World history: Exhibition “For Faith, Tsar and Fatherland, timed to the 100th anniversary of the First world War, in Saint-Petersburg

July 24, 2014 the Museum of the History of Religion (St. Petersburg) opens a major exhibition "For Faith, Tsar and Fatherland", timed to the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of the First World War - one of the largest armed conflict in the history of mankind. More than 120 unique monuments of the museum's collection will reveal hitherto unknown page of military history - the activity of "spiritual front" in force in all European armies in the early XX century.

The exposition contains authentic items belonged to soldiers and officers of Entente - military-political bloc of Russia, Britain and France - and the Triple Alliance (German, Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman empires) as well as unique in its iconography icons, paintings, sculptures and graphics (posters, postcards, flyers), military medals, military uniforms, photographs from the museum collection.

The unconventional solution of the exhibition space illustrates not military, but ideological and spiritual confrontation between the two military-political blocs, held both at the front and in the rear, as well as the role of the clergy of the Russian military in maintaining the spirit of the army.

One of the sections of the exhibition is devoted to military clergy – a part of the Russian clergy involved in the pastoral care of servicemen of different arms of the Russian Empire. Martial and spiritual feats of Russian priests are depicted in a number of paintings and graphic works of 1910s ("A Christmas Prayer for the position", "Prayer at the battery box", "Feat Russian priest", etc.). The exhibition is also complemented with documents showing awarding orders chaplains, and photos.

A special section of the exhibition features memorial icons with inscriptions on the back.

A semantic center and the completion of the exhibition will be the jewel of the museum's collection - a makeshift church of His Imperial Majesty of Consolidated Infantry Regiment (late XIX – early XX centuries) with a set of unique items, including details of military priest vestments and church furnishings, including - the original candlestick made of bayonets to the rifle №2.