibition introduces to the audience the main characters and political situation in Europe prior to the Great Northern War. Among the exhibits of this section the gifts from the Swedish Embassy sent to Moscow in 1698 can be pointed out.

The second section - Way to Poltava - illustrates war events that took place from 1700 till 1708, from the crushing defeat near Narva to the victory near Lesnaya that Peter the Great called ‘the mother of the victory of Poltava’. A number of engravings depicting the battles, sieges of the fortresses represent a chronicle of formation of the young Russian army. The engravings are presented alongside with portraits of military leaders and display-cases with weapons.

The next section of the exhibition - The Battle - is the centre of the exhibition in terms of its message and composition. Its background is created by two monumental canvases - Battle of Poltava by Louise Caravaque and Victory near Poltava by Alexander Kotzebue. There are examples of armament and ammunition of the Russian and Swedish armies in two big display-cases. Right next to them there are clothing items and banners. The key exhibits of this section are the items related to Peter I andìKarl XII. Here is a full dress uniform of the office of Life-Guards Preobrazhensky regiment that Peter I was wearing on the day of the Battle of Poltava and his saddle; the hat of Peter I and the pommel of the saddle were pierced by Swedish bullets. The tsar was in the thick of the battle near Poltava and at the point of no return he was at the head of the counterattack of the second battalion of Novgorod infantry regiment.

The full dress uniform of Karl XII provided by the Royal Armoury Chamber (Stockholm, Sweden) has no direct connection to the Battle of Poltava; however, it is the only preserved full dress uniform of the Swedish king-warrior. He was wearing this very uniform when he was killed during the siege of Fredrikshall fortress in November 1718. The saddle of Karl XII displayed next to it is a trophy of Poltava. On the day of the battle of Poltava Karl was not able to ride on horseback since he was suffering from the wound in the leg that he had got ten days before the battle. The horse of the king together with the saddle stayed in the Swedish camp and was taken by the Russians after the battle. The honourable trophy was granted to Field-Marshal Boris Sheremetev, commander of infantry in the course of the battle of Poltava, by Peter I.

The Poltava trophies present a full complex of exhibits. Among them there are silver timpani captured from the Swedish Horse Guards regiment that attract special attention. These timpani were given to The General Squadron of Prince Menshikov and afterwards belonged to Life Guards Horse regiment where they were used up until 1917.

The fourth section of the exhibition is dedicated to the celebration of the victory of Poltava. The engravings depicting the gala entrance of the army in Moscow and the Arch of Triumph erected for the occasion are among those presented here as well as medals stroke in honour of the victory of Poltava and awards given to the combatants.

Peter the Great used to say that the victory of Poltava "laid a stone in St Petersburg’s foundation". Since the battle took place on the day of St Sampson the foundation stone of St Sampson Cathedral was laid in St Petersburg in honour of the victory of Poltava. The cathedral of Peter’s times was not preserved till our days, but the model of this cathedral, the icon of St Sampson and the altar Gospel that once used to be inside the cathedral are among the items presented at the exhibition.

In the last section - Memory of Poltava - there is a collection of things that were created through the course of many years after the battle in connection with it. These are lifetime publications of Pushkin’s Poltava poem and Byron’s Mazeppa poem, anniversary medals dated 1809 and 1909, fitting boards of the Russian military ships that used to bear the name "Poltava" and many more.

The exhibition curator is Sergey Plotnikov, the head of the Museum of the Guards section of the Department of History of Russian Culture of the State Hermitage.

Battle of Poltava
Louis Caravaque
Larger view