Russian Archives | Nicholas II

‘History Returned’ exhibition opens in Moscow

On 28th April 2026, a new exhibition History Returned opened in the Exhibition Hall of the State Archives of the Russian Federation (GARF) in Moscow. The exhibition is dedicated to the Russian diaspora during the aftermath of the Bolshevik Revolution and the Russian Civil War.

After the Great Patriotic War (1941-45), the Prague archive of the Russian Foreign Historical Archive (RZIA) was transferred to the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, and in 1946 it became part of the funds of the Central State Archive of the October Revolution, now the State Archive of the Russian Federation (GARF).

This is the largest of the archives of the Russian emigration in Europe of the interwar period, from 1923 to 1945. During the Nazi occupation of Bohemia and Moravia, employees of the RZIA, did not abandon their noble cause in those difficult years, by safeguarding the archives for the history of Russia.

PHOTO: The premises of the Russian Foreign Historical Archives. Prague. 1924

The State Archive of the Russian Federation (GARF) stores a unique collection of documents on the Russian diaspora which followed the Bolshevik Revolution in October 1917 and Russian Civil War (1917-1922).

In addition are documents of political, public organizations and institutions of the Russian emigration, printed publications, drawings, photographs, leaflets, posters, maps, banknotes. The archive is further complemented by documents from the personal archives of prominent Russian state, political and military figures and well-known representatives of science and culture of the Russian emigration.

PHOTO: Registration form No. 3169 of Marina
Ivanovna Efron-Tsvetaeva, Prague, August 23, 1922

The first section of the exhibition displays documents that tell about the decades of work by the Prague Archive staff, who carried out “the collection, storage, systematization and scientific processing of materials on the history of Russia and its peoples.

Among the valuable exhibits: documents of the poetess Marina Tsvetaeva (1892-1941) and drawings of the artist Yuri Artsybushev (1877-1952), as well as documents of the First Russian Cadet Corps, the Union of Russian Military Invalide.

Of particular note are exhibits dedicated to the activities of the Russian Orthodox Church [today known as the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia (ROCOR), which united Russian emigrants in foreign lands. These document’s became part of the RZIA in 1934, and include the note-testament of Patriarch Tikhon of Moscow and All Russia (1865-1925) of 23rd November 1923, a medal and badges made in honour of the 950th anniversary of the baptism of Russia, which was celebrated by the Russian Orthodox diaspora in 1938, are presented. .

PHOTO: Poster for the grand ball organized by Grand Duchess Kira
Kirillovna to benefit Russian military invalids in France. May 7, 1937.

The exhibition is further complemented by documents, letters, diaries and photographs, gifted to GARF by the descendants of prominent members of the Russian diaspora.

On display are documents and personal items that belonged to General Anton Denikin (1872-1947), transferred in 1992-2000 by his daughter Marina Denikina-Gray (1919-2005), as well as materials from the family collection of Admiral Alexander Kolchak (1874-1920), which were preserved for many years Paris by his widow Sophia, and subsequently acquired for the Civil Aviation of the Russian Federation by a wealthy Russian entrepreneur Leonid Mikhelson. In the same section are documents of Anna Kniper-Timiryova (1893-1975), preserved in the family of her nephew I.K. Safonov and subsequently transferred to the Civil Aviation of the Russian Federation by his son V.I. Safonov and widow L.N. Zubareva.

Exhibition documents reveal the fate of representatives of the Imperial House of Romanov, who were forced to leave Russia after 1917: photographs and other items from the archives of Grand Duke Andrei Vladimirovich (1879-1956) and collection of the Yusupov-Romanovs.

Among the key exhibits, vistors can see diaries and photographs taken onboard the British battleship HMS Marlborough, when some of the most prominent members of the Russian Imperial Family left Russia from the Crimea. Among them were Nicholas II’s mother the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna (see photo below) and her daughter Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna.

PHOTO: General Anton Ivanovich (1872-1947) Denikin
in his office at Stavka [Headquarters]. Mogilev, 1917.

The exhibition History Returned runs until 21st June 2026, in the Exhibition Hall of the State Archives of the Russian Federation (GARF) in Moscow.

PHOTO: Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna leaves Russia
onboard the battleship HMS Marlborough. 1919

Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna’s Archive Donated to GARF

Posted on March 9 by Paul Gilbert

PHOTO: photos of Grand Duchess Xenia and her family
are among the archive donated to GARF

NOTE: the following article was originally published in Royal Russia No. 13, Winter 2017, and updated with additional information and photos on 3rd March 2026. While this article is dated, I believe that it is still relevant and will be of interest to my readership – PG

On 6th December 2017, a portion of the archives of Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna (1875-1960), the eldest daughter of Emperor Alexander III and Empress Maria Feodorovna, was presented to the State Archive of the Russian Federation (GARF) in Moscow. The gift was presented to GARF by the Chairman of the St Basil the Great Charitable Foundation Konstantin Malofeev, who is also Chairman of the Board of Directors of the media group Tsargrad.

The archives of Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna was purchased five years ago at an auction in London. It consists of 95 documents, which include five diaries, family photos unknown to Russian archivists, and in a separate canvas bag decorated with a satin ribbon, 25 letters from Xenia’s brother Grand Duke George Alexandrovich to their mother Empress Maria Feodorovna.

Especially valuable, are her diary entries of 1914-1919, in which she details the events of the First World War, the collapse of the monarchy and the Russian Revolution. “These documents allow us to see a crucial and very complicated period in the history of our country through the eyes of a representative of the imperial family,”- said the head of the Federal Archival Agency Andrey Artizov, who took part in the ceremony. “I want to emphasize that the archives of the Grand Duchess have not been studied and are almost unknown to both historians and the general public, so its future publication will be of particular interest” – he added.

PHOTO: In happier times, Emperor Nicholas II and his siblings from left to right: Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich, Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna, Emperor Nicholas II and Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna. Year and location unknown

After the revolution, in 1919, the Grand Duchess along with her mother – the widowed Empress Maria Feodorovna, her family and relatives, left Russia forever. In exile Xenia Alexandrovna lived first in Denmark, and then moved to the UK, where she died on 20th April 1960, at Wilderness House, situated on the grounds of Hampton Court Palace, in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames England.

The State Archive of the Russian Federation currently have in their collection 44 notebooks with Xenia’s diary entries dating from 1884 to June 1914. The five additional diaries, which refer to 1914-1919 now complete the collection, and are of immense historical importance. The last entry was made on the day which Xenia departed Crimea with her mother Maria Feodorovna and family. Her last tragic record of 1919 reads: “We are leaving Russia!”.

Konstantin Malofeev, the entrepreneur and founder of the St Basil the Great Charitable Foundation, said: “The main task of our organization is historical enlightenment, the cleansing of Russian history from slander and distortion. This can not be achieved without painstaking work with historical sources. Hence our close attention to various archival documents and the desire that they be accessible to the broad scientific community. After all, thorough study of sources and their publication is a necessary step towards establishing historical truth.”

PHOTO: one of five diaries of Grand Duchess Xenia donated to GARF

The acquisition of the archives was made in 2012, in London. “After we contacted the owners,” Konstantin Malofeev said, “and they found out that we are from Russia and are going to return this archive home, they removed the archive from the auction and we agreed to buy it separately.”

The Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna’s archive is part of a large project carried out by the Society St Basil the Great Charitable Foundation, to return to the people the knowledge of life in Russia before 1917.

FURTHER READING

The jewel albums of Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna + PHOTOS