"Peter’s Day"

Peter the Great Day and National Holiday of Russia in Kolomenskoye

(historical Gala concert)

The Moscow State Integrated Museum-Reserve invites everyone to take part in the Peter the Great Day celebration that was held 12 June 2010 on the area near the Palace of the Tsar Alexey Mikhailovich.

The event was timed to celebrate the birthday of Peter the Great (born 30 May), one of the key secular holidays of the 18th century. For many years, the name of Peter I (the Great) was closely connected with Kolomenskoye, favourite summer residence of his father.

An 18th – century legend calls Kolomenskoye the birthplace of Peter I and “The Russian Bethlehem”. The future Emperor spent his childhood here, and, as the legend says, learnt to read and write in the oak grove near the Palace. It was here that, beside the Preobrazhensky regiment, Peter Alexeevich organized “mock troops” and built the first ships. It was from Kolomenskoye that the Russian troops came triumphantly to Moscow after the Second Azov campaign (won in 1696) and the Battle of Poltava (won in 1709). Elizaveta, daughter of Peter the Great and future Empress Elizaveta Petrovna, was also born in Kolomenskoye.

The event gave the visitors a chance to discover the history of Kolomenskoye and its surroundings, to learn about the Kozhukhovo manoeuvres, as well as about music and traditional rites of the time. The visitors were welcomed by an ensemble of bell-ringers, who had performed traditional old solemn ringing on the so-called “bila” (small slabs used in Russia as an alternative to bells).

War and folk songs were performed as well. After the musical performance, reconstructed scenes of the Kozhukhovo manoeuvres had been shown. The manouevres were organized by Peter I in September 1694 between the Streltsy and the so-called army of “new order” and showed the need of a military reform in the Russian army. The audience saw the battle between the “alien” army of the Streltsy headed by Generalissimo Ivan Buturlin, and the attacking army of the “new order” that was headed by Generalissimo Prince Fedor Romodanovsky. Peter Alexeev was the “striker” of the Preobrazhensky regiment of latter army. The celebration closed by old chants and vocal music of the end of the 17th and the beginning of the 18th century.