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# Exhibition “Nicholas II: Family and Throne” from the Hermitage collection opens in Kazan
- URL: https://theparnassian.com/en/v-tsentre-ermitazh-kazan-v-kazanskom-kremle-otkrylas-vystavka-nikolai-ii-semia-i-prestol/
- Published: 2026-10-24T20:36:11.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-24T20:50:16.000Z
- Author: Alexandr Radayev
- Tags: The East, Coming Up, Monarchies, Museums

The Hermitage-Kazan Centre in the Kazan Kremlin has opened an exhibition, "Nicholas II: Family and Throne". It was prepared by the State Hermitage Museum and the Kazan Kremlin Museum-Reserve, and will run until 5 September 2027\. According to Ilnur Rakhimov, director of the museum-reserve, this is the 30th project of the Hermitage-Kazan Centre. The Centre has operated since 2005 as the first regional branch of the Hermitage and occupies the building of the former Junker School, constructed in the early nineteenth century.

Five halls display more than 350 authentic items from the Hermitage collection: jewellery, paintings, graphic works, photographs, costumes, furniture and objects from the everyday life of the imperial family. Visitors will see the dress uniforms of Nicholas II and the gowns of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, the toys of Tsarevich Alexei and the Grand Duchesses, items by the firm of Fabergé, a porcelain service and objects from the imperial yachts. The exhibition recreates the library and the reception room of the Emperor in the Winter Palace. Costumes from the costume ball of 1903 and gifts for the 300th anniversary of the House of Romanov are shown separately. The costume ball took place in the Winter Palace in February 1903, and its guests arrived in seventeenth-century dress, of the time of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. The tercentenary of the House of Romanov was celebrated in 1913, in memory of the election of Mikhail Feodorovich Romanov to the throne in 1613.

The exposition is arranged in chronological order. It leads the visitor through the youth of the Tsarevich, the accession of Nicholas II to the throne, foreign and domestic policy, the Russo-Japanese War, the convocation of the first State Duma, family life and court culture. The exhibition ends with the finial of the fence of the Private Garden of the Winter Palace, shaped like an imperial crown. The Private Garden was the name given to the enclosed garden by the western façade of the Winter Palace, which was reserved for the imperial family. The organisers call this finial a symbol of the end of the monarchy and of a turning point in the history of the country.

Nicholas II never visited Kazan, but one section of the exhibition is devoted to the ties between the imperial family and Kazan and the Kazan Governorate. It shows a presentation platter that the people of Kazan offered to the Emperor on his accession to the throne, a portrait of the inspector of the Kazan Theological Academy, and an icon that a craftsman from the Kazan Governorate gave to Tsarevich Alexei. A presentation platter was the dish on which subjects offered bread and salt to the monarch. Some of the items were restored specially for the Kazan showing, and some exhibits are being shown for the first time.

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