On 20 - 22 February 2007 a scholarly conference entitled "Heraldry in the Modern World" took place in the Hermitage Theatre, marking the 15th anniversary of the re-establishment of the State Heraldry Service in Russia.

Heraldry is the creation and use of various signs: flags, emblems, awards, banners, etc It is an invariable part of social life. As the processes of democratization of Russian society began at the end of the 1980s, heraldic signs, which in the Soviet period were to an extreme degree unified, politicized, deprived of individuality and which issued almost exclusively from the power of the state, now appeared to be in wide demand from the most diverse social forces and institutions.

During the years of the Soviet regime, Russia lost its culture of creating heraldic signs. Except for small associations of specialists attached to scientific and cultural centers (for example the State Hermitage, which beginning in 1980 held a permanent seminar on "Heraldry - an auxiliary historical discipline"), the state and society did not have any rules of heraldry, the most convenient and effective means of deciding problems of heraldry.

For this reason, the State Heraldry Service was re-established in Russia in 1992 and the principle of a integrated state policy in the field of heraldry was proclaimed. Over the past 15 years, there were repeated changes in the form of its existence. In 1994 it was transformed into the State Heraldry under the President of Russia. Then it continued its work as the Heraldry Council under the President of the Russian Federation.

The principles of carrying on the heraldry administration have remained unchanged since 1992. The Heraldry Council conducts an expert examination of heraldry signs which are created and approved by the executive branch of government, the subjects of the federation and the organizations of local self-government. The Heraldry Council is called upon to provide professional assistance in creating signs and to help ensure productive application of the rules of heraldry. It has been entrusted with the task of keeping the State Heraldry Register of the Russian Federation.

On the occasion of the 15th anniversary, congratulations were sent to the Heraldry Council by RF President Vladimir Putin, Chairman of the Federation Council S.M. Mironov, and the directors of many institutions of executive branch of the federal government and subjects of the Russian Federation. At the end of the conference, a working session of the Heraldry Council took place in the State Hermitage.

At the conference in the Hermitage, more than 40 reports were delivered to specialists and those interested in questions of heraldry. These were devoted to state, ministerial, regional and personal heraldry, the application of computer technologies, problems of heraldic terminology, education and information.

On 20 February 2007, an exhibition entitled "Heraldic Artists of Russia" was festively opened in the St Petersburg House of Scholars. This exhibition acquaints visitors with the contemporary state of this particular area of art.