On 22nd May 2024 – the Feast Day of the transfer of the relics of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker [Nicholas II’s patron saint] from Myra to Bari, the Royal Holiness: Russian Emperor Nicholas II and His Family exhibition, opened at the Museum of the Kazan Diocese in the city of Kazan. Tatarstan.

The exhibition was organized by the Museum of the Kazan Diocese with the participation of the Museum of the Holy Royal Family in Ekaterinburg, the Museum of Emperor Nicholas II in Moscow, the Scientific Library of the Lobachevsky Kazan Federal University, the National Museum of the Republic of Tatarstan, the State Museum of Fine Arts of the Republic of Tatarstan, and the Heritage of the Empire Foundation in Moscow.

The exhibition features many photographs depicting the private and public life of Russia’s last Tsar and his family, video materials, unique historical documents, including a copy of the Coronation Albums, as well as invitations to the ceremonies, menus, souvenirs and posters of the Coronation celebrations, held in Moscow in May 1896.

The exhibition also covers the topics of the unity of the Imperial Family, the Christian upbringing of the August children, Nicholas and Alexandra’s devotion to one other and to their children, as well as the influence of faith on the Tsar’s political decision-making.

The exhibition was opened by Metropolitan Kirill of Kazan and Tatarstan. Honoured guests included Chairman of the Heritage of the Empire Foundation Lieutenant General L.P. Reshetnikov, politicians and cultural figures from Moscow, Kazan and Ekaterinburg, and members of the clergy of the Kazan Diocese.

After the opening ceremony, a concert of choirs of the Kazan Diocese took place – a male choir under the direction of the Honored Artist of the Republic of Tatarstan Denis Rogov, a mixed choir under the direction of Marina Litvinenko, and the choir of the Kazan Theological Seminary.

The Royal Holiness: Russian Emperor Nicholas II and His Family exhibition will run from 23rd May to 31st July 2024, at the Museum of the Kazan Diocese, which is located at the Kazan Monastery of the Mother of God of the Kazan Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church.

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*As I have noted in similiar posts, I support any initiative – big or small – to help keep the memory of Nicholas II and his family alive in post-Soviet Russia – PG

© Paul Gilbert. 23 May 2024