Moscow Kremlin Museums:

Novorossiya

Frontlet
Ottoman Empire, late 17th c.
Gold, silver, diamonds, rubies, silk brocade, silver-gilt and silk threads; chasing, weaving, flat chasing, braiding
Soup tureen and tray from the Ekaterinoslav Governorate service
Paris, 1777-1778
Master - R.J. Auguste
Silver; casting, chasing, punching
Sabre and scabbard
Ottoman Empire, Crimean Khanate (?), third quarter of the 18th c. (before 1771)
Damask steel, silver, wood, leather; forging, chasing, casting, enamel, gilding
Flanged mace
Ottoman Empire, 17th c.
Gold, rubies, emeralds, jade, wood, velvet; inlay, weaving
Dagger
Ottoman Empire, 1750-1760
Damask steel, gold, silver, precious stones; forging, enamel
Stirrups, pair
Ottoman Empire, first half of the 18th c.
Gold, silver, diamonds, emeralds, tourmalines, velvet; gilding, enamel, chasing, weaving
Sabre and scabbard
Ottoman Empire, late 18th c.
Damask steel, gold, silver, diamonds, rubies, silk brocade, cord; forging, chasing, weaving
Key to the Turkish fortress Yenikale
Ottoman Empire, 18th c. (before 1771)
Iron; forging

5 September – 11 December 2023

Moscow, State Historical Museum

Organized by

the State Historical Museum

Participants:

the State Historical Museum, Moscow; Volgograd Museum of Fine Arts named after I.I. Mashkov, Volgograd; State Memorial Museum of Alexander Suvorov, Saint Petersburg; Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow; Pavlovsk State Museum and Heritage Site,Saint Petersburg; Tsarskoe Selo State Museum and Heritage Site, Saint Petersburg; State Russian Museum, Saint Petersburg; State Central Museum of Contemporary History of Russia, Moscow; State Hermitage, Saint Petersburg; Art Gallery, Balashikha; International News Agency ‘Russia Today’, Moscow; The Moscow Kremlin Museums; Museum of the History of Petrovsky District of Tambov Region; Museum and Heritage Site ‘Battle of Stalingrad’, Volgograd; Scientific and Research Museum of the Russian Academy of Arts, Saint Petersburg; Nikitsky Botanical Garden, Crimea Republic; Russian State Library, Moscow;, Russian State Archive of Ancient Documents, Moscow; Russian State Documentary Film and Photo Archive, Krasnogorsk; Russian State Archive of Social and Political History, Moscow; Russian National Museum of Music named after A.I. Glinka, Moscow; Russian Ethnographic Museum, Saint Petersburg; Central Museum of the Great Patriotic War (Victory Museum), Moscow; Central Museum of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, Moscow

The Moscow Kremlin Museums are joining the "Novorossiya" exhibition project hosted by the State Historical Museum. Artefacts related to the Russian-Turkish wars and the defence of the newly acquired lands during the Crimean campaign tell the story of the region. Visitors will learn about life in Novorossiya during the period of great social upheavals – the October Revolution of 1917 and the following Russian Civil War, as well as the creation of the Donetsk-Krivoy Rog Soviet Republic. The exhibits recount the heroic pages of the region's history during the Great Patriotic War, the events of 2014 and today.

The Armoury Chamber has in its collection pieces presented to Empress Catherine the Great by the Turkish Sultans Abdul Hamid I and Selim III on the occasion of the Treaties of Kuchuk Kaynarji in 1774 and Jassy in 1791.Under the Treaty of 1774, Russia got the fortresses of Kerch and Yenikale, the territories between the Yuzhny Bug and the Dnieper and under the Treaty of Yassy, the Ottoman Empire recognised the annexation of the Crimean Khanate and the territories between the Yuzhny Bug and the Dnieper to Russia. As a result of the incorporation of these lands into the Russian Empire, the territory called Novorossiya was finally formed and in 1783 became part of the Ekaterinoslav Governorate.

The exhibition presents fifteen items from the Kremlin collection, such as diplomatic gifts from the Ottoman sultans, decorated with gold and precious stones, a trophy from the Battle of Galati in 1769 – a dagger adorned with fine painted enamel and large diamonds, keys to the fortresses of Yeni-Kale and Perekop, which were seized by Russian troops in 1771, a sabre presented by the Seraskier of Kaffa to the heir to the Russian throne Pavel Petrovich, a silver soup tureen from the Ekaterinoslav Governorate service made by French court master R.J. Auguste, and a mace that Prince G.A. Potemkin brought with him to Yassy in 1790.