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WATCH: Stalin’s Singing Spy

Hannah Phillips2021-06-17T10:56:26-04:00June 15th, 2021|Second Saturdays|

Introducing Weekly Tours at the Russian History Museum

Hannah Phillips2021-06-09T16:36:16-04:00June 9th, 2021|Announcements|

A German Governess and the Russian Tsar: The Story of a Porcelain Easter Egg

russianhistoryfoundation2021-06-09T16:54:49-04:00May 25th, 2021|History, Museum|

WATCH: Talking on Eggshells: Examining a Russian Tradition

russianhistoryfoundation2021-05-20T15:08:29-04:00May 20th, 2021|Museum Livestream|

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The Oak of Mamre In the Russian Orthodox Church,

The Oak of Mamre

In the Russian Orthodox Church, today is the Great Feast of Pentecost, the celebration of the coming of the Holy Spirit to the Apostles. For the Orthodox, the feast also celebrates the full revelation of the divine Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. For the Feast of Pentecost, the icon of the Holy Trinity (the three angelic figures who appeared to Abraham), is placed in the center of the church for veneration, reminding the faithful of the presence of the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament as well as the New. Tradition dictates that Abraham encountered the Holy Spirit in the form of three angels at the Oak of Mamre.

To many Orthodox, a site near Hebron on the West Bank is venerated as where the "Oak of Abraham" lies. It owes its name to an ancient tree that stands on the grounds of the modern Russian Orthodox Monastery of the Holy Trinity. It was this tree that gave its wood to the panagia, or more properly, engolpion, that we look at today.

This pectoral pendant in silver, mother-of-pearl, and oak centers an icon depicting the Holy Spirit of a type known as the “Hospitality of Abraham.” The icon is painted on a piece of oak from the “Oak of Mamre” under which the meeting between Abraham and the Holy Spirit took place. The icon was a gift to Metropolitan Antony (Khrapovitsky) and bears the inscription “In prayerful memory of His Eminence Antony, Metropolitan of Kiev and Galicia, from the sisters of the Gorny community, on June 24, 1924. Image drawn on the holy wood of the Oak of Mamre.”

Born in Russia in 1863, Metropolitan Antony of Kiev and Galicia fled after the Russian Revolution, and after the defeat of Gen Pyotr Wrangel′s White Army in South Russia in November 1920, he settled at Sremski Karlovci, Serbia in 1921. Together with several other Russian bishops in exile, he established an independent Russian church abroad that sought to embrace the Russian Orthodox diaspora, known as the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia (ROCOR).

“Old Testament Trinity" panagia-reliquary of Metropolitan Antony.
Oak, mother-of-pearl, silver
Russian manufacture in Palestine, c. 1924
Russian History Museum

Stalin’s Singing Spy: The Life and Exile of Nade

Stalin’s Singing Spy: The Life and Exile of Nadezhda Plevitskaya. Happy Anniversary!

We’d like to celebrate our 1 year anniversary of our Second Saturday lecture series by sending you a link to “Stalin’s Singing Spy: The Life and Exile of Nadezhda Plevitskaya.”

We were fascinated by Dr. Pamela A. Jordan’s lecture on the remarkable life of Nadezhda Plevitskaya (c. 1879-1940), a Russian peasant girl who achieved fame as one of Tsar Nicholas II’s favorite singers.

If you missed our June “Second Saturday” lecture, you can still watch the full recording of Dr. Jordan’s presentation. And don’t forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel!

👉Link in bio!🔗
#russianhistorymuseum #rhm #jordanville #secondsaturday #nadezhdaplevitskaya #spies #джорданвилл #лекция #надеждаплевицкая #шпионка

Queen Olga of the Hellenes Today marks the death

Queen Olga of the Hellenes
Today marks the death of HM Queen Olga of the Hellenes, born HIH Grand Duchess Olga Konstantinovna of Russia.
Born on 22 August (OS) 1851 at Pavlovsk Palace, Grand Duchess Olga was the oldest daughter of Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich of Russia and his wife, born Princess Alexander of Saxe-Altenburg. She spent her childhood largely in St. Petersburg, the Crimea, and on the family estates in Poland. In 1867, she was married to King George I of Greece at the age of only 16. Though her early days in Greece were difficult, she became a popular queen after becoming deeply involved in popular social and philanthropic work. In 1913, her husband, King George I was assassinated, and she returned to Russia.
In Russia, when World War I was declared, she opened a military hospital at Pavlovsk which she ran until the Revolution, when she was placed under house arrest at Pavlovsk Palace by the Bolsheviks. The Danish embassy finally intervened, and she was finally able to escape to Switzerland. In October of 1920, she finally returned to Athens, and on the death of King Alexander of Greece that month, she was briefly Queen Regent until the restoration of her son, King Constantine I. In 1922, the Greek Royal family were exiled, and Queen Olga spent the rest of her life exiled from both her countries, Russia and Greece, finally dying on 18 June (NS) 1926.
Portrait of the Konstantinovichi with Queen Olga of Greece at center.
Albumen silver Print
Russian History Museum

#russianhistorymuseum #rhm #jordanville #queenolga #olgakonstantinovna #konstantinovichi #romanovs #джорданвилл #королеваольга #ольгаконстантиновна #константиновичи #романовы

Annuciation Conservation! As you all know, the Ru

Annuciation Conservation!

As you all know, the Russian History Museum is in the middle of an important drive to fund our conservation projects. We are just short of our goal, and your help is important to us! (See link in bio!) We’d like to present today an extraordinary transformation with an interesting backstory!

This beautiful icon of the Annunciation was created in Moscow in 1893 by the well-known silversmith Semyon Grigorievich Galkin. In 1892, he founded the firm S.G. Galkin & Co. The firm took part in the All-Russian Art and Industry Exhibition at Nizhny-Novgorod in 1896, where they recieved a medal for their work. Galkin also supplied ecclesiastical works such as these to manufacturer- retailers such as Kurliukov and Morozov. This icon with its highly engraved repousse cover and restrained enamel decoration is very representative of the style of the firm.

The icon had considerable oxidation and discoloration from years of exposure. The firm of BNNS & Co in New York City performed a critical conservation cleaning, which removed all of the organic deposits and discolorations without damaging the intact original gilding. The beauty of this piece lies in the interplay of silver and two kinds of gilding, as well as trompe l’oeil engraving, the layering of clouds, and even the distaff of weaving material by the virgin’s side. Our thanks to restorer Nikolai Bachmakov and to your generous donations that made this restoration possible!

The icon was a gift to the museum from Eugenia Smith, who is better known to the world as one of the claimants to be Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna, daughter of Nicholas II. She claimed in her “Autobiography of HIH Anastasia Nicholaevna of Russia” that she had escaped the murders at Ekaterinburg. Later, she became a supporter of our Museum.

Eugenia Smith is buried at Holy Trinity Monastery, under the name Evgenia Smetisko, but with the birthdate of Grand Duchess Anastasia, June 18, 1901.

A Russian Gilded Silver and Enamel Icon of the Annunciation
Firm of S.G. Galkin & Co., Moscow, c. 1893
Silver, gilding, enamel, oil on panel
Gift of Eugenia Smith
Russian History Museum

Boyars, Bogatyrs, Boyarinias, oh my! This amusing

Boyars, Bogatyrs, Boyarinias, oh my!

This amusing postcard is a bit of a mystery. It appears to represent Matryoshka dolls in a plethora of forms including bogatyr warriors, boyar and boyarinia figures, and tiny Russian Merchants and their wives. This amusing lineup seems to have no other purpose than to be filled with "old Russian" flavor and humor.

The postcard is initialed BZ in Cyrillic in the lower right corner indicating that the original illustration was the work of Boris Vasilievich Zvorykin (Russian, 1872-1942) was a Russian theatrical designer, painter and illustrator who is largely unknown in the west, unlike his contemporary Ivan Bilibin. Influenced by the work of Vasnetsov, Zvorykin began his career with illustrative books for some of the established St. Petersburg publishing houses. After the revolution, Zvorykin fled to Constantinople and made his way to Paris.

In 1930, he tried to publish an illustrated translation of four famous Russian fairy tales, but was unable to find a publisher. The book, finally published by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis at Viking Press in 1978 as "The Firebird and Other Russian Fairy Tales" has now become one of the most widely read versions of these tales in any language, cementing Zvorykin's reputation

A Russian-style illustrated postcard
Boris Zvorykin (1872-1942)
20th century
Russian History Museum

#russianhistorymuseum #rhm #jordanville #boriszvorykin #matrioshka #boyar #oldrussia #джорданвилл #борисзворыкин #боярин #стараяроссия

A Russian defeat. Today, 14 June, marks the 214th

A Russian defeat.

Today, 14 June, marks the 214th anniversary of the Battle of Friedland (1807). On a Sunday morning near the East Prussian town of Friedland, southwest of Königsberg, the armies of Alexander I of Russia were defeated by the French Grande Armée, thus ending the War of the Fourth Coalition during the Napoleonic wars. Count von Bennigsen, the leader of the Russian armies, noted the position of some isolated reserves of Marechal Lannes. Bennigsen thought that he had a very good chance of eliminating these French units, and ordered his army over the Alle River. Bennigsen had never expected that Napoleon would order additional troops to defend the reserves, and found his Russian forces of about 50,000 men trapped between the Alle and Napoleon's force of over 80,000. France ordered an attack, the Russians were forced into retreat back across the river, and it is estimated that 40%of their forces were lost by drowning.

Alexander I was forced into an armistice with Napoleon, and at the "Peace of Tilsit" on June 19th, an accord was signed. Alexander and Napoleon agreed that the Vistula River would thenceforth represent the line between French and Russian influence.

#russianhistorymuseum #rhm #jordanville #alexanderi #napoleon #battleoffriedland #napoleonicwars #джорданвилл #александр1 #НаполеонIБонапарт #Наполеоновскиевойны

Hermitage Rules. Today’s #MuseumWeek2021 post s

Hermitage Rules.

Today’s #MuseumWeek2021 post suggestion urges us to look for #wordstothefutureMW. We’d like to present some very good advice to museum goers which were part of Catherine the Great’s rules for visitors to the Hermitage which still apply today.

Catherine II “the Great”
After Henri Benner, engraved by Joseph Mecou
Collection of Twenty-four Portraits of the Imperial Family, c. 1817
Stipple engraving on paper

#russianhistorymuseum #rhm #jordanville #hermitagerules #engraving #catherinethegreat #wordstothefutureMW #джорданвилл #правилаэрмитажа #гравировка #ЕкатеринаВеликая #екатеринаволкова

Caption this! This image of a comic kitchen scene

Caption this!

This image of a comic kitchen scene was painted by an unknown artist during World War II period, or perhaps in a Displaced Persons camp after the war. In that difficult period, the only way to make copies of a book was to copy it by hand. The book is a Russian translation of "Plisch und Plum" by Wilhelm Busch.

What does this kitchen scene say to you? How would you caption it?

Handwritten and illustrated manuscript copy of "Plisch und Plum"
Unknown artist, likely Germany c. 1945
Paper, ink, natural pigments
Russian History Museum

#russianhistorymusem #rhm #jordanville #manuscripts #humor #displacedpersons #diaspora #museumweek2021 #captionthisMW #джорданвилл #рукопись #юмор #перемещенныелица #диаспора #музейнаянеделя2021 #назовиэтоmw

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