Workshop «Peter the Great and the churches of North-West Russia: Symbols, images, historical memory» (Towards the 350^th anniversary of Peter the Great)

On 20–28 August 2022 the participants of the project «The churches of Northwest Russia and Peter the Great: Symbols, images, historical memory» (To the 350th anniversary of Peter the Great) made an expedition trip.

The researchers focused their attention on the funds of the Kizhi Museum-Reserve, the National Museum of the Republic of Karelia, the Medvezhyegorsk Museum, the Vytegorsk Museum and the architectural monuments.

Of particular interest were the following tasks: studying the collections of icons and church plastic art and how the cults of local and all-Russian saints are reflected in them, analysing how the places of Peter the Great’s historical memory are presented in the expositions, studying the «places of memory» and objects of historical and cultural heritage connected with Peter the Great’s stay in the Olonets region and Obonezhye, such as the monuments of the 17th — 18th centuries history in the Petrozavodsk, Medvezhyegorsk and Povenets regions of Karelia: St Peter and Paul’s church in Martsialnye Vody, St Alexander Svirsky’s church in Kosmozero, the Church of the Epiphany in Chelmuzhi, Peter’s places — e.g., the shipyard site in Lodeynoye Pole, etc. The goal was to record, describe and study the presentation ways and to map the «places of memory».

On August 22 the Kizhi Museum-Reserve hosted the academic seminar «The churches of Northwest Russia and Peter the Great: Symbols, images, historical memory» (To the 350th anniversary of Peter the Great). 

The speakers:

Khodakovsky E. V. Wooden church-building of Peter the Great’s time: The main problematic aspects

Lyubeznikov O. A. The image of Peter the Great in the interior of St Isaac’s Cathedral and in the narratives about the monument

Filyushkin A. I. Peter the Great’s «places of memory» in the census of historical monuments of the Russian Empire (1901–1903) and in the USSR code of historical and cultural monuments: A comparative analysis

The Kizhi Museum representatives showed the wooden churches of Kizhi Island to the colleagues from St Petersburg State University, shared their experience of restoring the iconostasis of the Transfiguration Church and the unique monuments of wooden architecture and plastic art, and spoke about the origin of the historical villages in the Kizhi Volost. Museum professionals demonstrated the opportunities provided by the All-Russian Centre of Wooden Architecture in the field of education, exhibition activities, research and methodology.