For Faith and Loyalty. The History of the Capitulum of the Russian Imperial and Tsarist Orders

On 9 December 2004 an exhibition opened in the Alexander Hall of the Winter Palace which has been jointly organized by the State Hermitage; the State Historical and Cultural Museum of the Moscow Kremlin, which has federal status; the Russian State Historical Archive; and the State Museum and Park in Gatchina.

The exhibition consists of approximately 200 separate items: manuscript and printed statutes of the orders, the uniforms of officials and members of the orders, the accessories of officials in the orders, seals, proclamations and manifestos conferring orders, documents from the archives of the Capitulum (Latin, 'the head') of the orders, and portraits of the chancellors of the Capitulum..

For Faith and Loyalty is the motto of the first and highest Russian order, the Order of St Andrew, which was founded by Peter the Great in 1698-99. This event established the principle of a new system of awards and led to the formation of an administrative apparatus to govern the orders.

The exhibition presents the history of the way the orders were run, first by an office called the Ambassadorial Prikaz , later by the College of Foreign Affairs, and then, beginning with the reign of Emperor Paul I, by the Capitulum of the Orders. Over the years there were 10 chancellors in the Capitulum, among them Prince A.B. Kurakin, the Most Illustrious Prince P.M. Volkonsky, and Count I.I. Vorontsov-lkonsky, Count I.I. Vornty, Count I.I. Vorntem of awards and the formation of Dashkov.

After the October Revolution of 1917, the old system of awards was abolished. A decree dated 21 February 1918 eliminated the post of Capitulum of the Russian Orders.

There is an illustrated catalog to the exhibition which has been issued by the State Hermitage Publishing House. The curator of the exhibition is Lidia Igorevna Dobrovolskaya, senior researcher and director of the Sector of Numismatic Monuments of the Countries of Europe and America within the State Hermitage's Department of Numismatics.

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At the opening of the exhibition

At the exhibition

Exhibition booklet