How very sad that my first article of the new year should be an obituary. I regret to announce the death of Elena Yakovlevna Kalnitskaya, who served as the highly respected Director General of the Peterhof State Museum for the past 13 years. She died on 2nd January 2025 after a long illness. She was 72 years old.

Elena Kalnitskaya was born in Leningrad (St. Petersburg) on 6th September 1952. A noted Eussian art historian, Elena Kalnitskaya served as the Director General of the Peterhof State Museum-Reserve since 2009. During her tenure as director, she organized large-scale restoration work in the palaces and parks of Peterhof and Oranienbaum. Among these projects were the restoration of the Farm Palace in the Alexandria Park and the recreation of the Lower Dacha, the latter of which remains on hold. She contributed to the implementation of a large-scale program for the development of the museum: holding major Russian and international exhibitions, organizing scientific conferences, and publishing the catalogues of the museum’s vast collection. She also authored over 200 scientific and popular publications dedicated to the history of the culture of the Russian Empire.

On 6th September 2022, Elena Yakovlevna celebrated her 70th birthday. In her honour, a noon volley was fired from the cannon of the Peter and Paul Fortress in St. Petersburg.

At the end of March 2023, Kalnitskaya was forced to step down as Director General of the Peterhof State Museum due to health problems.

Memory Eternal! Вечная Память! 

In October 2023, a new English-language book ‘Peterhof State Museum Reserve: Director’s Choice‘ by Elena Kalnitskaya, was published and made available on AMAZON. In this short 96-page book, Kalnitskaya presents a selection of her favorite palaces, monuments, and objects and their stories.

A description of her book reads as follows:

“The Peterhof State Museum-Reserve is one of the most visited and attractive museums in Russia, the “fountain capital” of a huge country. Uniting today more than 30 expositions located on the territory of Peterhof, Alexandria, Strelna and Oranienbaum, the museum acquaints its guests with the great past of Russia.

“The history of each Peterhof monument is deeply individual, but, being formed into single architectural ensembles, are an organic synthesis of history, art, architecture, human destinies. The planning structure of Peterhof skillfully combines regular and landscape parks, palaces of different architectural styles, small forms and fountains. The famous water supply system, which has no analogues in the world, keeps the memory of its creator – emperor Peter the Great.

“The Peterhof collections, collected by the crowned owners of the residence to decorate it, consist of a variety of museum items. “There is a soul in every museum object,” says Director Elena Kalnitskaya, and this is clear in each work of art presented in this book. Each object tells its own story, but also invites the reader to better understand the history of Russia.”

© Paul Gilbert. 2nd January 2025