On 6 November 2020, the formal opening of the Hermitage Days in Kazan took place in the Hermitage–Kazan Centre.
On the opening day, there was the traditional press conference in which the participants were Irada Ayupova, Minister of Culture of the Republic of Tatarstan, Svetlana Konovalova, Deputy Director for Research of the Kazan Kremlin State Historical, Architectural, and Art Museum-Preserve, and Natalia Bakhareva, a senior researcher in the State Hermitage’s Department of the History of Russian Culture.
Irada Ayupova said: “Today sees the start of a project devoted to Catherine II’s visit to Kazan. Very many pages of our history are connected with her: if we speak of her real contribution to the history of Russia, then it is not only economic benefits, but also the fact that the peoples of the Russian Empire were able to live in peace and harmony. I invite all the inhabitants of our Republic to visit this exhibition!”
“We are very glad that despite all the difficulties we have managed to bring this project, a very valuable and important one, to Kazan,” Natalia Bakhareva stated, introducing the new exhibition from the stocks of the Hermitage. “Catherine II is a very popular personage. Many exhibitions in Russian and European museums are devoted to her. For each new city and country, though, we alter the concept of the display, present new items so as to make the exhibition relate to the region where it is being shown. This exhibition was created specifically for Kazan, taking account of what might be of interest to the inhabitants of Tatarstan.”
The opening of the exhibition “Catherine the Great. The Golden Age of the Russian Empire” became the central event of the Hermitage Days in Kazan. Mikhail Piotrovsky, General Director of the State Hermitage, sent greetings by video to the participants: “Catherine II, as we know, came to Kazan and it is to that visit that we are devoting this exhibition. She was enchanted by Kazan, but a great deal of meaning was attached to her visit. As Derzhavin wrote in a poem dedicated to it, she, a great ruler, came her in peace – not as the armed forces of Ivan the Terrible or Peter I had sailed here earlier. She was delighted with the broad mixture of ethnic groups and languages. In our own time, the Hermitage–Kazan Centre has become a part of that cultural diversity. In point of fact, the Hermitage has come to Kazan following in the footsteps of Catherine, our founder, just as it followed Peter I to Amsterdam. Here we are fulfilling Catherine’s behest of sorts, in the spirit of the remarkable celebration that was once held in Kazan to mark her arrival.”
Margarita Tikhonova, the head of the Hermitage–Kazan Centre, and Natalia Bakhareva, the exhibition’s curator, participated in the formal opening ceremony. The event was presided over by Airat Sibagatullin, Director of the Kazan Kremlin State Historical, Architectural, and Art Museum-Preserve, who said: “I should like to thank Mikhail Borisovich, for the support he provides to us, and the staff of the Hermitage who have done a lot of work on this project. It ought to be noted that this exhibition is a very striking large-scale one, the biggest anywhere in the regions of the Russian Federation. I want to summon all the inhabitants of the Republic of Tatarstan to come and admire the fruits of our collaboration with the State Hermitage.”
The exhibition housed in the halls of the Hermitage–Kazan Centre contains a large number of thematic sections. Over 500 items from the stocks of the State Hermitage tell not only about the personality of the Empress herself, but also about the history of Russia. The exhibition’s creators devoted particular attention to the Catherine II’s journey to Kazan in May 1767 – an occasion that marked the beginning of very great transformations in the administrative, cultural and spiritual life of the city. The exhibition includes engravings showing views of Kazan, portraits of Catherine II in travelling attire and her personal possessions.
The Hermitage Days are traditionally accompanied by an intensive cultural programme. Natalia Bakhereva will be giving three lectures on Catherine II and her times, and also giving her own personal guided tour of the display. The staff of the Centre are organizing a special programme for children at the exhibition. Throughout the Hermitage Days, the Hermitage Library will be operating, as well as the Hermitage Cinema that will be showing films about Catherine II and a five-hour film journey – The Hermitage Shot on an iPhone.
On 6 November, in the “Hermitage Visiting Colleagues” feature, viewers of the Hermitage Online project had the opportunity to be among the first to acquaint themselves with the programme for the Hermitage Days in Kazan and the new exhibition: in a live broadcast Natalia Bakhareva presented the section of the display devoted to Kazan. Then, on 7 November, the curator spoke about the exhibits that are on show for the first time on the State Hermitage’s Instagram account.
