This section represents the history of the Hermitage Museum that was started in the 18th century as a private collection of Empress Catherine II and in the 20th century became one of the largest museums in the world. Click the date on the chronological scale and you will quickly get access to the information about the event you are interested in.
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1754-1762
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Construction of the Winter Palace commissioned by Empress Catherine II. Architect Bartolomeo Rastrelli (1700-1771)
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1762
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Empress Catherine II's accession to the Throne
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1764
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Empress Catherine II acquired Johann Ernest Gotzkowski's collection, the first collection of the Museum
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1764-1775
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The construction of the Small Hermitage
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1769
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The acquisition of Count Heirich von Bruhl's collection
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1771-1787
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The construction of the Large Hermitage
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1772
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The acquisition of Baron Pierre Crozat's collection
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1779
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Acquisition of Lord P. Walpole's collection
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1781
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Acquisition of Count Badoin's collection
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1783
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Construction of the Hermitage Theatre
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1787
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Acquisition of the Collection of John Lyde-Brown, London
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1795
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Creation of the St George Hall
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1815
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Acquisition of Empress Josephine's collection
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1825
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Emperor Nicholas I's accession to the throne
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1826
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Creation of the Military Gallery of 1812 by Carlo Rossi
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1830-1840
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The creation of interiors after a design of Alexander Bryulov
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1833
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Creation of the Fieldmarshals' Hall and Peter I's Room (Small Throne Room) by the architect Auguste Montferrand
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1837
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Fire in the Winter Palace
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1840
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Reconstruction of the state halls of the Winter Palace after the fire of 1837 by Vasily Stasov
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1850
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The acquisition of the collection from the gallery of Cristoforo Barbarigo
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1852
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Opening of the Imperial museum New Hermitage
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1858
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Construction of the Pavilion Hall by the architect Andrei Stakenschneider
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1860
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Creation of state rooms in the Large Hermitage by the architect Andrei Stakenschneider
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1861
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Acquisition of Marquis Gian Pietro Campana's collection
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1865
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Acquisition of the painting Madonna and Child (Litta Madonna) by Leonardo da Vinci
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1870
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Acquisition of the painting Madonna and Child (Conestabile Madonna) by Raphael
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1884
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Acquisition of Alexander Basilewski's collection
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1885
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Acquisition of the collection of the former Tsarskoye Selo Arsenal
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1895
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Emperor Nicholas II's accession to the throne
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1914
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Acquisition of the painting Madonna with a Flower (Benois Madonna) by Leonardo da Vinci
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1914
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Beginning of the World War I. Housing a hospital in state rooms of the Winter Palace.
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1917
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February Revolution and Emperor Nicholas II's abdication
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1917
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Deposition of the Provisional Government
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1917
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The Winter Palace and the Hermitage were announced state museums
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1920
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The Hermitage gave 460 items to the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow
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1920-1930
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Acquisition of items from nationalized private collections
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1932-1934
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Sale of Hermitage collections and giving works of art to museums of the Union Republics of the USSR
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1941
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Beginning of the Great Patriotic War and evacuation of Hermitage collections to the Urals
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1945
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Opening of the Museum after the Great Patriotic War
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1948
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Acquisition of the collection of European paintings of the late 19th - early 20th centuries from the former collections of Sergei Shchukin and Ivan Morozov
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1996
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By decree of Russian President Boris Yeltsin the State Hermitage is under the direct patronage of the President of the Russian Federation
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