Conference on Grand Prince Konstantin Nikolaevich and Russian Jerusalem Held in Moscow
As a part of the 19th International
Christmas Educational Readings, an academic conference on Grand Prince
Konstantin Nikolaevich and Russian Jerusalem was held at the Russian
State Archives. Members of the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society took
part in the event.
The
conference coincided with the opening of a major exhibition called
“Grand Prince Konstantin Nikolaevich and Russian Pilgrimage to the Holy
Land: The 150th Anniversary of the Founding of Russian Palestine”.
The exhibition will be open through February 6 in the exhibition hall of the federal archive building.
The exhibition touches on such themes as the “The Eastern Question during the Time of Nikolai I”, “Creation of the Jerusalem Project”, and “The First August Pilgrimage to the Holy Sepulchre”. The exhibition includes the personal effects, documents, diaries and correspondence of Konstantin Nikolaevich that are related to the Jerusalem Project as well as various pilgrimage relics belonging to members of the House of the Romanovs. Many of the items are being displayed for the first time.
The conference focused on Russian Palestine and the life of state figures of the Russian Empire who set up a solid foundation for Russia’s spiritual and political presence in the Holy Land.
Grand Price Konstantin Nikolaevich was the second son of Nikolai I and was a well-known statesman and one of the ideologists behind the reforms of Emperor Alexander II. He played a significant role in the freeing of serfs in Russia as well as in other reforms related to corporal punishment practices. He was also the head of the Russian Imperial Geographic Society.
Following the conclusion of the Crimean War, Konstantin Nikolaevich ordered the development of the Jerusalem Project, which among other things viewed Russian pilgrimage to the Holy Land as an instrument of Russian foreign policy in the Middle East.