On 22 August 2024, the State Hermitage continued its tradition of holding formal ceremonies to mark festive occasions that are celebrated in the museum.
Each year, the Hermitage holds ceremonies devoted to the Day of the Russian Guards, (Orthodox) Saint George’s Day and the anniversary of “the expulsion of the enemy from the borders of Russia” in 1812. Some of these events were marked in the Hermitage long before they were declared official state occasions.
The State Hermitage, which possesses Russia’s largest collection of banners and flags, numbering more than 6,500 items, celebrates the Day of the State Flag of the Russian Federation every year. The white-blue-red striped flag was first raised on the Russian naval vessel Orel in 1668, during the reign of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. It acquired its function as a symbol of the state under Emperor Peter the Great, who issued a decree laying down that the white-blue-red flag should be flown “on all manner of merchant vessels”. The Russian flag was born together with the nation’s first Russian warships and until the end of the 19th century it remained primarily an attribute of naval culture.
This year, for the first time, the State Hermitage celebrated the Day of the State Flag of the Russian Federation in the Hall of Russian Glory and Victories within the Exchange building. To mark the occasion, the band of the North-Western District of the National Guard of the Russian Federation, conducted by Major Alexander Teriayev, performed the Preobrazhensky March.
The ceremony was conducted by Georgy Vilinbakhov, Deputy General Director of the State Hermitage and State Herold Master.
“The Russian flag is one of the oldest flags in the world, with a history going back over 300 years,” he stated . “Today we are marking the 30th anniversary of the establishment of a very important state occasion – the Day of the State Flag of the Russian Federation. Since 22 August 1991, its white-blue-red stripes have proudly fluttered across the expanses of our homeland – on the masts of ships, on buildings, including those of embassies in other countries. It is very familiar to everyone and today we can say with pride that the Hermitage collection contains many items connected in one way or another with the history of the Russian flag.”
Georgy Vilinbakhov spoke about the significance of state festivals and the Hermitage’s future displays in the Exchange building connected with Russia’s history, martial glory and victories. It will house the Museum of the Guards, which will move from the General Staff building, a museum of awards and decorations, heraldic articles and historical banners. The displays will have important ideological and political significance. In the future, the Hall of Russian Glory and Victories will become a setting for the holding of formal national and municipal ceremonies: the presentation of state awards, the celebration of Russia Day, the induction of graduates of military colleges as officers, administration of the oath, and many other events ceremonially appropriate to the style of the hall.
To the accompaniment of the welcoming march Victory, the standard group carried in the flag that stood in the office of Russia’s first President, Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin, in the Kremlin in Moscow (and is now in the Hermitage collection).
The ceremony also included the introduction of a flag of the State Hermitage that had been raised on the summit of Mount Elbrus, 5,642 metres (18,510 ft) above sea level, by members of the museum staff – Tatiana Golod, leading consultant in the Legal Service, and Viacheslav Romanovsky, head of the Department of Capital Construction. The flag was passed to the museum’s collection.
Another part of the celebration was the ceremonial presentation to the Hermitage collection of a portrait of Emperor Peter the Great on guilloché enamel (created by the miniature artist Tatiana Kozlovskaya and the metalworking artist Alexei Lavlinsky) and three coats-of-arms, including those of the Romanov family and the Yusupov princes, made in the goldwork technique – hand embroidery using gilded and silvered metallic threads – by Natalia Tatarinova.
Handing over the pieces for inclusion in the State Hermitage collection, Yelena Tsvetkova, leader of the Russia’s Contemporary Heritage project, said: “We are very pleased that four works by artists belonging to the guild of the Russia’s Contemporary Heritage project will become part of the Hermitage collection. We are happy and full of hope that such a great museum as the future Museum of Heraldry will display some splendid works by our experts executed in most difficult techniques.”
The ceremony in the Hall of Russian Glory and Victories within the Exchange building ended with the march tune On the Neva’s Banks.
The noonday gun from the Peter and Paul Fortress was dedicated to the festive occasion. It was fired by Georgy Vilinbakhov together with representatives of the staff of the Leningrad Military District, which marked its 160th anniversary on the same day.
