Russian Russian Presence in the Holy Land exhibition and the premiere screening of the film "Ascent to Jerusalem" took place at the Alexander Solzhenitsyn House of the Russian Diaspora in Moscow on November 18, 2024.
The Synodal Department for Church-Society and Media Relations will organize a series of exhibitions "Russian Presence in the Holy Land" in 2024-2025 in four Russian cities. The project is dedicated to the tradition of pilgrimage to the holy sites of modern Israel, Palestine and Syria. This is a unique opportunity to get acquainted with the little-known facts of Christian pilgrimage, religious traditions and the history of the Russian presence in the Holy Land, to reveal the deep spiritual meaning of traveling to shrines.
The exhibition presents unique museum items — rare photographs, stereophotographs of the XIX century, lithographs, icons, coins and books from private and public collections. The exhibition offers the audience to immerse themselves in the atmosphere of Russian pilgrimage, as well as to get acquainted with the way of life and spiritual life of pilgrims of the past centuries.
On behalf of the organizers, the chairman of the Synodal Department for Church Relations with Society and the Media, V.R. Legoyda, made a welcoming speech. He thanked the creators of the project and shared his personal experience related to the pilgrimage: "I will never forget the first visit to the Holy Land and the procession on Good Friday. This is one of the most powerful moments in my life. We followed the Savior's path. The sun is bright, and you walk through a crowd where there is everything from curiosity to hatred, and you realize that two thousand years ago, people walked next to Christ in the most important moments of human history. This living connection with the gospel touched me deeply. I am glad that today we can see these wonderful stereo photographs that help us immerse ourselves in that era and understand what the pilgrim's path was like in the past. Thank you all for participating in this event and congratulations on the opening of the exhibition and the premiere of the film."
Russian Russian Abroad House named after Alexander Solzhenitsyn for the first time became a venue for an exhibition dedicated to the theme of pilgrimage. V.A. Moskvin, director of the House of Russian Abroad, stressed the importance of this event: "When I watched the exhibition, I remembered how during the excavations before the construction of this complex of buildings, pilgrimage relics were found here, and they were not isolated, which indicates the special role of pilgrimage. The exhibition presents not only photographs, but also museum items from private collections. As a museum worker, I ask myself the question: why don't we have such funds ourselves? These artifacts are a link to our history and culture."
Russian Russian Presence in the Holy Land is based on unique photographs taken by photographers of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Jerusalem, as well as copies of rare photographs from the collection of the Imperial Orthodox Palestinian Society. At the opening, the Candidate of Cultural Studies, Deputy head of the scientific section of the IPPO, S.Y. Zhitenev, made a welcoming speech. He also read out the address of the Chairman of the IPPO S.V. Stepashin.
"This wonderful exhibition is organized by the Synodal Department for Church-Society and Media Relations, and is an important initiative in preserving and popularizing cultural heritage and Russian pilgrimage in the Middle East. The Imperial Orthodox Palestinian Society, Russia's oldest public organization, enthusiastically supports this work, seeing in it a significant contribution to strengthening the spiritual ties of our country with the peoples of the Middle East region. I would like to say a kind word to the documentary-animated film "Ascent to Jerusalem", created specifically for this exhibition. I hope that the exhibition and the documentary will inspire you to new discoveries and reflections!" the message of congratulations reads.
The culminating event of the evening was the All-Russian premiere of the documentary and animated film "Ascent to Jerusalem", created by the Synodal Department for Church-Society and Media Relations in cooperation with the Thomas Cinema Film Studio. Russian Russian pilgrims actively discussed the film with director Alexandra Andronova after the screening: "In the XIX century, special gates were cut in Jerusalem for Russian pilgrims, and it was no coincidence — Russian pilgrims made up the largest group at that time, outnumbering all other travelers to the Holy Land. And this is an amazing fact! For me, the film was an attempt to answer important questions: what is the meaning of pilgrimage for our contemporaries? What significance did it have for our ancestors? How is the holy city transformed thanks to Christian pilgrims? And, of course, do these pilgrims change themselves by ascending to Jerusalem?"
The film "Ascent to Jerusalem" will be shown to a wide audience on the federal TV channel "Culture" in 2025.
The exhibition "Russian Presence in the Holy Land" will last in Moscow until November 29, then it will be moved to St. Petersburg, in 2025 it will be presented to Arzamas and Sarov.
The project is supported by the Presidential Foundation for Cultural Initiatives.