On 9 December 2020, the Saint George Hall of the Winter Palace was the setting for the traditional ceremony marking the Orthodox feast day of Saint George the Great Martyr and Bringer of Victory. This year it took place in an online format.
In keeping with tradition, the ceremony opened with the March of the Life Guards Preobrazhensky Regiment – a showing of a recording of last year’s event: the ceremonial entry of the banners and standards of the Russian Imperial Army and the presentation of a personal standard to General Director of the State Hermitage Mikhail Piotrovsky.
This year Mikhail Piotrovsky addressed a welcome to viewers of the live broadcast: “I wish you all the best for Saint George’s Day and the day of Saint George’s Hall – this splendid occasion that is a regular part of the Hermitage Days. During this time, we always hold a large palace parade. Today life is changing, but we are doing all we can to ensure it does not change too much. The ceremony will take place online, and, looking at Saint George, the second heavenly patron of the Hermitage, we shall speak about how to fight the dragon, the evil that has again appeared in the world. We have devised new forms of accessibility and over this period 70 million people have become online visitors to the Hermitage. The day before yesterday, we had a general meeting of the staff over a video link and the connection broke, so many Hermitage people joined our gathering. Today, as always, but without guests in the hall, we are presenting the gifts that the museum has received over this year. Despite everything, the Hermitage is advancing.”
After Mikhail Piotrovsky’s speech, there was a passage from a concert of wind music played by the Military Band of the North-Western Regional Command of the National Guard of the Russian Federation. The ceremony continued with the introduction of the new exhibits. They include two presentation albums containing engravings of paintings from Sir Robert Walpole’s collection in the gallery at Houghton Hall that had been acquired by Empress Catherine the Great; a pair of cuffs and a service cap of a cuirassier in His Majesty’s Regiment from the late 19th or early 20th century; an Iranian faience bowl of the late 12th or early 13th century; a pair of epaulets of a cuirassier staff captain in His Majesty’s Regiment and a portrait of a cuirassier officer in the same regiment.
“Throughout its entire history, the Winter Place was not only the residence of the Russian emperors, but also a monument of sorts to Russian martial glory,” Georgy Vilinbakhov, Deputy General Director of the State Hermitage for Research, stated. “That was reflected in the naming of the halls, in their decoration, and in the displays that were presented here. It was here too that the splendid ceremonies connected with the Order of Saint George took place and today, on that saint’s day, on the Day of Russia’s Heroes, we are introducing, among others, gifts that are connected with Russian military history, primarily with the Russian Imperial Guards. The story behind the donation of these items is associated with Gérard Gorokhoff, a great friend of the Hermitage who has been of much help to us in the search for items for the Museum of the Russian Guards. He passed away in late September, but his family has carried out his wishes – that is how the Hermitage acquired the items that we are presenting today, both in honour of Saint George’s Day and in memory of Gérard Gorokhoff.”
Mikhail Piotrovsky introduced the albums of engravings and the Iranian bowl. Speaking of the bowl, the Director observed that the gift was symbolic as it had been sent for the new display of the art of Iran that will be opening in the Hermitage next year, and also as a present for the 100th birthday of the Hermitage’s Department of the East.
The formal presentation of the gifts was followed by archive footage of the exhibition “For Service and Bravery. 250 Years of the Military Order of St George” and of the ceremony marking the Day of the Guards on 2 September 2020.
