2003: The inauguration of the Museum of the Guards in the General Staff building

The 9 December 2003, the Orthodox feast of St George the Bringer of Victory, saw the formal inauguration of Russia's first museum of the Guards. The decision to create such a museum under the auspices of the State Hermitage was taken in the year 2000, when the museum held an exhibition devoted to the 300th anniversary of the Russian Imperial Guards. That exhibition was organized by the Hermitage in collaboration with the museums of St Petersburg and its suburbs.

The display of the Museum of the Guards is housed in the General Staff building. Some 200 items - elements of uniforms and equipment, banners and regimental regalia, paintings, works of graphic and applied art, numismatic items and documents - present the brilliant and dramatic history of the Russian Imperial Guards, beginning with the reign of Alexander I and ending with the departure of the Guards regiments for the First World War in 1914 under Nicholas II.

The display includes portraits of Russian emperors painted in Guards uniforms by famous artists - Alexander I, Nicholas I, Alexander II, Alexander III and Nicholas II, and also portraits of commanders and officers of Guards regiments. A place of honour is accorded to Peter Hess's Battle of Tarutino, produced specially for the Winter Palace as one of a large series of battle paintings. A considerable part of the display is made up of elements of uniforms and equipment, including the special uniforms of colonels-in-chief belonging to emperors and grand dukes.

Works of graphic art present various sides of Guards life, connected primarily with the Russian capital, its daily life and culture: parades, changing of the guard, the troops passing along the city's streets and simply figures of soldiers in Guards uniforms of various types of troops.

On display in all the sections are banners and standards of the Guards regiments from various dates. Of quite unique importance for the Museum of the Guards is the room that houses gifts - precious relics returned to Russia after long periods abroad: two banners of the Life Guards Preobrazhensky Regiment from the 18th century, the personal standard of Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolayevich the Elder and the standard of His Majesty's Life Guards Uhlan Regiment. From London there came back to St Petersburg the St George banner of the Life Guards Grenadier Regiment that had been handed over to Russia during President Putin's state visit to the United Kingdom.

Hall 3. The Guards in the reign of Nicholas I
(1825-1855)
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Hall 4. The Guards in the reigns of Nicholas I (1825-1855) and Alexander II (1855-1881)
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Hall 5. The Guards in the reigns of Alexander III (1881-1896) and Nicholas II (1896-1917)
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Palace Square and the General Staff building
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