22 April – 17 August 2025

Moscow, State Historical-Architectural, Artistic and Landscape Museum-Reserve "Tsaritsyno"

Organised by

Moscow, State Historical-Architectural, Artistic and Landscape Museum-Reserve "Tsaritsyno"

Participants:

Archive of the Foreign Policy of the Russian Empire, Military-Historical Museum of Artillery, Engineering Troops and Communications, State Tretyakov Gallery, State Palace and Park Museum-Reserve "Ostankino and Kuskovo", State Historical-Architectural, Artistic and Landscape Museum-Reserve "Tsaritsyno", State Historical Museum, State Memorial Museum of A.V. Suvorov, State Museum of A.S. Pushkin, Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, State Museum-Reserve "Pavlovsk", State Museum-Reserve "Peterhof", State Museum-Reserve "Tsarskoye Selo", State Hermitage Museum, Institute of Russian Literature (Pushkin House) of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Kaluga United Museum-Reserve, Moscow State United Museum-Reserve "Kolomenskoye – Izmailovo", The Moscow Kremlin Museums, A.V. Shchusev Museum of Architecture, V.A. Tropinin Museum and Moscow Artists of His Time, Russian State Library, Russian State Archive of Ancient Acts, Russian State Historical Archive, Russian National Museum of Music, Tver Regional Art Gallery, Central Naval Museum named after Emperor Peter the Great, Central Museum of Old Russian Culture and Art named after Andrei Rublev, private collectors

 

The Moscow Kremlin Museums are taking part in an exhibition project dedicated to the events of 1775 in the Russian Empire. These include Catherine the Great's visit to Moscow and the establishment of the Tsaritsyno estate.

The year 1775 was extremely significant in Russian history: it marked the celebration of Russia's grand victory over the Ottoman Empire and the signing of the Treaty of Kuchuk-Kainarji, which concluded the Russo-Turkish War. The centre of these celebrations was Moscow, where Catherine II spent several months for the first time. During her longest stay in the capital, the Empress visited twenty-five noble and merchant estates and made several pilgrimages, including to the St Sergius Trinity Lavra and the New Jerusalem Monastery, as well as purchasing the estate of Chornaya Gryaz, which she renamed Tsaritsyno. A new palace was commissioned there, with construction entrusted to architect V.I. Bazhenov, who catered to the Empress's tastes while building pavilions for public festivities at Khodynka Field. All these events are illustrated in the exhibition with prominent artefacts of the period, including decorative and applied arts, arms, paintings, documents, and drawings.

The Moscow Kremlin Museums provide several items from their collection for the exhibition, including a unique and the oldest item from the collection of diplomatic gifts from 1775 – a silver bucket from the stables of the Turkish rulers. The outer side of its rim is engraved with the tughra (personal emblem) of Sultan Murad IV (1624-1630) of the Ottoman Empire. The bucket was presented to Empress Catherine the Great by the Ottoman ambassador Abdul Kerim on behalf of Sultan Abdul-Hamid I to commemorate signing the Treaty of Kuchuk-Kainarji on 10 July 1774, which recognised the independence of the Crimean Khanate, while Russia gained the fortresses of Azov, Kerch, Yenikale, and territories between the Dnieper and Southern Bug rivers.

The exhibition dedicated to the Victory in the Russo-Turkish War of 1768-1774 is complemented by other items from the collection of the Moscow Kremlin Museums – a silver medal and a token commemorating the conclusion of the peace treaty, as well as an award medal "To the Victorious", minted in honour of this event.