Recreated versions and copies of 18 flags of Preobrazhensky Regiment formed by Peter I are now being on display in St. Petersburg
RELEASE
Release
- The project was implemented at the initiative of Gazprom jointly with the Hermitage Museum.
- The flags had been recreated from surviving originals and archival materials.
- Seventeen flags were submitted to the Hermitage Museum and one to the Transfiguration Cathedral.
The ceremonial events marking the handover of the recreated versions and copies of the flags of the Preobrazhensky Life-Guards Regiment to the Transfiguration Cathedral and the State Hermitage Museum took place today in St. Petersburg.
Taking part in the events were Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee, Mikhail Piotrovsky, Director General of the State Hermitage Museum, Georgy Vilinbakhov, State King-of-Arms of the Russian Federation, and Nikolai Bryndin, Archpriest, Dean of the Transfiguration Cathedral.
Mikhail Piotrovsky, Alexey Miller and Georgy Vilinbakhov during ceremony in Hermitage
In 2022, recreated versions and copies of the flags of the Preobrazhensky Life-Guards Regiment – a unit formed by Peter I – were produced at the initiative of Gazprom in cooperation with the State Hermitage Museum. The project is timed to celebrate the 350th anniversary of the birth of Russia's first emperor.
The Preobrazhensky Regiment was one of the first regiments of the Russian regular army. The guardsmen took part in every major military campaign of the 18th to early 20th centuries.
To implement the unique project, the specialists of the State Hermitage Museum selected 18 flags that reflect important periods in the Russian history of the years 1700–1883. The surviving originals of the flags, as well as photographs and hand-drawn pictures from the museum archives were used as the basis for producing the recreated versions and copies of the cloths. The flags were recreated with the use of such techniques as textile painting, hand embroidery and machine embroidery.
The flag cloth handed over to the Transfiguration Cathedral is a copy of the 1742 flag which had been given to the Preobrazhensky Life-Guards Regiment by Empress Elizabeth of Russia. Initially, it was the Transfiguration Cathedral that, as the regimental one, housed the flags and many war relics and trophies of the Regimen. The techniques and materials chosen to make the copy of the 1742 flag are as close to the original ones as possible. All visitors of the Transfiguration Cathedral are free to admire the copy, which is placed in a display case.
The recreated versions and copies of another 17 flags of the Preobrazhensky Life-Guards Regiment were submitted to the State Hermitage Museum. They are currently on display in a hall located right after the Military Gallery, which is devoted to the victory in the Patriotic War of 1812.
“During these days, we recall one of the most heroic events in Russia's history: the victory in the Patriotic War of 1812. In that war, the Russian army faced Europe's best armies, which were excellently trained and armed and had already conquered many countries. However, Russia won the war. It was a victory that involved a great strength of spirit and was achieved through the unity of our nation. A flag is one of the most important symbols of such unity. Therefore, today, we have handed over to the Transfiguration Cathedral and the State Hermitage Museum the recreated versions and copies of the flags of the Preobrazhensky Life-Guards Regiment, which was one of the oldest and most famous regiments formed by Peter the Great,” said Alexey Miller.
Background
Gazprom actively takes part in the preparation and holding of ceremonial events celebrating the 350th anniversary of the birth of Peter I.
In St. Petersburg, for instance, these include the historical exhibition project titled “30 Paintings from the Life of Peter the Great. 2022” on the Field of Mars; the State Hermitage Museum's new permanent exhibition named “The Peter the Great Gallery” which showcases unique objects from the era of Peter I, including personal belongings of Russia's first emperor; the new permanent exhibition named “Imperial Hall: Multinational Russia” at the Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (the Kunstkamera) of the Russian Academy of Sciences; the restoration of the painting “Peter I at Krasnaya Gorka Lighting a Fire on the Shore to Signal to his Sinking Ships” by Ivan Aivazovsky from the collection of the State Russian Museum; the monument titled “Peter the Great Saves the Drowning near Lakhta”; the cultural research program titled “From the City to the World. The Great Embassy: Designing the Future” which is implemented as part of Gazprom's social project Friends of St. Petersburg; and the holding of the 15th International Peter the Great Congress titled “Not a Sorcerer, but a Genius... Peter the Great's Identity during his Era.”