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The Palace of the Arts On 30 October 1917 the Military Revolutionary Committee of the government of the Russian Republic declared the palace "a state museum on a par with the Hermitage". The palace was given over to the administration of the museum in 1922. In 1923 a programme was initiated under the direction of the architect Alexander Sivkov to convert the palace ensemble into a museum complex. This programme included the reconstruction of the Winter Palace that in the post-revolutionary period became known as the Palace of the Arts. In time the state rooms of the former imperial residence came to be used for exhibitions, while the living rooms and service premises were converted into display rooms, losing their decorations. In 1926, for example, the "Historical Rooms of Alexander II and Nicholas II" were closed, dismantled and given over to exhibition use. In the 20th century the Winter Palace which retained its magnificent state rooms and accommodated museum displays of the art of Europe, Russia and the East, became an organic, inseparable part of the immense museum ensemble. |
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