Empress Marie Alexandrovna: Empire. Dynasty. Family. 200th Anniversary of the Empress’s Birth

The Elisabeth and Sergius Educational Society Foundation (ESPO) and the State Russian Museum with support from the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation open the exhibition Empress Marie Alexandrovna: Empire. Dynasty. Family. 200th Anniversary of the Empress’s Birth. The exhibition is dedicated to the life, spiritual achievements, state and public service of Empress Marie Alexandrovna (1824–1880). She was a devoted wife and supporter of Emperor Alexander II (1818–1881) in state affairs and progressive reforms, the august patroness of women’s education and the Russian Red Cross Society, an educator and philanthropist, who was an indisputable spiritual authority for her contemporaries.

The exhibition features over 500 items including portraits, paintings, artefacts, memorabilia, archival documents and photographs from Russia’s leading state museums and archives.

The exhibition presents the main stages of the Empress’s life in the chronological order, from her childhood at the Heiligenberg Castle in Jugenheim to the military and political events of the Crimean and Russo-Turkish Wars, during which the Society for the Care of Wounded and Sick Soldiers was founded under her patronage. Under her august protection, new communities of the Sisters of Mercy were founded, nurses were trained and a system of transporting the wounded by ambulance trains was introduced.

The exhibition addresses the development of female education in Russia and significant reforms made by Empress Marie Alexandrovna in this area. Much attention is paid to the imperial family – from dynastic ties to the education of heirs and to the imperial residences where she lived and contributed to their beautification – Tsarskoye Selo, Peterhof, Anichkov and Winter Palaces, the Crimean estate in Livadia and the Ilyinskoye-Usovo estate near Moscow.

The exhibition also includes personal belongings of the Empress, letters, photographs and unique artefacts connected with her missionary activities in the Holy Land, the Balkans, the Baltic Region, the Caucasus and Siberia, as well as with the establishment of the first Russian Society for the Blind.

 Museums contributing to the exhibition

State Russian Museum
State Hermitage Museum
State Historical Museum
Peterhof State Museum and Reserve
Tsarskoye Selo State Museum and Reserve
Pavlovsk State Museum and Reserve
Museum of Military Medicine, RF Ministry of Defence
Military Historical Museum of Artillery, Engineers and Signal Corps, RF Ministry of Defence
Ecclesiastical Archaeological Office of the Moscow Theological Academy
Patimat Gamzatova Dagestan Museum of Fine Arts
State Archives of the Russian Federation
Russian State Historical Archives
Central State Historical Archives, St Petersburg
State Archives, Stavropol Territory
Vasily Abaev North Ossetia Institute for Humanitarian and Social Studies, branch of the Vladikavkaz Scientific Centre, Russian Academy of Science

Also on display are objects from private collectors (Svetlana Gnutova, Natalia Kostrigina, Alexander Renzhin, Sergei Savin and Alexander Sirotkin) and the Elisabeth and Sergius Educational Society Foundation.